210 



<> Boston, 8th March, 18i5. 



^»Sir : In a former note, returning the letter with which you 

 had so obligingly favoured me, I had the honour to offer you my 

 congratulations on the termination of the war, without waiting to 

 know what were the grounds of the treaty which concluded it ; 

 because, from the tenor of the previous correspondence, and my 

 personal knowledge of nearly ail the commissioners, 1 felt a reli- 

 ance that the arrangement would not be a dishonourable, although 

 I acknowledge my rejoicing was mingled with fear least it should 

 be, at least in some points, a disadvantageous, one ; and this expres- 

 sion of feeling I volunteered with the more readiness, as the intelli- 

 gence was received at a moment when the national character had 

 been splendidly illustrated by the recent achievement at New- 

 Orleans. 



" But I greeted the occurrence with smiles, principally not be- 

 cause I expected it would bring or restore to us all the benefits we 

 possessed under former treaties, but because I saw no chance, but 

 from this source, of happier prospects for the future. It was not, 

 however, the storm that howled along the lakes, or upon the sea- 

 board, that created the apprehension of an instant for the fate of the 

 contest, but it was the hidden fire that was rumbling within our own 

 bosoms, and which, under the continuance of the war, would, I be- 

 lieve, have made our country the theatre of domestic convulsions, 

 as well as of foreign warfare, and perhaps from its effects have of- 

 fered up some parts of it as no very difficult prey to the mercy of 

 the enemy. 



" On this head, I know, sir, you had better hopes, and thought 

 differently from me ; and I have now only to say, I am glad the ex- 

 periment has never come to issue. 



'' As the price of the purchase of an escape from evils portentous 

 as these, I considered it as probable that the English government 

 might claim from us the contested eastern islands, and interdict all 

 trade between us and her colonial possessions ; and possibly still 

 further, that she would endeavour to extort from us the coast fishe- 

 ries around her own shores ; for, on the magnanimity or friendship 

 of Great Britain, or of any other nation, in matters of interest, f 

 confess I never had the ability to lash my imagination into any sort 

 of dependence ; but I did also cherish the belief that none of our 

 essential or important rights or liberties would be diminished or sur- 

 rendered. Of the latter, the one of the greatest consequence in 

 reference to its intrinsic value, and as derived from discovery and 

 possession, and confirmed by a formal treaty stipulation, is unques- 

 tionably that to which you have referred — the coast fisheries on the 

 shores of the British possessions in North America. 



-'■ These fisheries, as most advantageously secured to the United 

 States by the treaty of 1783, and made at the time, as I have always 

 u^erstood, a sine qua non of that treaty, offer an invaluable fund 

 of wealtli and power to our country ; one which has never been 

 duly attended to, nor justly appreciated, but which, if continued 



