1104 MISCELLANEOUS. 



for the belief that the United States negotiators would be slow in 

 relinquishing it. They certainly would not be likely to relinquish 

 more than was asked for, or what the United States negotiators a 

 few years before contended was held by the same tenure as the 

 national independence of the United States, and by a perpetual 

 right. 



In the negotiation of the treaty of peace of 1814 no provision 

 was inserted as to the fisheries. Messrs. Adams and Gallatin notified 

 the British commissioners that " the United States claimed to hold 

 the right of the fisheries by the same tenure as she held her inde- 

 pendence; that it was a perpetual right appurtenant to her as a 

 nation, and that no new stipulation was necessary to secure it." 



The negotiators on the part of the British Government did not 

 answer this declaration or contest the validity of the ground taken. 



Afterwards, in 1815, the consultations had between Lord Bathurst 

 and Mr. Adams, the then Secretary of State, relative to the fisheries, 

 show on what grounds negotiations were proposed, which were per- 

 fected by the treaty of 1818 ; and that the renunciation desired, from 

 the treaty of 1783, consisted of the shore or boat fisheries, which are 

 prosecuted within a marine league of the shore, and of no others. 



At the first interview of the commissioners Lord Bathurst used 

 this distinct and emphatic language: "As, on the one hand, Great 

 Britain cannot permit the vessels of the United States to fish within 

 the creeks and close upon the shores of the British territories, so, on 

 the other hand, it is by no means her intention to interrupt them in 

 fishing anywhere in the open sea, or without the territorial jurisdic- 

 tion, a marine league from the shore." 



Again he said on a subsequent occasion : " It is not of fair competi- 

 tion that His Majesty's Government has reason to complain, but of 

 the preoccupation of British harbors and creeks.'''' (Sabine's Report 

 on Fisheries, p. 282.) 



It is clear that it was only within these narrow limits the British 

 Government designed to restrict the fisheries by the citizens of the 

 United States. 



The views of Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, the American negotia- 

 tors of the treaty of 1818, appear from their communication made to 

 the Secretary of State, Mr. Adams, immediately after the signature 

 of the treaty. 



In this communication they say : " The renunciation in the treaty 

 expressly states that it is to extend only to the distance of three miles 

 from the coast; and this point was the more important, as, with the 

 exception of the fisheries in open boats in certain harbors, it appeared 

 that the fishing ground on the whole coast of Nova Scotia was more 

 than three miles from the shore." 



It thus appears that the negotiators of both Governments con- 

 curred, at the time of making the treaty, in giving to it the intent 

 and meaning now contended for by the United States. 



It further appears that such was the intent and effect of the treaty 

 of 1818 from the fact that the construction practically given to it for 

 more than twenty years, and indeed down to the year 1842, conformed 

 to the views of the negotiators as thus expressed. (See Sabine's Re- 

 port, p. 294.) 



There are certain circumstances also appearing in the case which 

 show the evident reluctance of the British Government to assert the 



