MISCELLANEOUS. 1259 



"The Senate will see that the Secretary of State set forth such un- 

 official information (and all the information was unofficial) as had been 

 obtained, and stated the popular inference then prevalent, saying 

 that the imperial government 'appeared' now to be willing to adopt 

 the construction or the convention insisted on by the colonies. Infer- 

 ring, from circumstances, the hazards and dangers which would arise, 

 he set forth the case precisely as it seemed to stand. He adverted to 

 the question understood as likely to be put in issue, and, admitting 

 that technically the convention of 1818 would bear the rigorous con- 

 struction insisted on by the colonies, he declared the dissent of the 

 government of the United States from it; and then communicated the 

 case to the persons engaged in this hard and hazardous trade, that 

 they might oe 'on their guard.' 



' ' I am surprised that any doubts should be raised as to the procla- 

 mation being the act of the government. I do not understand how a 

 senator or a citizen can officially know that the Secretary of State is 

 at Marshfield, or elsewhere, when the seal and date of the depart- 

 ment affirm that he is at the capital. I would like to know where or 

 when this government or this administration has disavowed this procla- 

 mation. 



"In issuing this notice, the Secretary of State did just what the Sec- 

 retary of State had been in the habit of doing in such cases from the 

 foundation of the government, viz: he issued a notice to the citizens 

 of the United States to put them on their guard in a case of apparent 

 danger, resulting from threatening embarrassment of our relations 

 with a foreign power. The first notice of the kind which I have found 

 in history is a notice issued by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State 

 under George Washington, to the merchants of the United States, 

 informing them of the British Orders in Council, and of the decrees of 

 the French Directory, and of the apprehended seizure and confisca- 

 tion of American vessels under them; and assuring the American mer- 

 chants that, for whatever they might unlawfully lose, the government 

 of the United States would take care that they would be indemnified. 

 I brought that to the notice of the Senate heretofore, and upon the 

 ground, among others, that they have twice sanctioned a bill pro- 

 viding for the payment of losses by French spoliations. 



' ' The notice published by Mr. Webster was of the same character 

 and effect. Since that time, the Mississippi, a steam war frigate of 

 the United States, has been ordered to those waters to cruise there 

 for the protection of American fishermen in the enjoyment of their 

 just rights. Thus ends the whole story of these transactions about 

 the fisheries. The difficulties on the fishing grounds have 'this ex- 

 tent no more:' they are the wonder of a day, and no more." 



Again: in explanation of the charge of a senator, that Mr. Webster 

 had conceded too much in his official notice of July 6, he said: "Now, 

 here is Mr. Webster's language. After quoting the treaty, he says: 



" ' It would appear that, by a strict and rigid construction of this ar- 

 ticle, fishing vessels of the United States are precluded from entering 

 into the bays,' &c. 



"And in the same connexion he adds: 



so 



" ' It was undoubtedly an oversight in the convention of 1818 to make 

 large a concession to England.' 



