INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT. 7 



ence from the British crown, the Continental Congress sent their 

 Commissioners to Paris to negotiate a treaty of peace with instruc- 

 tions to insist upon a retention of the rights in the fisheries of the 

 North Atlantic, which their fishermen had previously enjoyed as 

 British subjects, and to which they deemed themselves entitled by 

 long-continued usage and by reason of the services which they had ren- 

 dered in the wars with France, which gave to Great Britain the 

 mastery of the fisheries through the possession of the adjoining 

 coasts. 



John Adams, one of the American Commissioners, who specially 

 represented the interests of New England at Paris, and was the 

 champion of the American fishing industry, in after years stated, 

 that the American Commissioners took the position that the treaty, 

 which was to be negotiated between Great Britain and the new-born 

 confederacy of the United States, was a division of the British 

 empire in North America ; that the fisheries, with the essential right 

 of resort to the neighboring harbors and shores, was, like the terri- 

 tory, the subject of partition ; and that the treaty was to be " nothing 

 more than a mutual acknowledgement of antecedent rights." 



With this conception of their mission and of the American rights, 

 which they were to conserve, the Commissioners of the United States 

 entered upon the negotiation at Paris. 



On October 8, 1782, the negotiators agreed upon a draft of treaty, 

 which included the following article in reference to the fisheries : 



3rd. That the subjects of his Britannic Majesty and people of 

 the said United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right 

 to take fish of every kind on the banks of Newfoundland, and other 

 places where the inhabitants of both countries used formerly, to wit, 

 before the last war between France and Britain, to fish and also to 

 dry and cure the same at the accustomed places, whether belonging to 

 his said Majesty or to the United States; and his Britannic Majesty 

 and the said United States will extend equal privileges and hospi- 

 tality to each other's fishermen as to their own. 



This draft was sent to England for the consideration of the Brit- 

 ish Government, and, upon their signifying their disapproval, a sec- 

 ond set of articles was prepared November 5, 1782, which contained 

 the following: 



That the subjects of his Britannic Majesty and the people of the 

 said United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to 

 take fish of every kind on all the banks of Newfoundland, also in the 

 Gulf of St Lawrence, and all other places where the inhabitants of 



