122 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



by Great Britain, and this treaty of peace was concluded which com- 

 prehended as one of its articles this fisheries article. 

 John Adams wrote in 1822: 



That New England and especially Massachusetts had done more 

 in defence of the fisheries than all the rest of the British Empire. 

 That the various projected expeditions to Canada, the conquest of 

 Louisbourg in 1745 and the subsequent conquest of Nova Scotia, in 

 which New England had expended more blood and treasure than 

 all the rest of the British Empire, were principally effected with a 

 special view to the security and protection of the fisheries. 



No claim of jurisdiction over the large bodies of water adjacent 

 to the shores of the British possessions bordering the North 

 Atlantic was made by the Government of Great Britain against 

 the fishing vessels of the United States. It is on the contrary, 

 quite apparent that no exclusive jurisdiction could be asserted 

 on the one part, or acquiesced in on the other, for it is un- 

 deniable that from 1783 until the close of the War of 1812 the inhabit- 

 ants of the United States enjoyed and exercised the fishery on all 

 the coasts and in all the bays, creeks and harbors of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean resorted to by British fishermen. 



Upon the termination of the War of 1812, there was a divergence 

 in the views of the two powers as to the liberty of the people of the 

 United States under the second clause of Article III of the treaty of 

 1783. From this divergence in views arose the " differences " which 

 the negotiators in 1818 undertook to compose. 



The discussions and notes between the two Governments prelimi- 

 nary to the meeting of the negotiators in 1818 had disclosed very 

 clearly, as will subsequently appear in this argument, that the sole 

 question to be composed between the two powers was the liberty 

 claimed by the people of the United States of fishing and of drying 

 and curing fish within " the exclusive British jurisdiction." The right 

 of fishing on the high seas was not in dispute. The two Govern- 

 ments had drawn a clearly defined distinction between the high seas 

 and " the exclusive British jurisdiction." 



After the termination of the War of 1812, by the signing of the 

 treaty of Ghent in 1814, Lord Bathurst in the course of an interview 

 with Mr. Adams, minister for the United States in Great Britain, 

 in September, 1815, claiming that the treaty of 1783 had in part 

 been abrogated by the War of 1812, stated : 



Great Britain could not permit the vessels of the United States to 

 fish witMn the creeks and close upon the shores of the British terri- 



