QUESTION FIVE. 133 



In these negotiations, the United States claimed the rights and 

 liberties, in respect of the fisheries, enjoyed before and since its 

 independence. 



Great Britain, on the other hand, claimed that the people of the 

 United States had no right or liberty in the fisheries " within the 

 exclusive jurisdiction of Great Britain." 



There was no claim of jurisdiction advanced by Great Britain 

 over bays, creeks, or harbors, except as contained within the exclusive 

 jurisdiction of three marine miles from the shores. Throughout 

 these negotiations there is no evidence anywhere of any claim of 

 extended jurisdiction over great outer bays, and, therefore, no evi- 

 dence of acquiescence by the United States in any assertion of such 

 jurisdiction. 



The fishermen of the United States had for generations re- 

 sorted to these bays. If there had been any assertion of exclusive 

 jurisdietivTx over large outer bays, the United States would cer- 

 tainly have opposed it, and have refused to acquiesce in any such 

 claim. The failure to secure any extended jurisdiction in the nego- 

 tiation in 1806 was fresh in the mind of Mr. Monroe, then Secretary 

 of State, who was one of the Commissioners in that negotiation. 



THE NEGOTIATIONS PRECEDING THE MEETING OF THE 

 COMMISSIONERS IN 1818. 



The " differences," which remained unadjusted between the United 

 States and Great Britain at the close of the negotiations at Ghent, 

 arose, as has been shown, from the contention on the part of Great 

 Britain that the second clause of Article III of the treaty of 1783 

 was abrogated by the War of 1812, while the United States main- 

 tained that no part of the fishery provisions of the treaty of 1783 was 

 abrogated by that war. 6 



Great Britain denied the right of the people of the United States 

 to fish " within the limits of the British Sovereignty r , and to use the 

 shores of the British Territories for purposes connected with the 

 fisheries." 



U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 96. 

 6 U. S. Case, 26; Appendix, 24. 

 U. S. Case, Appendix, 242. 



