134 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The United States claimed this right for its people " within the 

 limits of the British Sovereignty" under the second clause of Article 

 III of the treaty of 1783. 



This divergence in the views of the two powers constituted the 

 " differences " which had arisen, and which the negotiators in 1818 

 undertook to compose. The sole question to be adjusted was the 

 liberty of fishing and drying and curing fish "within the exclusive 

 jurisdiction of Great Britain." 



There was not any difference regarding the extent of the exclu- 

 sive jurisdiction of Great Britain. The negotiations of 1806 dis- 

 closed the position of Great Britain in that respect. 



The Treaty of Ghent was signed December 24, 1814. In July of 

 the following year, Mr. Monroe, who was Secretary of State during 

 the negotiations at Ghent, and who had continued in office, advised 

 Mr. Baker, the British charge d'affaires at Washington, that a vessel 

 of the United States engaged in the fishery " was warned off by the 

 commander of the British sloop of war ' Jaseur ' and ordered not to 

 approach within sixty miles of the coast " of the British possessions 

 in the North Atlantic." 



The Secretary of State at once took the matter up with John 

 Quincy Adarns, the American minister in Great Britain, who had 

 been one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent. 5 



Mr. Baker replied to Mr. Monroe's note that 



This measure was, as you have justly presumed in your note, totally 

 unauthorized by His Majesty's Government. 



In the meantime, Mr. Adams in London took up the matters, 

 referred to him by the Secretary of State, in an interview with Lord 

 Bathurst. In a note September 19, 1815, he reported: 



My first object in asking to see him had been to inquire whether 

 he had received from Mr. Baker a communication of the cor- 

 respondence between you and him, relative to the surrender of 

 Miohilimackinac; to the proceedings of Colonel Nichols in the south- 

 ern part of the United States; and to the warning ^iven by the cap- 

 tain of the British armed vessel "Jaseur " to certain American fish- 

 ing vessels, to withdraw from the fishing grounds to the distance of 

 sixty miles from the coast. He answered that he had received all 

 these papers from Mr. Baker, about four days ago; that an answer 

 with regard to the warning of the fishing vessels had immediately 

 been sent; but on the other subjects, there had not been time to ex- 



U. S. Case, 22; Appendix, 262. 

 U. S. Case, Appendix, 263. 

 C U. S. Case, 23; Appendix, 264. 



