148 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



as they do not approach nearer than three marine miles to the shores. 

 With this fact in mind, the position of the United States is entirely 

 clear. The bays within the three-mile limit are bays of "His Bri- 

 tannic Majesty's Dominions," and the line drawn across the en- 

 trances to such bays is for the purposes of measurement considered 

 as the shore line. 



THE MEANING GIVEN TO THE WORDS OF THIS CLAUSE CON- 

 TEMPORANEOUSLY WITH THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY. 



The American plenipotentiaries transmitted the treaty, together 

 with "some observations' on the several objects embraced" by it, on 

 the day that the treaty was concluded." The report of their nego- 

 tiations was forwarded to John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, 

 who was more familiar with the subject of the fisheries than any 

 man in the public life of America. It will be recalled that he had 

 instructed the plenipotentiaries on behalf of the President " to agree 

 to an article whereby the United States will desist from the liberty 

 of fishing and curing and drying fish within the British jurisdiction 

 generally, upon condition that it shall be secured as a permanent 

 right" on certain designated coasts; and that he had taken occasion 

 to state "the British Government may be well assured that not a 

 particle of these rights will be finally yielded by the United States 

 without a struggle which will cost Great Britain more than the 

 worth of the prize." 6 An examination of contemporaneous docu- 

 ments shows that Mr. Adams received the treaty and the report of 

 the plenipotentiaries, and that without any comment the treaty was 

 forwarded by the President of the United States December 29, 1818, 

 to the Senate for its consent and approval. 



If it had been understood by the Government of the United States 

 and by the people of the United States that by this treaty access to 

 the great bodies of water along the coasts of the British possessions 

 in the North Atlantic had been closed to the inhabitants of the 

 United States, would such a surrender of historic rights have been 

 made without any attempt, on the part of the United States, to obtain 

 from Great Britain a recognition in broad terms of a similar juris- 

 diction over the waters adjacent to the coasts of its possessions on the 



U. S. Case, 54 ; Appendix, 306. B U. S. Case, Appendix, 304. 



