156 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



low no compromise. Clay, who represented the West, was 

 as steadfast in upholding the interests of his people as 

 Adams was in insisting upon full privileges in the fish- 

 eries. The result of the deliberations was that the treaty 

 of Ghent was agreed to by the commissioners, and after- 

 wards ratified by the respective governments, and the two 

 important issues the fisheries and the Mississippi were 

 omitted altogether. 



With the return of peaceful relations the American fish- 

 ermen again pursued their industry with their old-time 

 vigor on the banks, in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and on 

 the Labrador coast. The tonnage employed in these fish- 

 eries rose rapidly from 17,855 tons in 1814 to 64,807 tons 

 in 1817. The principle that was maintained by the Ameri- 

 can commissioners at Ghent, namely, that no privileges of 

 the treaty of 1783 were abrogated by the war of 1812, 

 was adhered to by the fishermen of the United States. The 

 bays and harbors of the British dominion were again re- 

 sorted to by them as places for shelter from storms and 

 for the curing of their fish. It was assumed by the British 

 government and by her colonists, however, that such a 

 procedure was in violation of public law. In a letter is- 

 sued by British authority in June, 1815, the right of the 

 Americans to fish upon the high seas was recognized as be- 

 ing permanent; the privileges which they held under the 

 treaty of 1783, however, were declared to be forfeited by 

 them, and it was further declared that "the subjects of 

 the United States can have no pretense to any right to fish 

 within the British jurisdiction. " Every indulgence was 

 to be given to American fishermen who already had begun 

 to cure fish upon shores previously occupied by them so as 

 not to cause them too severe loss by being compelled to re- 

 move apparatus. This leniency, however, was to apply only 

 to the summer of 1815. 1 



i Niles' Weekly Reg., X, p. 68. 



