632 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
acquired sovereignty of Alaska carried with it by Treaty “ all the rights, franchises, 
and privileges” which had belonged to Russia. A little more than a year after the 
acquisition, the United States transferred certain rights to the Alaska Commercial 
Company over the seal fisheries of Behring’s Sea for a period of twenty years. 
Russia had given the same rights (besides rights of still larger scope) to the Russian- 
American Company for three periods of twenty years each, without a protest from 
the British Government, without a single interference from British ships. For these 
reasons this Government again insists that Great Britain and the United States recog- 
nized, respected, and obeyed the authority of Russia in the Behring’s Sea; and did 
it for more than forty years after the Treaties with Russia were negotiated. It still 
remains for England to explain why she persistently violates the same rights when 
transfered to the ownership of the United States. 
The IInd Article of the American Treaty is as follows: 
“Article II. With a view of preventing the rights of navigation and of fishing exer- 
cised upon the Great Ocean by the citizens and subjects of the High Contracting 
Powers from becoming the pretext for an illicit trade, it is agreed that the citizens 
of the United States shall not resort to any point where there is a Russian establish- 
ment, without the permission of the Governor or Commander; and that, reciprocally, 
the subjects of Russia shall not resort, without permission, to any establishment of 
the United States upon the north-west coast.” 
The IInd Article of the British Treaty is as follows: 
“Article II. In order to prevent the right of navigation and fishing, exercised upon 
the ocean by the subjects of the High Contracting Parties, from becoming the 
42 pretext for an illicit commerce, it is agreed that the subjects of His Britannic 
Majesty shall not land at any place where there may be a Russian establishment, 
without the permission of the Governor or Commandant; and, on the other hand, the 
Russian subjects shall not land, without permission, at any British establishment 
on the north-west coast.” 
In the IInd Articles of the Treaties it is recognized that both the United States and 
Great Britain have establishments on the ‘north-west coast,” and, as neither country 
ever claimed any territory north of the 60th parallel of latitude, we necessarily have 
the meaning of the north-west coast significantly defined in exact accordance with 
the American contention. - 
An argument, altogether historical in its character, is of great and, I think, con- 
clusive force touching this question. It will be remembered that the Treaty of the 
20th October, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain, comprised a variety 
of topics, among others, in Article III, the following: 
“Tt is agreed that any country that may be claimed by either party on the north- 
west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, together with its 
harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be 
free and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present 
Convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers; it being under- 
stood that this Agreement is not to be construed to the prejudice of any claim which 
either of the two High Contracting Parties may have to any part of the said country, . 
nor shall it be taken to affect the claims of any other Power or State to any part of 
the said country, the only object of the High Contracting Parties, in that respect, 
being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves.” 
While this Article placed upon a common basis for ten years the rights of Great 
Britain and America on the north-west coast, it made no adjustment of the claims 
of Russia on the north, or of Spain on the south, which are referred to in the Article 
as ‘any other Power or State.” Russia had claimed down to latitiide 55° under the 
Ukase of 1799. Spain had claimed indefinitely northward from the 42nd parallel of 
latitude. But all the Spanish claims had been transferred to the United States by 
the Treaty of 1819, and Russia had been so quiet until the Ukase of 1821 that no con- 
flict was feared. But after that Ukase a settlement, either permanent or temporary, 
was imperatively demanded. 
The proposition made by Mr. Adams which I now quote shows, I think, beyond 
all doubt, that the dispute was wholly touching the north-west coast on the Pacific 
Ocean. Imake the following quotation from Mr. Adams’ instruction to Mr. Middleton, 
our Minister at St. Petersburgh, on the 22nd July, 1823: 
‘By the Treaty of the 22nd February, 1819, with Spain, the United States acquired 
all the rights of Spain north of latitude 42°; and by the IIIrd Article of the Con- 
vention between the United States and Great Britain of the 20th October, 1818, it 
was agreed that any country that might be claimed by either party on the north- 
west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountains, should, together with its 
harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be 
