322 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH [April 22, 



joyment of the " right " to reap the benefits of the rich fisheries 

 around Newfoundland and in the adjoining waters that the subjects 

 of the motherland and the colonies had won by their joint exertions 

 and valor. And subject to the provisions of the treaty of peace as 

 embodied in its third article, American fishermen continued to take 

 fish in the waters around Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence as formerly they had fished in those same waters as British 

 subjects. 



When the American and the British negotiators met at Ghent 

 in August, 1814, to agree upon a treaty of peace to put an end to 

 the state of war existing between their respective countries, the 

 British commissioners said, among other things, that 



They felt it incumbent upon them to declare that the British Government 

 did not deny the right of the Americans to fish generally, or in the open seas; 

 but that the "privileges formerly granted by treaty to the United States of 

 fishing within the limits of the British jurisdiction, and of landing and drying 

 fish on the shores of the British territories, would not be renewed without 

 an equivalent." 



A few days later the British commissioners also brought up the 

 question of the free navigation for British subjects of the Mississippi 

 River." In the following November the American negotiators in 

 submitting a project for a treaty to their British colleagues, said, 

 in an accompanying note that they were " not authorized to bring 

 into discussion any of the rights or liberties " that the United States 

 had up to then enjoyed in the fisheries. After much sparring be- 

 tween the two groups of negotiators as to the fisheries, the naviga- 

 tion of the Mississippi and other points of difference, the two sides, 

 who were both desirous of concluding peace, agreed to exclude 

 altogether any mention of either the fisheries or the navigation of 

 the Mississippi from the treaty of peace that they concluded at 

 Ghent on December 24, 1814.^ 



The rights of American fishermen in the northeastern American 



" " American State Papers : Class I., Foreign Relations," Washington, 

 1832, Vol. HI., p. 705. 



' John Quincy Adams, " The Duplicate Letters, The Fisheries and the 

 Mississippi; Documents relating to transactions of the Negotiations of Ghent," 

 Washington, 1822, pp. 54, 55, 184. 



* "American State Papers: Class I., Foreign Relations," Washington, 

 1S32, Vol. HI., pp. 744, 745- 



