ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 107 



regard it, not as an obligation, but as a conveyance of the right from 

 Great Britain to the United States; so that it becomes the right 

 of the United States and not a mere obHgation of Great Britain, 

 for all obligations are ended by war and allobUgations are ended 

 by transfer of sovereignty. 



The President: Could there not be a perpetual obligation 

 without a transfer of sovereignty? 



Senator Root: There could not be a perpetual obligation not 

 ended by war. The obligation ends with war, and the same obH- 

 gation ends with a transfer of sovereignty. It must be remembered 

 that sovereignty had been transferred as to thirteen British colo- 

 nies, and it always must have been in contemplation that it might 

 be transferred as to another. Lord Sahsbury, in his speech in the 

 House of Lords in 1891, declared, of the French right, that New- 

 foundland was mistaken in considering that the burden of the right 

 was due to her continued allegiance to Great Britain, that wherever 

 Newfoundland went that right would still persist, and I say there 

 is no other way to give effect to this essential quality of the grant 

 than to regard it as being not a mere obHgation, but to regard it as 

 being a transfer of the right from Great Britain to the United 

 States, so that it became the right of the United States and not the 

 right of Great Britain. To that feature of the article we are aU 

 bound to give effect, and we cannot put any construction on the 

 article which leaves the right open to be destroyed either by war, 

 or by a transfer of sovereignty, or by any other agency, unless it 

 be the volimtary act of the grantee. 



The President: Then the consequence of the fact that this 

 right has been acknowledged as a permanent right would be that 

 the character of the right would be enlarged beyond the words 

 of the grant itself? The grant itself speaks of the right of the 

 United States to take fish, and in consequence of the fact that 

 the right has been granted forever, it extends to participation by 

 the United States in the legislation and administration of Great 

 Britain concerning the exercise of the right ? 



Senator Root : No, the right was not a grant to the inhabitants 

 of the United States. 



