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gohation.. And in the negotiation you are to exert your most strenuous 

 endeavors to obtain a nearer distance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 and particularly along the shores of Nova Scotia; as to which latter, 

 we are desirous that even the shores may be occasionally used for the 

 purpose of carrying on the fisheries by the inhabitants of these States." 



These instructions— tediously minute and encumbered with repeti- 

 tions— embody, as will be seen, the substance of Mr. Gerry's resolu- 

 tions, with this essential difference— that the right to visit and freely 

 use the fishing grounds was to be -made an ultimatum to a treaty of 

 commerce instead of a treaty of peace. Strangely enough, these in- 

 structions were revoked by Congress in July, 1781, though adopted 

 after mature deliberation and in the spirit of concession. Whatever 

 the motive of Congress, it was not communicated to Mr. Adams by 

 that body, or by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, or by any individual 

 member. Of this he complains with some asperity. In a letter to 

 Robert R. Livingston he states the fact justnientioned, and remarks, 

 that whether the act of neglect "was intended as a punishment to mey- 

 or with a charitable design not to lead me into temptation ; whether it 

 was intended as a punishment to the English for their^ insolence and 

 barbarity; whether it was intended to prevent or remove suspicions of 

 allies, or the envy avd green jealousy of co-patriots, I know not." That; 

 then, we finally secured the rights in question, was owing to the zeal 

 of Mr. Adams and his associate commissioners, and not to the firmness 

 or good faith of Congress. 



Meantime, a number of pamphlets, written by loyalists of distinction 

 and devoted to American affairs, were pubhshed in London. In one 

 of these it is said that "with the independence of America" Great 

 Britain "must give up her fisheries on the Bank of Newfoundland, and 

 in the American seas," and "thirty-five thousand American seamen, 

 with twenty-eight thousand more, bred and maintained in these ex- 

 cellent nurseries;" that, furthermore, "the valuable trade carried on 

 from thence with the Catholic States will be in the hands of America;", 

 that " these nurseries and this trade will ever remain the natural right 

 of the people who inhabit that country;" and that "a trade so profit- 

 able, .and a nursery of seamen so excellent and so necessary for the 

 support of her naval force, will never be given up, or divided by 

 America with any power whatsoever." Meantime, too, the cele- 

 brated Dean of Gloucester submitted proposals "to the English, 

 Americans, French, and Spaniards, now at war," on the subject of 

 ■their differences, suggesting, upon the subject before us, that "Great 

 Britain shall retain Newfoundland, with the desert coasts of Labrador; 

 also Canada, Nova Scotia, and the country bordering on the Bay of 

 Fundy," westerly, "as far as the bay and river of Penobscot." 



Mr. Adams was appdinted sole commissioner to negotiate with Great 

 Britain, and entered alone upon the arduous duties intrusted to him. 

 Messrs. Franklin, Jay, and Laurens were, however, subsequently desig- 

 nated joint commissioners, and in due time joined him in France. In 

 1782, a letter of Barbe de Marbois, the French charge d'affaires in the 

 United States, addressed to Count de Vergennes, the Principal Minister 

 of State, was intercepted. The contents of this letter caused great 

 uneasiness. Marbois- represented that Samuel Adams was stiiring up 



