332 RUSSIAN UKASE. [1822. 



and at the mouth of the Columbia, and by favoring emigration to 

 the country west of the Rocky Mountains, not only from the 

 United States, but also from China. To this report the com- 

 mittee appended " a bill for the occupation of the Columbia, and 

 the regulation of the trade with the Indians in the territories of 

 the United States." Without making any remarks upon the char- 

 acter of this report, it may be observed, that the terms of the bill 

 are directly at variance with the provisions of the third article of the 

 convention of October, 1818, between the United States and Great 

 Britain ; as the Columbia could not possibly be free and open to the 

 vessels, citizens, and subjects, of both nations, if it were occupied by 

 cither. The bill was suffered to lie on the table of the House during 

 the remainder of the session : in the ensuing year, it was again 

 brought before Congress, and an estimate was obtained, from the 

 navy commissioners, of the expense of transporting cannon, ammu- 

 nition, and stores, by sea, to the mouth of the Columbia ; but no 

 further notice was taken of the subject until the winter of 1823. 



Measures had, in the mean time, been adopted by the Russian 

 government, with regard to the north-west coasts of America, which 

 strongly excited the attention of both the other powers claiming 

 dominion in that quarter. 



Soon after the renewal of the charter of the Russian American 

 Company, a ukase, or imperial decree, was issued at St. Petersburg, 

 by which the whole west coast of America, north of the 51st par- 

 allel, and the whole east coast of Asia, north of the latitude of 45 

 degrees 50 minutes, with all the adjacent and intervening islands, 

 were declared to belong exclusively to Russia ; and foreigners were 

 prohibited, under heavy penalties, from approaching within a 

 hundred miles of any of those coasts, except in cases of extreme 

 necessity.* 



This decree was officially communicated to the government of 

 the United States in February, 1822, by the Chevalier de Poletica, 

 Russian minister at Washington, between whom and Mr. J. Q, 

 Adams, the American secretary of state, a correspondence imme- 

 diately took place on the subject. Mr. Adams, in his first note, 

 simply made known the surprise of the president at the assertion 

 of a claim, on the part of Russia, to so large a portion of the west 



* The ukase, dated September 4th, 1821, and the correspondence between the 

 Russian and American governments with regard to it, may be found at length among 

 the documents accompanying President Monroe's message to Congress, of April 

 17th, 1822. H R <w V^- jL. ,» k ,-> J> ■ r 



V 



