1824.] CONVENTION BETWEEN THE U. STATES AND RUSSIA. 341 



In the mean time, the negotiation between the United States and 

 Russia was terminated by a convention, signed at St. Petersburg, 

 on the 5th of April, 1824, containing five articles: by the first of 

 which, it is agreed that the respective citizens or subjects of the 

 two nations shall not be disturbed or restrained in navigating or in 

 fishing in any part of the Pacific Ocean, or in the power of resort- 

 ing to the coasts upon points which may not already have been 

 occupied, for the purpose of trading with the natives; saving, 

 always, the restrictions and conditions determined by the following 

 articles, to wit: by the second article, the citizens of the United 

 States shall not resort to any point on the north-west coasts of 

 America, where there is a Russian establishment, without the 

 permission of the governor or commandant of the place, and vice 

 versa : by the third article, neither the United States nor their 

 citizens shall, in future, form any establishment on those coasts, or 

 the adjacent islands, north of the latitude of 54 degrees 40 minutes, 

 and the Russians shall make none south of that latitude. " It is, 

 nevertheless, understood," says the fourth article, " that during a 

 term of ten years, counting from the signature of the present con- 

 vention, the ships of both powers, or which belong to their citizens 

 or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any 

 hinderance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, 

 upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose 



footing alone ; and the Pacific Ocean, in every part of it, will remain open to the 

 navigation of all nations, in like manner with the Atlantic' " — Instructions of the 

 Hon. J. Q,. Adams, secretary of state of the United States, to Mr. Rush, dated July 

 22d, 1823, among the documents accompanying President Adams's message to Con- 

 gress of January 31st, 1826. 



With regard to the portion of these instructions here extracted, the reader is re- 

 ferred to the convention of 1790 itself, and to the remarks on it in pp. 213, 258, and 

 318, of this History, from which it will be seen that the convention, in all its stipula- 

 tions, was simply an international agreement between Spain and Great Britain, bind- 

 ing them and their subjects only until its expiration, which took place, in consequence 

 of the war, in 1796, and applying in no respect, either as to advantages or restrictions, 

 to any other nation whatsoever ; and that, consequently, other nations had the same 

 rio-ht to occupy the vacant coasts of America, and to navigate and fish in the adjacent 

 seas, within ten leagues, (the distance defined by the convention,) and even within 

 ten miles, of the parts occupied by Spain, after, as before, the signature of that agree- 

 ment ; and Spain had as much right, after, as before, that event, to prohibit them 

 from so doing. If the Nootka convention were, as asserted by the secretary of state, 

 a definitive settlement of general principles of national law respecting navigation 

 and fishery in the seas, and trade and settlement on the coasts, here mentioned, it 

 would be difficult to resist the pretensions of the British plenipotentiaries with regard 

 to the territories west of the Rocky Mountains, as set forth in the statement (Proofs 

 and Illustrations, letter H) presented by them to Mr. Gallatin in 1826. 



