1825.] TEEATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA. 343 



minutes eastward, to the great inlet in the continent, called Port- 

 land Channel, and along the middle of that inlet, to the 56th 

 degree of latitude, whence it shall follow the summit of the moun- 

 tains bordering the coast, within ten leagues, north-westward, to 

 Mount St. Elias, and thence north, in the course of the 141st 

 meridian west from Greenwich, to the Frozen Ocean ; " which 

 line," says the treaty, " shall form the limit between the Russian 

 and the British possessions in the continent of America to the north- 

 west ; " it being also agreed that the British should forever have 

 the right to navigate any streams flowing into the Pacific from the 

 interior, across the line of demarkation..* 



That this treaty virtually annulled the convention, of the pre- 

 ceding year, between Russia and the United States, is evident ; for 

 the convention rested entirely upon the assumption that the United 

 States possessed the same right to the part of the American coast 

 south of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, which Russia pos- 

 sessed to the part north of that parallel : and the treaty distinctly ac- 

 knowledged the former or southern division of the coast to be the 

 property of Great Britain. It does not, however, appear that any 

 representation on the subject was addressed by the American gov- 

 ernment to that of Russia ; and the vessels of the United States 

 continued to frequent all the unoccupied parts of the north-west 

 coast, and to trade with the natives uninterruptedly, until 1834, 

 when, as will be hereafter shown, they were formally prohibited, 

 by the Russian authorities, from visiting any place on that coast 

 north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, on the ground that 

 their right to do so had expired, agreeably to the convention of 

 1824. 



In December, 1824, President Monroe, in his last annual mes- 

 sage to Congress, recommended the establishment of a military post 

 at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the 

 acknowledged limits of the United States, in order to afford pro- 

 tection to their commerce and fisheries in the Pacific, to conciliate 

 the Indians of the north-west, and to promote the intercourse be- 



* See Proofs and Illustrations, at the end of this volume, under the letter K, No. 5. 

 Some curious particulars relative to the negotiation which led to this treaty may be 

 found in the Political Life of the Hon. George Canning, by A. G. Stapleton, chap, 

 xiv. Mr. Canning, it seems, was anxious for the conclusion of a joint convention 

 between Great Britain, the United States, and Russia, as regards the freedom of 

 navigation of the Pacific, until the appearance of the declaration in the message of 

 President Monroe above mentioned, after which he determined only to treat with 

 each of the other parties separately. 



