Studies in American History 
205 
believed that the greatest menace to our peace with Great 
Britain was the maintenance of a colonial dependency on our 
north. In fact it was believed that Great Britain regarded 
Canada as a source of weakness, especially in the existing 
state of international affairs. This belief was not without 
foundation. On December 18, 1869, the London Times, which 
was supposed to be inspired by the British government, stat- 
ing that any deliberate conclusion by the colonies that it is 
“more convenient to slip into the Union” than to remain in 
the Dominion should not be opposed by England, said: “In- 
stead of the colonies being the dependency of the mother 
country, the mother country has become the dependency of 
the colonies.” This view of the situation was enforced by 
the completion of the Union Pacific Railway,®' by the con- 
templation of the early construction of a northern Pacific 
railway — plans for which had been under consideration 
since 1866 — as well as by the fishing troubles growing out 
of the attempt of Nova Scotia to establish a more effectual 
control of her fisheries by the establishment of a marine po- 
lice (1869) which seized American fishing ships (1870).®® 
The Grant administration soon took occasion to ascertain 
whether the territorial methods of settling claims would be 
satisfactory to England. On June 9, 1869, Fish, referring 
to the fact that the American claims were too large for a 
money settlement, sounded Thornton on the question of ced- 
ing Canada. Thornton replied that while England did not 
wish to keep Canada she “could not part with it without the 
consent of the population”.^® 
In the following November at a Cabinet meeting President 
Grant, suggesting the possibility of a withdrawal of England 
from Canada, and intimating that in such case the United 
States ought to be satisfied with direct claims for actual losses 
by Confederate cruisers and a satisfactory settlement of the 
principles of international law, expressed a desire to post- 
poned^ the adjustment of claims until England was ready to 
give up Canada. 
Senate Executive Documents, No. 90, 41-2, Vol. II, May 23, 1870. 
Senate Executive Documents, No. 75, 41-2, Vol. II, March 30, 1870. 
Arthur Mills, “Canada and the Treaty of 1873”, in Contem])orary Revietv, XXI 
(March, 1873). 
C. F. Adams, Before and After the Treaty of Washington (N.Y., 1892, 106, et seq.) ; 
Pierce, Sumner, IV, 409, Sumner to Motley, June 11, 1869. 
” For instructions to Bancroft, see Senate Executive Documents, No. 114, 41-2, Vol. 
in, July 13, 1870. 
