rendered up to the United States at the return of peace," and of the transfer by Spain to the United States of all her titles to those territories, founded upon the well-known discoveries of her navigators; and he insisted, agreeably to express instructions from his government, "that no part of the American continent was thenceforth to be open to colonization from Europe." In explanation and defence of this declaration, Mr. Rush "referred to the principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 1790, and remarked, that Spain had now lost all her exclusive colonial rights, recognized under that convention: first, by the fact of the independence of the South American states and of Mexico; and next, by her express renunciation of all her rights, of whatever kind, above the 42d degree of north latitude, to the United States. Those new states would themselves now possess the rights incident to their condition of political independence; and the claims of the United States above the 42d parallel as high up as 60 degrees claims as well in their own right as by succession to the title of Spain- would henceforth necessarily preclude other nations from forming colonial establishments upon any part of the American continents."

Messrs. Huskisson and Canning, in reply, denied that the circumstance of a merchant vessel of the United States having penetrated the north-west coast of America at the Columbia River, could give to the United States a claim along that coast, both north and south of the river, over territories which, they insisted, had been previously discovered by Great Britain herself, in expeditions fitted out under the authority and with the resources of the nation. They declared that British subjects had formed settlements upon the Columbia, or upon rivers flowing into it west of the Rocky Mountains, coe al with, if not prior to, the settlement made by American citizens at its mouth; and that the surrender of that settlement after the late war was in fulfilment of the treaty of Ghent, and did not affect the question of right in any way. They treated as false or doubtful the accounts of many of the Spanish voyages in the Pacific; alleging, as more authentic, the narrative of Drake's expedition, from which it appeared that he had, in 1579, explored the west coast of America to the 48th parallel of latitude, five or six degrees farther north than the Spaniards themselves pretended to have advanced before that period: and they refused to admit that any title could be derived from the mere fact of Spanish navigators having first seen the coast at particular spots, even when this was capable of being fully substantiated. Finally,

they assured Mr. Rush that their government would never assent to the claim set forth by him respecting the territory watered by the Columbia River and its tributaries, which, besides being essentially objectionable in its general bearings, had also the effect of interfering directly with the actual rights of Great Britain, derived from use, occupancy, and settlement; asserting, at the same time, that they considered the unoccupied parts of America just as much open as heretofore to colonization by Great Britain, as well as by other European powers, agreeably to the convention of 1790, between the British and Spanish governments, and that the United States would have no right to take umbrage at the establishment of new colonies from Europe, in any such parts of the American continent." *

After much discussion on these points, Mr. Rush presented a proposal from his government, that any country west of the Rocky Mountains, which might be claimed by the United States, or by Great Britain, should be free and open to the citizens or subjects of both nations for ten years from the date of the agreement: Provided, that, during this period, no settlements were to be made by British subjects north of the 55th or south of the 51st degrees of latitude, nor by American citizens north of the latter parallel. To this proposal, which Mr. Rush afterwards varied by substituting the 49th parallel of latitude for the 51st, Messrs. Huskisson and Canning replied by a counter proposal, to the effect, that the boundary between the territories of the two nations, beyond the Rocky Mountains, should pass from those mountains westward along the 49th parallel of latitude, to the north-easternmost branch of the Columbia River, called Macgillivray's River on the maps, and thence down the middle of the stream, to the Pacific; the British possessing the country north and west of such line, and the United States that which lay south and east of it: Provided, that the subjects or citizens of both nations should be equally at liberty, during the space of ten years from the date of the agreement, to pass by land or by water through all the territories on both sides of the boundary, and to retain and use their establishments already formed in any part of them. The British plenipotentiaries at the same time declared that this their proposal was one from which

* Protocol of the twelfth conference between the plenipotentiaries, held June 26th, 1824, among the documents annexed to President Adams's message to Congress of January 31st, 1826.

Great Britain would certainly not depart; and, as all prospect of compromise was thus destroyed, the negotiation ended.

In this discussion between the United States and Great Britain, upon the subject of their respective claims to the sovereignty of the countries west of the Rocky Mountains, the grounds of those claims were first made to assume a form somewhat definite; and this may be considered as principally due to the labor and penetration of Mr. Rush, who seems to have been the first to inquire carefully into the facts of the case. The introduction by him of the Nootka convention, as an element in the controversy, was according to express instructions from his government.* It appears to have been wholly unnecessary, and was certainly impolitic. No allusion had been made to that arrangement in any of the previous discussions with regard to the north-west coasts, and it was doubtless considered extinct; but when it was thus brought forward by the American government in connection with the declaration against European colonization, as a settlement of general principles with regard to those coasts, an argument was afforded in favor of the subsistence of the convention, of which the British government did not fail to take advantage, as will be hereafter shown.

* "The principles settled by the Nootka Sound convention of 28th October, 1790,

were

"1st. That the rights of fishing in the South Seas; of trading with the natives of the north-west coast of America; and of making settlements on the coast itself, for the purposes of that trade, north of the actual settlements of Spain, were common to all the European nations, and, of course, to the United States.

"2d. That, so far as the actual settlements of Spain had extended, she possessed the exclusive rights territorial, and of navigation and fishery; extending to the distance of ten miles from the coast so actually occupied.

"3d. That, on the coasts of South America, and the adjacent islands south of the parts already occupied by Spain, no settlement should thereafter be made either by British or Spanish subjects; but, on both sides, should be retained the liberty of landing and of erecting temporary buildings for the purposes of the fishery. These rights were, also, of course, enjoyed by the people of the United States.

"The exclusive rights of Spain to any part of the American continents have ceased. That portion of the convention, therefore, which recognizes the exclusive colonial rights of Spain on these continents, though confirmed, as between Great Britain and Spain, by the first additional article to the treaty of the 5th of July, 1814, has been extinguished by the fact of the independence of the South American nations and of Mexico. Those independent nations will possess the rights incident to that condition, and their territories will, of course, be subject to no exclusive right of navigation in their vicinity, or of access to them, by any foreign nation.

"A necessary consequence of this state of things will be, that the American continents, henceforth, will no longer be subject to colonization. Occupied by civilized, independent nations, they will be accessible to Europeans, and each other, on that

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 resorting 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 convention, 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 Congress of January 31st, 1826.

With regard to the portion of these instructions here extracted, the reader is referred 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 stipulations, was simply an international agreement between Spain and Great Britain, binding 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 right 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 agreement; 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.

of fishing and trading with the natives of the country:" it being, however, stipulated by the remaining fifth article, that spirituous liquors, fire-arms, other arms, powder, and munitions of war, are always excepted from this same commerce permitted by the fourth article, and that, in case of contravention of this part of the agreement, the nation whose citizens or subjects may have committed the delinquency, shall alone have the right to punish them.*

This convention does not appear to offer any grounds for dispute as to the construction of its stipulations, but is, on the contrary, clear and equally favorable to both nations. The rights of both parties to navigate every part of the Pacific, and to trade with the natives of any places on the coasts of that sea, not already occupied, are first distinctly acknowledged; after which it is agreed, in order to prevent future difficulties, that each should submit to certain limitations as to navigation, trade, and settlement, on the north-west coasts of America, either perpetually or during a fixed period. Neither party claimed, directly or by inference, the immediate sovereignty of any spot on the American coasts not occupied by its citizens or subjects, or acknowledged the right of the other to the possession of any spot not so occupied; the definitive regulation of limits being deferred until the establishments and other interests of the two nations in that quarter of the world should have acquired such a development as to render more precise stipulations necessary.

The Russian government, however, construed this convention as giving to itself the absolute sovereignty of all the west coasts of America north of the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes, while denying any such right on the part of the United States to the coasts extending southward from that line. In February, 1825, a treaty was concluded between Russia and Great Britain, relative to NorthWest America, containing provisions similar to those of the convention between Russia and the United States, expressed in nearly the same words, but also containing many other provisions, some of which are directly at variance with the evident sense of the lastmentioned agreement. Thus it is established, by the treaty, that "the line of demarkation between the possessions of the high contracting parties upon the coast of the continent, and the islands of America to the north-west," shall be drawn from the southernmost point of Prince of Wales's Island, in latitude of 54 degrees 40

* This convention will be found at length among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the concluding part of this volume, under the letter K, No. 4.