fifth degree. The extent of sea, of which these possessions form the limits, comprehends all the conditions which are ordinarily attached to shut seas (mers fermées), and the Russian Government might consequently judge itself authorized to exercise upon this sea the right of sovereignty, and especially that of entirely interdicting the entrance of foreigners. But it preferred only asserting its essential rights, without taking any advantage of localities.-American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV. 862.

1822, Mar. 30. SECRETARY ADAMS TO RUSSIAN MINISTER POLETICA.

This pretension is to be considered not only with reference to the question of territorial right, but also to that prohibition to the vessels of other nations, including those of the United States, to approach within one hundred Italian miles of the coasts. From the period of the existence of the United States as an independent nation, their vessels have freely navigated. those seas, and the right to navigate them is a part of that independence.

With regard to the suggestion that the Russian Government might have exercised the right of sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as a close sea, because it claims territory both on its American and Asiatic shores, it may suffice to say that the distance from shore to shore on this sea, in latitude 510 north, is not less than ninety degrees of longitude, or four thousand miles.

As little can the United States accede to the justice of the reason assigned for the prohibition above mentioned. The right of the citizens of the United States to hold commerce with the aboriginal natives of the northwest coast of America, without the territorial jurisdiction of other nations, even in arms and munitions of war, is as clear and indisputable as that of navigating the seas.-American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV. 863.

1822, Nov. I. SECRETARY ADAMS ON THE RUSSIAN CLAIM..

I received a dispatch from H. Middleton, our minister at St. Petersburg, dated 20th August, relating entirely to the

Northwest Coast controversy.

66

The Baron de Tuyl is coming out as minister from Russia, charged with a proposal for negotiating on the subject. Speransky, now Governor-General of Siberia, told Middleton that they had at first thought of declaring the Northern Pacific Ocean a mare clausum," but afterward took the one hundred Italian miles from the thirty leagues in the Treaty of Utrecht, which is an exclusion only from a fishery, and not from navigation.—John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, VI. 93.

1823, July 17. SECRETARY ADAMS TO BARON TUYL, RUSSIAN MINISTER.

Baron Tuyl came, . . . I told him especially that we should contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the principle that the American continents are no longer subjects for any new European colonial establishments. We had a conversation of an hour or more, at the close of which he said that although there would be difficulties in the negotiation, he did not foresee that they would be insurmountable.-John Quincy Adams, Memoirs, VI. 163.

1823, July 22. SECRETARY ADAMS TO MINISTER RUSH.

Mr. Paletica answered by alleging first discovery, occupancy, and uninterrupted possession.

It appears upon examination that these claims have no foundation on fact. . .

As yet, however, the only useful purpose to which the northwest coast of America has been or can be made subservient to the settlements of civilized men are the fisheries on its adjoining seas and trade with the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. These have hitherto been enjoyed in common by the people of the United States, and by the British and Russian nations. The Spanish, Portuguese, and French nations have also participated in them hitherto, without other annoyance than that which resulted from the exclusive territorial claims of Spain, so long as they were insisted on by her.

The United States and Great Britain have both protested

against the Russian Imperial Ukase of September 4 (16th), 1821.-American State Papers, Foreign Relations, V. 446, 447.

1823, July 22. SECRETARY ADAMS TO MINISTER
MIDDLETON.

From the tenor of the ukase, the pretensions of the Imperial Government extend to an exclusive territorial jurisdiction from the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, on the Asiatic coast, to the latitude of fifty-one north on the western coast of the American continent; and they assume the right of interdicting the navigation and the fishery of all other nations to the extent of one hundred miles from the whole of the coast.

The United States can admit no part of these claims. Their right of navigation and of fishing is perfect, and has been in constant exercise from the earliest times, after the peace of 1783, throughout the whole extent of the Southern Ocean, subject only to the ordinary exceptions and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions, which, so far as Russian rights are concerned, are confined to certain islands north of the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, and have no existence on the continent of America.-American State Papers, Foreign Relations, V. 436.

1824, April 17.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES
AND RUSSIA.*

* Official translation from the original, which is in the French language. ARTICLE I. It is agreed that in any part of the Great Ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting Powers shall be neither disturbed nor restrained, either in navigation or in fishing, 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.

ARTICLE II. With a view of preventing the rights of navigation and of fishing exercised upon the Great Ocean by the citizens and subjects of the high contracting Powers from becoming the pretext for an illicit trade, it is agreed that the

citizens of the United States shall not resort to any point where there is a Russian establishment, without the permission of the governor or commander; and that, reciprocally, the subjects of Russia shall not resort, without permission, to any establishment of the United States upon the northwest coast.

ARTICLE III. It is moreover agreed that, hereafter, there shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States, or under the authority of the said States, any establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude; and that, in the same manner, there shall be none formed by Russian subjects, or under the authority of Russia, south of the same parallel.

ARTICLE IV. It is, nevertheless, understood that during a term of ten years, counting from the signature of the presentconvention, the ships of both Powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects respectively, may reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas, gulfs, harbors, and creeks, upon the coast mentioned in the preceding article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the country.-Treaties and Conventions of the United States, ed. of 1889, pp. 431, 432.

1824, Dec. 8. GEORGE CANNING TO STRATFORD CANNING.

The pretensions of the Russian ukase of 1821, to exclusive dominion over the Pacific, could not continue longer unrepealed without compelling us to take some measure of public and effectual remonstrance against it.

The right of the subjects of His Majesty to navigate freely in the Pacific cannot be held as a matter of indulgence from any power. Having once been publicly questioned it must be publicly acknowledged.-Foreign Relations, 1890, p. 464.

1825, Feb. 28/16. CONVENTION BETWEEN GREAT
BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.

ARTICLE I. It is agreed that the respective subjects of the high contracting Parties shall not be troubled or molested, in any part of the ocean commonly called the Pacific Ocean, either in navigating the same, in fishing therein, or in landing

at such parts of the coast as shall not have been already oc cupied, in order to trade with the natives, under the restric tions and conditions specified in the following articles.

ARTICLE II. In order to prevent the right of navigating and fishing, exercised upon the ocean by the subjects of the high contracting Parties, from becoming the pretext for an illicit commerce, it is agreed that the subjects of His Britannic Majesty shall not land at any place where there may be a Russian establishment on the Northwest coast.

ARTICLE III. 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 Northwest, shall be drawn in the manner following.-Foreign Relations, 1890, P. 503.

1863, Aug. 10. SECRETARY SEWARD TO MR. TAESSARA, SPANISH REPRESENTATIVE.

The undersigned would observe, in the first place, that there are two principles bearing on the subject which are universally admitted, namely, first, that the sea is open to all nations, and secondly, that there is a portion of the sea adjacent to every nation over which the sovereignty of that nation extends to the exclusion of every other political authority.

A third principle bearing on the subject is also well established, namely, that this exclusive sovereignty of a nation, thus abridging the universal liberty of the seas, extends no farther than the power of the nation to maintain it by force, stationed on the coast, extends. This principle is tersely expressed in the maxim Terræ dominium finitur ubi finitur armarum vis.-Wharton, Digest of the International Law of the U. S., I. § 32, p. 102.

1867, Mar. 30. TREATY WITH RUSSIA FOR THE CESSION

OF ALASKA.

ARTICLE I. His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias agrees to cede to the United States, by this convention, im mediately upon the exchange of the ratifications thereof, ali the territory and dominion now possessed by his said Majesty on the continent of America and in the adjacent islands, the