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American History Leaflets

COLONIAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL.

EDITED BY

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART and EDWARD CHANNING,

OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

No. 6.

NEW YORK:

A. LOVELL & CO.

Published Bi-Monthly. Annual Subscription, 30 cents.

Entered at the New York Postoffice as second-class matter.

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FOUR serious international controversies have arisen out of the rival claims of Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and the United States to the shores and waters of the northwest coast of the continent of North America. The first of these was in consequence of an attempt of the Spanish Government, in 1790, to prevent the British from trading with the natives of that coast. It was settled by the Nootka Sound Convention of October 28, 1790, by which the subjects of both powers enjoyed equal privileges of trade to all points not already occupied.

The second controversy was the result of an attempt of Russia in 1821 to prohibit England and the United States from trading anywhere north of the fifty-first parallel, or to approach within one hundred Italian miles of the coast. Both governments energetically protested and secured treaties in 1824 and 1825, by which they retained the right of fishing and of landing on unoccupied points of that coast.

The third controversy was as to the division of the coast between Great Britain and the United States, Spain having by the treaties of 1824 and 1825 accepted the parallel of 54° 40' as her southern boundary. The rival claims of the two remaining powers, after long diplomatic dis

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cussion, were settled by the treaty of July 17, 1846, according to which the parallel of 49° was made the dividing line.

By the treaty of March 30, 1867, with Russia, all the dominions and claims of that country on the continent of North America and the outlying islands thereof were transferred to the United States. A further, and still pending, controversy arose in 1886 through the seizure by United States vessels of Canadian vessels engaged in the taking of seals in waters not far distant from the Aleutian Islands. The claim of the United States was that it had acquired from Russia exclusive rights in Behring Sea, at least with regard to seal fishing. The British Government representing the Canadians denied that there could be any exclusive rights outside three miles off shore. By an agreement of February 29, 1892, the question has been submitted to arbitration.

The principal authorities on this subject are: Charles B. Elliott, The United States and Northwestern Fisheries, Minneapolis, 1887; Stephen B. Stanton, The Behring Sea Controversy, New York, 1892; the official correspondence to be found in connection with the following messages of the President:-April 15, 1822, American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV., 851-864,-December 13, 1824, American State Papers, Foreign Relations, V., 432-471,-February 12, 1889, Senate Executive Documents, 50th Congress, 2d Session, No. 106, and also Foreign Relations for 1888,— June 23, 1890, House Executive Documents, 51st Congress, 1st Session, No. 450, and also Foreign Relations for 1890,-June 6, 1891, House Executive Documents, 51st Congress, 2d Session, No. 144,-March 8, 1892, Senate Executive Documents, 52d Congress, 1st Session, No. 55,— March 23, 1892 (pamphlet).

1790, Oct. 28.

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NOOTKA SOUND CONVENTION BETWEEN
ENGLAND AND SPAIN.

ARTICLE III. Between the two contracting parties it is agreed that their respective subjects shall not be disturbed nor molested, either in navigating or carrying on their fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, or in the South Seas, or in landing on the coasts of those seas, in places not already occupied, for the purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country, or of making settlements there: the whole subject, nevertheless, to the restrictions and provisions specified in the three following articles:

ARTICLE IV. His Britannic majesty engages to take the most effectual measures to prevent the navigation and fishery of his subjects in the Pacific Ocean, or in the South Seas, from being made a pretext for illicit trade with the Spanish settlements; and, with this view, it is moreover expressly stipulated, that British subjects shall not navigate or carry on their fishery

in the said seas within the space of ten sea leagues from any part of the coasts already occupied by Spain.-Annual Register, 1790, p. 304.

1793, Nov. 8.

SECRETARY JEFFERSON TO MR. GENET,
FRENCH MINISTER.

The greatest distance to which any respectable assent among nations has been at any time given, has been the extent of the human sight, estimated at upwards of twenty miles; and the smallest distance, I believe, claimed by any nation whatever, is the utmost range of a cannon-ball, usually stated at one sea league.—Wharton, Digest of the International Law of the U. S., I. § 32, p. 100.

1796, Sept. 2. SECRETARY PICKERING TO THE GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA.

Our jurisdiction has been fixed (at least for the purpose of regulating the conduct of the Government in regard to any events arising out of the present European war) to extend three geographical miles (or nearly three and a half English miles) from our shores, with the exception of any waters or bays which are so land-locked as to be unquestionably within the jurisdiction of the United States, be their extent what they may.-Wharton, Digest of the International Law of the U. S., I. § 32, p. 100.

1799. UKASE OF EMPEROR PAUL OF RUSSIA.

[The text has not been found in the correspondence. The Marquis of Salisbury, in a dispatch to Sir Julian Pauncefote of Aug. 2, 1890, says of it:]

It appears from the published papers that in 1799 the Emperor Paul I. granted by charter to the Russian-American Company the exclusive right of hunting, trade, industries, and discoveries of new land on the northwest coast of America, from Behring's Strait to the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude, with permission to the company to extend their discoveries to the south and to form establishments there provided they did not encroach upon the territory occupied by other powers.

The southern limit thus provisionally assigned to the com

pany corresponds, within twenty or thirty miles, with that which was eventually agreed upon as the boundary between the British and Russian possessions. It comprises not only the whole American coast of Behring's Sea, but a long reach of coast line to the south of the Alaskan peninsula as far as the level of the southern portion of Prince of Wales Island.

The charter, which was issued at the time of the great European excitement, attracted apparently little attention at the moment and gave rise to no remonstrance. It made no claim to exclusive jurisdiction over the sea, nor do any measures appear to have been taken under it to restrict the commerce, navigation, or fishery of the subjects of foreign nations. -Foreign Relations, 1890, p. 456.

1821, Sept. 4. UKASE OF EMPEROR ALEXANDER I. OF RUSSIA.

(American Translation.)

SECTION I. The transaction of commerce, and the pursuit of whaling and fishing, or any other industry on the islands, in the harbors and inlets, and, in general, all along the northwestern coast of America from Behring Strait to the fifty-first parallel of northern latitude, and likewise on the Aleutian Islands and along the eastern coast of Siberia, and on the Kurile Islands; that is, from Behring Strait to the southern promontory of the island of Urup, viz., as far south as latitude fortyfive degrees and fifty minutes north, are exclusively reserved to subjects of the Russian Empire.

SECTION II. Accordingly, no foreign vessel shall be allowed either to put to shore at any of the coasts and islands under Russian dominion as specified in the preceding section, or even to approach the same to within a distance of less than one hundred Italian miles. Any vessel contravening this provision shall be subject to confiscation with her whole cargo.Foreign Relations, 1890, p. 439.

1822, Feb. 25. SECRETARY ADAMS TO RUSSIAN MINISTER POLETICA.

I am directed by the President of the United States to inform you that he has seen with surprise, in this edict, the assertion of a territorial claim on the part of Russia, extending

to the fifty-first degree of north latitude on this continent, and a regulation interdicting to all commercial vessels other than Russian, upon the penalty of seizure and confiscation, the approach upon the high seas within one hundred Italian miles of the shores to which that claim is made to apply. . . . It was expected before any act which should define the boundaries between the United States and Russia on this continent, that the same would have been arranged by treaty between the parties. To exclude the vessels of our citizens from the shore, beyond the ordinary distance to which the territorial jurisdiction extends, has excited still greater surprise.—American State Papers, Foreign Relations, IV. 871.

1822, Feb. 28. RUSSIAN MINISTER POLETICA TO SECRETARY ADAMS.

I shall be more succinct, sir, in the exposition of the motives which determined the Imperial Government to prohibit foreign vessels from approaching the northwest coast of America belonging to Russia within the distance of at least one hundred Italian miles. This measure, however severe it may at first view appear, is, after all, but a measure of prevention. It is exclusively directed against the culpable enterprises of foreign adventurers, who, not content with exercising upon the coasts above mentioned an illicit trade very prejudicial to the rights reserved entirely to the Russian-American Company, take upon them besides to furnish arms and ammunition to the natives in the Russian possessions in America, exciting them likewise in every manner to resistance and revolt against the authorities there established. . . . Pacific means not having brought any alleviation to the just grievances of the RussianAmerican Company against foreign navigators in the waters which environ their establishments on the northwest coast of America, the Imperial Government saw itself under the necessity of having recourse to the means of coercion, and of measuring the rigor according to the inveterate character of the evil to which it is wished to put a stop.

I ought, in the last place, to request you to consider, sir, that the Russian possessions in the Pacific Ocean extend, on the northwest coast of America, from Behring Strait to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, and on the opposite side of Asia, and the islands adjacent, from the same strait to the forty

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