The Duplicate Letters, the Fisheries and the Mississippi; Documents Relating to Transactions at the Negotiation of Ghent  (English, Paperback, Joseph Meredith Toner Collection, John Quincy Adams)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1822 Excerpt: ... fishing liberty, &c. not to be a violation of the instructions, in question, &c. Instead of any contradiction or inconsistency, there is here a perfect accordance in the sense of the two papers, in relation to the instruction of the 25th of June. I will here observe that my letter, written at Paris, in 1815, was as may be readily ascertained, confined to a discussion of the grounds which the majority assigned or suggested, in the despatch of the 25th of December, for the offer of the navigation of the Mississippi for the fishing privilege. To justify my own conduct to my government, in opposing that offer, I believed that it would be sufficient, at the time, to show why the reasons of the majority had not satisfied me. In preparing the paper which I left at the Department of State, I believed it to be proper, for the causes already suggested, to assign, for my justification, an additional reason which had influenced me in the course which I pursued, at the lime. The paper. therefore, says, in speaking of the offer, 'but I considered it to be against the letter and the spirit of our instruction of the 15th of April, 1813. (6.) Mr. Adams, in his remarks, .admits, at least by implication, that the letter and the spirit of this instruction was, indeed, against that offer, when he resorts for a release tromthe obligation of observing it, to other instructions, of the 19th of October, 1814, which, he says, were received on the 24th of the following Nov. authorizing the status ante bellum, as a basis of negotiation. He (i) Extract of a letter of instructions from the Secretary of Stale, totheAmerican Commissioners, dated 15th April, 1813. The article in the Treaty of 1794, which allows British traders from Canada, and th...