A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 3, part 2: Martin Van Buren
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 3, part 2: Martin Van Buren
Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government; Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862
The passage from the award of the arbiter quoted by the undersigned
in his note of the 28th April, 1835, to Sir Charles Vaughan, and the
true meaning of which Mr. Fox supposes to have been misconceived, is
the following: "If in contradistinction to the rivers that empty
themselves into the river St. Lawrence it had been proper, agreeably
to the language ordinarily used in geography, to comprehend the rivers
falling into the bays Fundy and Des Chaleurs with those emptying
themselves directly into the Atlantic Ocean in the generical
denomination of rivers falling into the Atlantic Ocean it would be
hazardous to include into the species belonging to that class the rivers
St. John and Restigouche, which the line claimed at the north of the
river St. John divides _immediately_ from rivers emptying themselves
into the river St. Lawrence, not with other rivers falling into the
Atlantic Ocean, but _alone_, and thus to apply in interpreting the
delimitation established by a treaty, where each word must have a
meaning, to two exclusively special cases, and where no mention is made
of the genus (_genre_), a generical expression which would ascribe to
them a broader meaning," etc.
It was observed by the undersigned that this passage did not appear to
contain an expression of opinion by the arbiter that the rivers St. John
and Restigouche should be altogether excluded in determining the
question of disputed boundary, or, in other words, that they could not
be looked upon as "rivers emptying into the Atlantic." Mr. Fox alleges
this to be a misconception of the meaning of the arbiter, and supposes
it to have arisen from an erroneous apprehension by the undersigned that
the word "_alone_" is governed by the verb "_include_," whereas he
thinks that an attentive examination of the context will shew that the
word "_alone_" is governed by the verb "_divide,_" and that the real
meaning of the passage is this: "That the rivers flowing north and south
from the highlands claimed by the United States may be arranged in two
genera, the first genus comprehending the rivers which fall into the
St. Lawrence, the second genus comprehending those whose waters in some
manner or other find their way into the Atlantic; but that even if,
according to the general classification and in contradistinction from
rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence, the rivers which fall into the
bays of Chaleurs and Fundy might be comprised in the same genus with the
rivers which fall directly into the Atlantic, still the St. John and the
Restigouche form a distinct species by themselves and do not belong to
the species of rivers which fall _directly_ into the Atlantic, for the
St. John and Restigouche are not divided in company with any _such
last-mentioned rivers_." The undersigned considers it unnecessary
to enter into the question whether according to the context the
circumstance expressed by the adverb "alone" has reference to the verb
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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