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
It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
Majesty, by the third article of which it is 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
54 deg. 40' 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;" and by 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 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." The reasons assigned for declining to renew
the provisions of this article are, briefly, that the only use made by
our citizens of the privileges it secures to them has been to supply
the Indians with spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that
this traffic has been excluded from the Russian trade; and as the
supplies furnished from the United States are injurious to the Russian
establishments on the northwest coast and calculated to produce
complaints between the two Governments, His Imperial Majesty thinks
it for the interest of both countries not to accede to the proposition
made by the American Government for the renewal of the article last
referred to.
The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds
upon which we contend that the citizens of the United States have,
independent of the provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to
trade with the natives upon the coast in question at unoccupied places,
liable, however, it is admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the
creation of Russian establishments at such points. This right is denied
by the Russian Government, which asserts that by the operation of the
treaty of 1824 each party agreed to waive the general right to land on
the vacant coasts on the respective sides of the degree of latitude
referred to, and accepted in lieu thereof the mutual privileges
mentioned in the fourth article. The capital and tonnage employed by
our citizens in their trade with the northwest coast of America will,
perhaps, on adverting to the official statements of the commerce and
navigation of the United States for the last few years, be deemed too
inconsiderable in amount to attract much attention; yet the subject
may in other respects deserve the careful consideration of Congress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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