Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
After unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through a Joint
High Commission, followed by prolonged negotiations, conducted in an
amicable spirit, a convention between the United States and Great
Britain was signed, January 24, 1903, providing for an examination
of the subject by a mixed tribunal of six members, three on a side,
with a view to its final disposition. Ratifications were exchanged on
March 3 last, whereupon the two governments appointed their respective
members. Those on behalf of the United States were Elihu Root,
Secretary of War; Henry Cabot Lodge, a Senator of the United States,
and George Turner, an ex-Senator of the United States, while Great
Britain named the Right Honorable Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice
of England; Sir Louis Amable Jetté, K.C.M.G., retired judge of the
Supreme Court of Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, K.C., of Toronto. This
Tribunal met in London on September 3, under the Presidency of Lord
Alverstone. The proceedings were expeditious, and marked by a friendly
and conscientious spirit. The respective cases, counter cases, and
arguments presented the issues clearly and fully. On the 20th of
October a majority of the Tribunal reached and signed an agreement on
all the questions submitted by the terms of the Convention. By this
award the right of the United States to the control of a continuous
strip or border of the mainland shore, skirting all the tide-water
inlets and sinuosities of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance to
Portland Canal (concerning which legitimate doubt appeared) is defined
as passing by Tongass Inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and
Pearse Islands; a line is drawn from the head of Portland Canal to
the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude; and the interior border
line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain
summits lying between Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias, and running
along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the
inland watershed at the only part of the frontier where the drainage
ridge approaches the coast within the distance of ten marine leagues
stipulated by the treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the
heads of Lynn Canal and its branches.
While the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878
at the crossing of the Stikine River, and that of 1899 at the summits
of the White and Chilkoot passes, it runs much further inland from
the Klehini than the temporary line of the later _modus vivendi_, and
leaves the entire mining district of the Porcupine River and Glacier
Creek within the jurisdiction of the United States.
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