Daily American telegraph., 1852-08-19
AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.
THE FISHERIES.
SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
august IA, 1852.
THE FIsHERIEs.

MT. PRESIDENT: when this debate was ar-
rested on Thursday last question had just
arisen whether the Executive administration
had been censured here for its conduct in re-
gard to this subject.
The honorable Senator from Virginia, Mr..
MASON Chairman of the Committee on For
eign Relations, when addressing the Senate
that if the President had done his
duty, the whole naval force of the country had
been already sent into the Northeastern seas to
protect the rights of American fishermen
against British cannon. The honorable Sena-
tor from Maine, Mr.. HAMLIN.l the honorable
and distinguished Senator from Michigan, Mr..
CAss, and the honorable Senator from Arkan-
sas MIR. BoRLANp] declared that they fully
concurred in all that had been said by the
honorable Senator from Virginia.
Now, it is quite certain that the whole naval
force of the country has not even yet been sent
into those seas, and suppose it equally certain
that at that time none had been sent there
The honorable Senator from Arkansas [Mr.
BoRLANDl expressed astonishment and regret
that the President had not, without CALL sent
here all the information which he possessed.
He complained that the Secretary of State had
Created the subject wrongly in what has been
called his proclamation that it least doubts
on the right of the fishermen" Abiding to
rumored negotiation at Mr.. Webster's country
residence, he declared his opinion that the
place was ill-chosen, and indeed that negotia-
tion there, or even here under the circumstan-
ces ought to be reprobated altogether. The
honorable Senator from Connecticut Mr.. ToU-
cEY asked what was the meaning of the notice
published by the Secretary Of State. Was it
designed to induce our fishermen to retire
from their pursuits-to invite us to surrender
Al Il - L., IL r
1818l The honorable Senator was pleased to
express his sorrow that he could not have con-
fdence in the administration, and also an opinion
that it needed to be prompted. The honorable
and esteemed Senator from Louisiana Mr..
SoULEl was more cautious; but even he COM
planned that some of our rights in the fisheries
had brutally been torn away" @in the midst
of the most profound peace" and "when Eng
land was necessarily receiving most profuse
tokens and manifestations of condescension, and
was allowed to turn to her own advantage and
profit the good will INDUCED towards us by
Nicaragua, and had been allowed to introduce
her bankers into our Treasury, us agents in the
payment of our debt to Mexico. These" said
the Senator, 'I repeat it again, are strange
times indeed" Again that Senator argued,
that Mr.. Webster had erred when he said in
the notice published by him, that it was an
oversight in the American Government to have
made so large a concession to Great Britain in
the convention of 1882 Further the honora-
BILE Senator said:
Eve may, for aught We know, have negotiated
away by treaty branch of our revenue, with the
hope that would silence tho roaring lion but the
lion still roars it scems and will until no fright
ons out of those bounds tho participation in which
acquired by original occupation if not otherwise
which we retained as constitutive element of our
separate existence a nation; which war itself
could not wrest from us; which we hold under no
grace or favor of any onc but under the sufcrance
Of God alone and under tho highest sanctions OF tho
laws of nations; for, in tho language of the now re-
doomed negotiators who signed tho convention OF
1875 ours is right which cannot exclusively belong
to be granted by any nation Sir, ask it OF you,
would that be attitude becoming this grcat coun-
try2 But believe not in these rumors; it cannot
have escaped that wise and clcar-sghted person who
now holds tho seals of the State, and whose great
mind and exalted patriotism equal to any ener-
gcncios that to negotiate under such circumstances,
and sign treaty, whatever its merits in other re-
spocs be- to sink in the dust what OF pride what
of dignity what of honor, we heyp grown to in the
rSbid race which we had been running since wo be.
came a nation"
disclaim the idea, that these structures i'm
pute want of patriotism or of fidelity to the
administration but, when taken together with
the facts which they assume, they seem to me
to import a censure of this effect and extent,
viz: that her Britannia Msjesty's Government
has recently set up a new construction OF the
convention ISIS, by which it proposes now to
draw lines from chief headland to chief head
land, and thus to exclude American fishermen
from the Bays of Fundy, Chaleur, and Mirima-
chi, and also from the Straits of Northumber-
land and the Gut of Canso, all of which have
hitherto been enjoyed by our fishermen; and
that her Britannia Majesty's Government has
sent large naval force into those waters to
enforce that new construction, and has 80 at
tempted to bring us to negotiate for maintain
ing national rights at the cannon's mouth.
That the Executive has not acted with sufficient
promptness and decision, has not properly re-
sented an insult and an indignity received, and
has already negotiated, or may be negotiating,
or about to negotiate in the presence of that
naval force, in derogation of the interest or
dignity or honor of the United States, and that
Great Britain has been emboldened and rem.
dered thus insolent by previous diplomatic
triumphs over the present administration.
Sir, take leave to say that there is pre-
sumption, violent presumption, against the
soundness and the justness OF oil such censures.
There is no want of frmness or of boldness in
asserting American rights here or in the House
of Representatives. Experience has shown,
that the Executive department has generally
been quite as firm and as bold as Congress.
Sir, the Fisheries are commercial interest.
By peculiar fidelity in guarding such interests,
this administration has deservedly gained the
confidence of the commercial classes, the con-
servative classes of the country. The fisheries
are practically and peculiarly Northern inter-
est. In the geographical balance they were once
weighed against the free navigation of the
Mississippi. The President of the United States
and the Secretary of State are Northern men
Each began, and, when he shall have closed his
public career, each will rest in the association,
of the North.