Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1870-12-08

of the United States to Canada: and
further, should such al extreme
measure become necessary, to sus-
pend the operations of any laws
whereby the vessels of the Domin-
ion of Canada are permitted to en-
ter the waters of the United States.
FREE NAVIGATION OF THE ST. LAW
RERcE.
A like unfriendly disposition has
been manifested on the part of Can
ada in the maintenance of q claim
of the right to exclude the citizens
of the United States from the navi-
cation of the st. Lawrence. The
river constitutes natural highway
to the ocean. With an aggregate
population of about 17,6OO,OO0 in
habitants,and with an aggregate ton
mage of 661. 1867 tons upon the waters
which discharge into it, the foreign
commerce of our ports on these
waters is open to British competi-
ton, and the major part of it done
in British bottoms. If the Ameri-
can seamcn be excluded from this
natural avenue to the ocean the mo-
nopoly of the direct commerce of
the lake ports with the Atlantic
would be in foreign hands, their YES
sells on transatlantic voyages hav-
ing an access to our lake ports,
which would be denied to American
vessels on similar voyages. To
state such proposition is to refute
Its justice. During the admins
tration of Mr.. John Quincy Adams,
Mr.. Clay unquestionably demon
strates the natural right of the citi-
zens of the United States to the
navigation of this river, claiming
that the act of the Congress of vi
emma, in opening the Rhine and
other rivers to all nations, showed
the judgment of European jurists
and statesmen to be that the inhab-
itants of the country through which
a navigable river passes have a nat
ural right to enjoy the navigation of
that river to and into the sea, even
though passing through the territory
of another power. This right does
not exclude the coequal right of the
sovereign possessing the territory
through which the river debouches
into the sea to make such regulations
relative to the policy of the naviga-
tion as may be reasonably necessary;
but those regulations should be
framed in a liberal spirit of comfy,
and should not impose needless
burdens upon the commerce which
has the right of transit. 1t has been
found in practice more advantageous
to arrange these regulations by mu-
tual agreement. The United States
are ready to make any reasonable
arrangement as to the police of the
st. Lawrence, which may be suggest
ed by Great Britain. If the claim
by Mr., Clay was just when the pop
ulation of the States bordering on
the shores of the lakes was only
3,400,00 it now derives greater
force and equity from the increased
population, wealth, production and
tonnage of the States ON the Cana
dian frontier. Since Mr.. Clay ad-
vanced his argument in behalf of
our right, the principle for which he
contended has been frequently and
by various nations recognized by
law or by treaty, has been extended
to several other great rivers. By the
treaty concluded at Mayence in 1881
the Rhine was declared free from the
point where it it is first navigable
into the sea. By the convention be-
tween Spain and Portugal, conclu-
ded in 1885, the navigation of the
Douro throughout its whole extent
was made free for the subjects of
both crowns. In 1853, the Argen-
tine Confederation, by treaty, threw
open the free navigation of the Par
ana and Uruguay to the merchant
vessels of all nations. In 1856, the
Crimean war was closed by a treaty
which provided for the free naviga-
ton of the Danube. In 1858 Holi-
via, by treaty, declared that it re-
garded the rivers Amazon and La
Plata, in accordance with fixed prin-
ciples of national law, as highway or
channels opened by nature for the
commerce of all nations. In 1859
the Paraguay was made free by
treaty, and in December, 1866, the
Emperor Of Brazil, by imperial de-
cree, declared the Amazon to be
open to all the frontier of Brazil to
the merchant ships of all nations.
The greatest living British authority
on the subject, while asserting the
abstract right of the British claims,
say: at seems difficult to deny that
Great Britain may ground her refu-
sal upon strict law, but it is equally
difficult to deny, first, that in so
doing she exercises harshly an ex-
treme and hard law; secondly, that
her conduct with respect to the nav
igation of the St. Lawrence is in
glaring and discreditable inconsis-
tency with her conduct with respect
to the navigation of the Mississippi.
On the ground that she possessed
small domain in which the Missis-
sippi took its rise, she insisted on
this right to navigate the entire vol
ume of its waters, on the ground
that she possessed both banks of
the St. Lawrence, where it disem-
bogues into the sea, she denies the
United States the right OF naviga-
tion, though about one-half of the
the waters of Lakes Ontario, Erie,
Huron and Superior and the whole
of Lake Michigan, through which
the river flows, are the property of
the United States" The whole ma
tion is interested in securing cheap
transportation from the agricultural
States of the West to the Atlantic
seaboard, To the citizens of those
States it secures greater return for
their labor, to the inhabitants of
seaboard; it offers cheaper food, to
the nation an increase in the annual
of wealth. 1t is hoped that
the Government of Great Britain
will see the justice of abandoning
the narrow and inconsistent claim to
which her Canadian provinces have
urged her adherence.
OUR DEPRESSED COMMERCE.