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ment issued a proclamation stating that the commander of the Lexington had invaded the islands, destroying public property, and assaulted the colonists, some of whom had been driven or torn from their homes or deluded by deceitful artifices, and been brought away and cast upon the shores of Uruguay. It was declared that an appeal would be made to the Government at Washington. (Id. 326.) February 15, 1832, Mr. Slacum enclosed to the Government of Buenos Ayres a letter from Captain Duncan, dated off Montevideo, February 11, 1832, stating that he would deliver up or liberate the prisoners then on board the Lexington on an assurance from the Government that they had acted by its authority. Mr. Garcia immediately replied that Vernet was appointed military and political governor under the decree of June 10, 1829, and that he and those serving under him consequently could be answerable only to their own authorities. (20 Br. & For. State Papers, 328.)

June 20, 1832, Mr. Baylies, the new United States chargé d'affaires, having reached his post, addressed a note to Mr. Maza, then minister of foreign affairs, with reference to the seizure of the Harriet Superior, and Breakwater, and the imprisonment of their crews, and to the imprisonment of the crew of the American schooner Belville, wrecked on the coast of Tierra del Fuego. He complained that Vernet had seized a large number of seal skins and a quantity of whalebone, and obliged the American crews by threats to sign certain agreements; that Vernet had discriminated against American vessels, since he had not interfered with a British sealer, declaring that he could not take an English vessel with the same propriety as he could an American. Mr. Baylies further stated that he was instructed to say that the United States utterly denied the existence of any right on the part of Buenos Ayres to interfere with vessels or citizens of the United States "engaged in taking seals, or whales, or any species of fish or marine animals in any of the waters or on any shore or lands of any or either of the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego, Cape Horn, or any of the adjacent islands in the Atlantic Ocean." He demanded full indemnity for what had been done. In support of this demand he addressed to the minister of foreign affairs, July 10, 1832, a long note, in which he examined the Argentine title to the islands, as well as the question of the fisheries, in the sense of his instructions. (20 Br. & For. State Papers, 330

336, 338-344, 345–346, 350–352.) August 8, 1832, Mr. Maza communicated to Mr. Baylies a long report from Vernet, defending his conduct as well as the Argentine title to the islands. The Argentine Government refused to give reparation for Vernet's acts, but on the contrary demanded reparation for the acts of Captain Duncan, and suggested the mediation or arbitration of a third power. Mr. Baylies, however, demanded his passports, which, after much insistence on his part, were at length sent to him. (20 Br. & For. State Papers, 358, 364-436.) January 24, 1833, the Government of Buenos Ayres sent to its House of Representatives a message relating to the occupation of the Falkland Islands by Great Britain. The act of taking possession was performed by Captain Onslow, of the British ship of war Clio, January 3, 1833. (20 Br. & For. State Papers, 1194-1199.)

June 17, 1833, Mr. Moreno, minister of Buenos Ayres at London, addressed to Lord Palmerston a long protest, giving a full exposition of

the Argentine claim of title. Lord Palmerston's answer was made January 8, 1834. It maintained that Great Britain had unequivocally asserted her sovereignty in the discussions with Spain in 1770 and 1771, which ended in Spain's restoring the islands. (22 Br. & For. State Papers, 1366-1394.)

"The right of the Argentine Government to jurisdiction over it [the territory of the Falkland Islands], being contested by another power [Great Britain], and upon grounds of claim long antecedent to the acts of Captain Duncan which General Alvear details, it is conceived that the United States ought not, until the controversy upon the subject between those two Governments shall be settled, to give a final answer to General Alvear's note, involving, as that answer must, under existing circumstances, a departure from that which has hitherto been considered as the cardinal policy of this Government."

Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to General Alvear, Dec. 4, 1841, quoted by Mr.
Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Quesada, Mar. 18, 1886, MS. Notes to
Arg. Rep. VI. 257.

In May, 1853, the British Government gave notice to the United States of an intention to send a force to the Falkland Islands, for the purpose of preventing the killing of wild cattle as well as other depredations there by persons landing from vessels of the United States; and a warning was issued by the Department of State to the masters of vessels and other citizens of the United States resorting to that quarter. In February, 1854, the American whaling ship Hudson and her tender, the schooner Washington, while lying at New Island, one of the Falkland group, were arrested on a charge of taking some pigs from one of the islands and were taken to Port Stanley, where they were restored, but not till it was too late to complete the season's voyage. Complaint was made to the British Government of this proceeding as unjustified by the circumstances, it being alleged that the crews of the vessels had killed only a few wild pigs, the progeny of hogs left by them on an uninhabited island for the purpose of breeding and furnishing food in future voyages. In a note to the British minister at Washington of July 1, 1854, Mr. Marcy, who was then Secretary of State, remarked that the warning issued by the Department of State "said nothing about the sovereignty" of the islands, and that "while it claimed no rights for the United States, it conceded none to Great Britain or any other power;" but that, "should the fact, however, be admitted that these islands were British territory," the treatment of the American ships must be considered as exceedingly hard. Mr. Marcy added: "A still graver matter of complaint is the pretension set up by these authorities to exclude our citizens from fishing and taking whale in the waters about these

islands. This right they have long enjoyed without its being questioned."

The British Government disavowed the action of its authorities in taking the vessels to Port Stanley, but on the other hand complained of the conduct of the commander of the U. S. S. Germantown, who was present in the islands when the incident occurred. With regard to the question of jurisdiction, Lord Clarendon expressed surprise that Mr. Marcy "should appear to call in question the right of Great Britain to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands," and added: "Her Majesty's Government will not discuss that right with another power, but will continue to exercise, in and around the islands of the Falkland group, the right inherent under the law of nations in the territorial sovereign, and will hold themselves entitled, if they think fit, to prevent foreigners, to whatever nation belonging, from fishing for whale and seal within three marine miles of the coast, or from landing on any part of the shores of the Falkland Islands for the purpose of fishing or killing seals. Furthermore, and to prevent all possibility of mistake, Her Majesty's Government declare that they will not allow the wild cattle on the Falkland Islands to be destroyed, or other depredations to be committed on the islands by any foreigners, to whatever nation they may belong, and that all persons committing any such spoliations on the islands will be proceeded against under the enactments of the colonial laws."

Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Crampton, British min., July 1, 1854, and
Lord Clarendon, foreign sec., to Mr. Crampton, Sept. 21, 1854, S. Ex.
Doc. 19, 42 Cong. 2 sess. 4-7.

In an instruction to Mr. Buchanan, then minister to England, of Septem
ber 27, 1854, Mr. Marcy directed that a claim for indemnity be pre-
sented to the British Government. It appears, however, that the
claim was not presented, owing to the receipt by Mr. Buchanan of a
letter from Mr. Marcy, of Oct. 8, 1854, which was unofficial and does
not appear on the records of the Department of State. This letter
was written by Mr. Marcy in consequence of the receipt by him of
Lord Clarendon's dispatch to Mr. Crampton of Sept. 21, 1854, after
the sending to Mr. Buchanan of the instructions of the 27th of that
month. (S. Ex. Doc. 19, 42 Cong. 2 sess. 12.)

"This Government is not a party to the controversy between the Argentine Republic and Great Britain; and it is for this reason that it has delayed, with the tacit consent of the former, a final answer to its demands. For it is conceived that the question of the liability of the United States to the Argentine Republic for the acts of Captain Duncan, in 1831, is so closely related to the question of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, that the decision of the former would inevitably be interpreted as an expression of opinion on the merits of the latter. Such an expression it is the desire of this Government to avoid, so far as an adequate reference to the points of

argument presented in the notes recently addressed to this Department on behalf of your Government will permit. . . .

"As the resumption of actual occupation of the Falkland Islands by Great Britain in 1833 took place under a claim of title which had been previously asserted and maintained by that Government, it is not seen that the Monroe doctrine, which has been invoked on the part of the Argentine Republic, has any application to the case. By the terms in which that principle of international conduct was announced, it was expressly excluded from retroactive operation.

"If the circumstances had been different, and the acts of the British Government had been in violation of that doctrine, this Government could never regard its failure to assert it as creating any liability to another power for injuries it may have sustained in consequence of the omission. . .

"But it is believed that, even if it could be shown that the Argentine Republic possesses the rightful title to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, there would not be wanting ample grounds upon which the conduct of Captain Duncan in 1831 could be defended. .

"On the whole, it is not seen that the United States committed any invasion of the just rights of the Government of Buenos Ayres in putting an end in 1831 to Vernet's lawless aggressions upon the persons and property of our citizens."

Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Quesada, Mar. 18, 1886, MS. Notes to
Arg. Rep. VI. 257.

Ukase of 1799.

3. BERING SEA.

$172.

By an imperial ukase of July 8, 1799, the Emperor Paul I. of Russia granted to the Russian-American Company its first charter, which secured to the company various rights as to hunting and trading "in the northeastern seas and along the coasts of America." a

Ukase of 1821.

By a ukase of the Emperor Alexander, of September 7, 1821, giving his sanction to certain regulations of the RussianAmerican Company, "the pursuits of commerce, whaling, and fishing, and of all other industry, on all islands, ports. and gulfs, including the whole of the northwest coast of America, beginning from Bering's Strait to the 51° of northern latitude, also from the Aleutian Islands to the eastern coast of Siberia, as well as along the Kurile Islands, from Bering's Strait to the south cape of the island of Urup, viz, to 45° 50′ northern latitude," were "exclu

a For a fuller history of the subject, see Moore, International Arbitrations, I. chap. xvii. 755 et seq.

sively granted to Russian subjects," and all foreign vessels were forbidden, except in case of distress, “not only to land on the coasts and islands belonging to Russia, as stated above, but also to approach them within less than a hundred Italian miles."

A copy of the ukase was communicated by M. Poletica, Russian minister at Washington, to Mr. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, on January 30/February 11, 1822. Mr. Adams replied on the 25th of February. He protested against the Russian claim of territory to a point so far south as the fifty-first degree of north latitude, and declared that the claim to exclude American vessels from the shore, "beyond the ordinary distance to which the territorial jurisdiction extends," had "excited still greater surprise." He therefore inquired as to the grounds of the Russian Government's action.

M. Poletica replied on the 28th of February, stating that the prohibition of foreign vessels from approaching the coast within a distance of a hundred Italian miles was a measure intended to prevent illicit trade and the supplying of the natives with arms and ammunition, and in conclusion he suggested that the possession by Russia of the territory both on the American and the Asiatic coast from Bering Strait downwards might have justified a claim of shut seas, but that the Russian Government had "preferred only asserting its essential rights, without taking any advantage of localities." a

With regard to the suggestion of mare clausum, Mr. Adams, in a note of March 30, 1822, observed that it might "suffice to say that the distance from shore to shore on this sea in latitude 51° north is not less than ninety degrees of longitude, or 4,000 miles;" and with regard to the prohibition of approach to the coasts he declared that the President was "persuaded that the citizens of this Union will remain unmolested in the prosecution of their lawful commerce, and that no effect will be given to an interdiction manifestly incompatible with their rights."

and 1825.

Great Britain, as well as the United States, protested against the ukase of 1821, and as the result of their protests Treaties of 1824 a negotiation was entered upon at St. Petersburg, which resulted, April 17, 1824, in the conclusion of a convention between the United States and Russia, whereby (Art. I.) it was agreed that, in any part of the Great Ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting parties shall be neither disturbed nor restrained, either in navigation or in fishing, or in the

As to the ukase of 1821, see Traité de Droit International, by F. de Martens, professor at the University of St. Petersburg (Paris ed. 1883), I. 500.

See, in this relation, Memoirs of J. Q. Adams, VI. 169.

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