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cessary, and shall in no case compel or require such vessel to send her boat, or her papers, or any person from on board to the belligerent vessel; but the belligerent vessel may send her own boat to the other, and may enter her, to the number of two or three men only, who may in an orderly manner examine the same; and it is agreed that effectual provision shall be made for preventing violations of any part of this article.

4. In order to determine what characterizes a blockaded port, that denomination is given only to a port where there is, by the dispositions of the power which attacks it with ships stationary or sufficiently. near, an evident danger in entering.

5. It is agreed, that no vessel sailing from the ports of either party shall, although cleared and bound to a blockaded port, be considered as violating in any manner the blockade, unless in her approach towards such port she shall have been previously warned against entering the

same.

6. It is agreed, that no refuge or protection shall be afforded by either party to the mariners, sailors, or other persons, not found to be its own citizens or subjects, who shall desert from a vessel of the other party, of the crew whereof the deserter made a part; but on the contrary all such deserters shall be delivered up on demand to the commanders of the vessels from which they shall have deserted, or to the commanding officers of the ships of war of the respective nations, or to such other persons as may be duly authorized to make requisition in that behalf, provided that proof be made, within two years from the time of desertion, by an exhibition of the ship's papers, or authenticated copies thereof, and by satisfactory evidence of the identity of the person, that the deserters so demanded, were actually part of the crew of the vessels in question.

And for the more effectual execution of this article, adequate provision shall be made for causing to be arrested, on the application of the respective consuls, or vice-consuls, to the competent authorities, all deserters duly proved to be such, in order that they may be sent back to the commanders of the vessels to which they belonged, or removed out of the country, at the request and expense of the said consuls, or vice-consuls, until they shall have

found an opportunity of sending them back, or removing them as aforesaid. But if they be not so sent back or removed, within three months from the day of their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and shall not again be arrested for the same cause.

7. This convention shall be in force for the term of five years from the date of the exchange of ratifications. It shall be ratified on both sides within three months from the date of its signature, or sooner, if possible, and the ratifications exchanged without delay in the United States, at the city of Washington.

"Paper respecting the Boundary of the United States, delivered to Lord Harrowby, Sept. 5, 1804.

By the 10th article of the treaty of Utrecht it is agreed, "that France shall restore to Great Britain the bay and straits of Hudson, together with all lands, seas, sea coasts, rivers, and places situate in the said bay and straits which belong thereunto, &c."

It is also agreed, "that commissaries shall be forthwith appointed by each power to determine, within a year, the limits between the said bay of Hudson and the places appertaining to the French; and also to describe and settle, in like manner, the boundaries between the other British and French colonies in those parts."

Commissaries were accordingly appointed by each power, who executed the stipulations of the treaty in establishing the boundaries proposed by it. They fixed the northern boundary of Canada and Louisiana by a line beginning on the Atlantick, at a cape or promontory in 58 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, thence south-westerly to the lake Mistasin, thence further south-west to the latitude 49 degrees north from the equator, and along that line indefinitely.

At the time this treaty was formed, France possessed Canada and Louisiana, which she connected by a chain of forts extended from the mouth of the Mississippi, on all its waters, and on the lakes, along the St. Lawrence to Montreal. Her encroachments eastward on the territory of the present United States, then British provinces, extended to the foot of the Alleghany mountain. It is well

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known that on the Ohio, at a point formed by the con fluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela branches, below which the stream takes the name of Ohio, that the French had built a fort which was called Duquesne: a fort which has been better known since by the name of Pittsburg. The adjustment of the boundary of the territory between the two powers in this quarter was the result of another war and another treaty.

By the 4th article of the treaty of 1763, France ceded to Great Britain, Canada, Nova Scotia, &c. in the north, and by the 7th article the bay and port of Mobile, and all the territory which she possessed to the left of the Mississippi, except the town and island of New Orleans.

By the 7th article it was also stipulated, that a line to be drawn along the middle of the Mississippi from its source to the river Iberville, and thence along the middle of that river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea, should be the boundary between the British territory to the eastward and Louisiana to the west. that time it was understood, as it has been ever since, till very lately, that the Mississippi took its source in some mountain, at least as high north as the 49th degree of north latitude.

At

By the treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain, the boundary between those states and Nova Scotia and Canada is fixed by a line which is to run along the St. Croix and Highlands, bounding the southern waters of the St. Lawrence, the 45th degree of latitude to the water communication between the lakes, and along that communication to the Lake of the Woods, and through that lake to the north-western point thereof, thence a due west course to the Mississippi. The line follows afterwards the course of the Mississippi to the 31st degree of north latitude.

By Mitchell's map, by which the treaty of 1783 was formed, it was evident that the north-western point of the Lake of the Woods was at least as high north as the latitude 49. By the observations of Mr. Thompson, astronomer to the North Western company, it appears to be in latitude 49 degrees 37 minutes. By joining then the western boundary of Canada to its northern in the Lake of the Woods, and closing both there, it follows that it was the obvious intention of the ministers who negotiated the trea

ty, and of their respective governments, that the United States should possess all the territory lying between the lakes and the Mississippi, south of the parallel of the 49th degree of north latitude. This is confirmed by the courses which are afterwards pursued by the treaty, since they are precisely those which had been established between Great Britain and France in former treaties. By running due west from the north-western point of the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi it must have been intended, according to the lights before them, to take the parallel of the 49th degree of latitude, as established under the treaty of Utrecht; and by pursuing thence the course of the Mississippi to the 31st degree of latitude, the whole extent of the western boundary of the United States, the boundary which had been established by the treaty of 1763, was actually adopted. This conclusion is further supported by the liberal spirit which terminated the war of our revolution, it having been manifestly the intention of the parties to heal, as far as could be done, the wounds which it had inflicted. Nor is it essentially weakened by the circumstance, that the Mississippi is called for by the western course from the Lake of the Woods, or that its navigation is stipulated in favour of both powers. Westward of the Mississippi, to the south of the 49th degree of north latitude, Great Britain held then no territory. That river was her western boundary. In running west, and ceding the territory to the river, it was impossible not to call for it; and on the supposition that it took its source within the limits. of the Hudson Bay company, it was natural that it should stipulate the free navigation of the river. But in so doing it is presumed that her government respected more a delicate sense of what it might be supposed to owe to the interest of that company, than any strong motive of policy, founded on the interests of Canada, or its other possessions in that quarter. As Great Britain ceded at the same time the Floridas to Spain, the navigation of the Mississippi by her subjects, if it took place, being under a foreign jurisdiction, could not fail to draw from her own territories. the resources which properly belonged to them, and therefore could not be viewed in the light of a national advantage.

After the treaty of 1783, and at the time the convenfion in contemplation was entered into, the state of things

was as is above stated. The territory, which Great Britain held westward of the Lake of the Woods, was bounded south by the 49th degree of north latitude; that which lay between the Lake of the Woods and the Mississippi southward of that parallel, belonged to the United States; and that which lay to the west of the Mississippi, to Spain. It being, however, understood by more recent discoveries or observations, that the source of the Mississippi did not extend so high north as had been supposed, and Great Britain having shown a desire to have the boundary of the United States modified in such a manner as to strike that river, an article to that effect was inserted in the late convention. But in so doing, it was not the intention of the American minister, or of the British minister, to do more than simply to define the American boundary. It was not contemplated by either of them, that America should convey to Great Britain any right to the territory lying westward of that line, since not a foot of it belonged to her. It was intended to leave it to Great Britain to settle the point as to such territory, or such portion of it as she might want, with Spain, or rather with France, to whom it then belonged. At this period, however, certain measures respecting the Mississippi and movements in that quarter took place, which seemed to menace the great interests of America, that were dependent on that river. These excited a sensibility, acute and universal; of which in equal degree her history furnishes but few examples. They led to a discussion which terminated in a treaty with France, by which that power ceded to the United States the whole of Louisi ana, as she had received it of Spain. This treaty took place on the 30th of April, 1803, twelve days only before the convention between Great Britain and the United States was signed, and some days before the adoption of such a treaty was known to the plenipotentiaries who negotiated and signed the convention.

Under such circumstances it is impossible that any right, which the United States derived under that treaty, could be conveyed by this convention to Great Britain, or that the ministers who formed the convention could have contemplated such an effect by it. Thus the stipulation which is contained in the 5th article of the convention has become, by the cession made by the treaty, perfectly nugatory; for as Great Britain helds no territory southward

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