CHAPTER XVII. FUR SEAL ARBITRATION. By an imperial ukase, or edict, of July 8, The Russian-Amer1799, Paul I. of Russia granted to the Russianican Company. American Company its first charter. By this instrument it was recited that the Emperor, in view of the "benefits and advantages" resulting to his Empire from the "hunting and trading" carried on by Russian subjects "in the northeastern seas and along the coasts of America," had taken the company, which was "organized for the above-named purpose of carrying on hunting and trading," under his immediate and "highest" protection. To this end he was to allow the commanders of his land and sea forces to employ them, if occasion should require, for the purpose of aiding the company in its enterprises, while for the further relief and assistance of the company he conceded to it the following rights and privileges: (1) To "have the use of all hunting-grounds and establishments now [then] existing on the northeastern [sic] coast of America, from the fifty-fifth degree [of north latitude] to Behring Strait, and also on the Aleutian, Kurile, and other islands situated in the Northeastern Ocean;” (2) "to make new discoveries not only north of the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude, but farther to the south, and to occupy the new lands discovered, as Russian possessions,” if they were not previously occupied by or dependent upon another nation; (3) to use and profit by everything which has been or shall be discovered in those localities, on the surface and in the interior of the earth, without competition from others;" (4) to "establish settlements in future times, and fortify them to insure the safety of the inhabitants, and to send ships to those shores with goods and hunters, without any obstacle on the part of the government;" (5) "to extend their navigation to all adjoining nations and hold business intercourse with all surrounding powers, ;" (6) to 66 "employ" persons for the purposes of "navigation, hunting, and all other business;" (7) to cut timber "for repairs, and occasionally for the construction of new ships;" (8) to buy, at cost price, from the government powder and lead "for shooting animals, for marine signals, and in all unexpected emergencies on the mainland of America, and on the islands;" (9) to enjoy, as to its property, an exemption from seizure for the individual debts of members of the company; (10) to possess "the exclusive right" to "use and enjoy, in the above described extent of country and islands, all profits and advantages derived from hunting, trade, industries, and discovery of new lands;" (11) to have "full control over all abovementioned localities, and exercise judicial powers in minor cases," and "to use all local facilities for fortifications in the defense of the country under their control against foreign attacks." Ukase of 1821. On September 7, 1821, the Emperor Alexander of Russia issued a ukase, by which he gave his sanction to certain regulations adopted by the Russian-American Company respecting foreign commerce in the waters bordering on its establishments. By these regulations "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 Behring's Strait to the fifty-first degree of northern latitude, also from the Aleutian islands to the eastern coast of Siberia, as well as along the Kurile islands from Behring's Strait to the south cape of the island of Urup, viz., to 45° 50' northern latitude," were "exclusively 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." Protest of the United A printed copy of this ukase and of the regulations was communicated by M. Poletica, States. the Russian minister at Washington, to John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, on January 30, [February 11, 1822. Mr. Adams replied on the 25th of February. At this time the United States, Great Britain, and Russia were competing claimants to territory on the northwest coast of America. In his reply Mr. Adams said he was directed to state that the President had "seen with surprise, in this edict, the assertion of a territorial claim on the part of Russia, extending to the fifty-first degree of north latitude on this continent, and a regulation interdicting to all commercial vessels other than Russian, upon the penalty of seizure and confiscation, the approach upon the high seas within one hundred Italian miles of the shores to which that claim is made to apply." Continuing, Mr. Adams said: "The relations of the United States with his Imperial Majesty have always been of the most friendly character; and it is the earnest desire of this Government to preserve them in that state. It was expected, before any act which should define the boundary between the territories of the United States and Russia on this continent, that the same would have been arranged by treaty between the parties. To exclude the vessels of our citizens from the shore, beyond the ordinary distance to which the territorial jurisdiction extends, has excited still greater surprise. This ordinance affects so deeply the rights of the United States and of their citizens, that I am instructed to inquire whether you are authorized to give explanations of the grounds of right, upon principles generally recognized by the laws and usages of nations, which can warrant the claims and regulations contained in it." On the 28th of February M. Poletica responded. After reviewing the historical incidents which seemed to him to establish the title of Russia to the territories which she claimed, he said that the prohibition of foreign vessels from approaching the northwest coast of North America belonging to Russia within the distance of a hundred Italian miles was a measure of prevention, "exclusively directed against the culpable enterprises of foreign adventurers, who, not content with exercising upon the coasts above mentioned an illicit trade very prejudicial to the rights reserved entirely to the Russian-American Company, take upon them besides to furnish arms and ammunition to the natives in the Russian possessions in America, exciting them likewise in every manner to resist and revolt against the authorities there established." The majority of the adventurers engaged in these enterprises were, said M. Poletica, Americans, against whose conduct the Imperial government had remonstrated to the United States in vain; and in conclusion he observed: "I ought, in the last place, to request you to consider, sir, that the Russian possessions in the Pacific Ocean extend, on the northwest coast of America, from Behring's Strait to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, and on the opposite side of Asia, and the islands adjacent, from the same strait to the forty-fifth degree. The extent of sea, of which these possessions form the limits, comprehends all the conditions which are ordinarily attached to shut seas (mers fermées), and the Russian Government might consequently judge itself authorized to exercise upon this sea the right of sovereignty, and especially that of entirely interdicting the entrance of foreigners. But it preferred only asserting its essential rights, without taking any advantage of localities."1 Mr. Adams, in answer to this note, on the 30th of March 1822, told M. Poletica that the ukase in question had for the first time extended the claim of Russia on the northwest coast of America to the fifty-first degree of north latitude; that the only foundation of this claim appeared to be the existence of the small settlement of Novo Arkhanghelsk, situated, not on the American continent, but on a small island in latitude 57°, and that the principle on which the claim was extended appeared to be that the fifty-first degree was equidistant from the settlement of Novo Arkhanghelsk and the establishment of the United States at the mouth of the Columbia River. But it also appeared, said Mr. Adams, by M. Poletica's statement, "that, in the year 1799, the limits prescribed by the Emperor Paul to the Russian-American Company were fixed at the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, and that, in assuming now the latitude 51°, a new pretension is asserted, to which no settlement made since the year 1799 has given the color of a sanction. This pretension," continued Mr. Adams, "is to be considered not only with reference to the question of territorial right, but also to the prohibition of the vessels of other nations, including those of the United States, to approach within one hundred Italian miles of the coasts. From the period of the existence of the United States as an independent nation, their vessels have freely navigated those seas, and the right to navigate them is a part of that independence. With regard to the suggestion that the Russian Government might have justified the exercise of sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as a close sea because it claims territory both on its American and Asiatic shores, it may 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 four thousand miles. As little can the United States accede to the justice of the reason assigned for the prohibition above mentioned. The right of the United States to hold commerce with the aboriginal natives of the northwest coast of America, without the territorial jurisdiction of other nations, even in arms and munitions of war, is 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, 500. |