No. 72.
Captain Prevost finally proposed such a compromise as would throw within
the territory of the United States all the islands but *San Juan, the
largest and most valuable of the group. Being fully satisfied, from my
own observation, that the Canal de Haro is the main channel, and
consequently “the channel” intended by the treaty, and being supported
in this opinion by indisputable contemporaneous evidence of the highest
official character, I declined to accede to any compromise.[110]Lucid statement of Mr.
Campbell on the channel of the treaty.
U. S. Northwest
Boundary Commission Camp, Simiahmoo, Forty-ninth Parallel, September 25,
1858.
Practically it can make no difference whether the main channel be
adopted as “the channel” intended by the
treaty upon the “generally admitted principle” recognized by Mr.
Crampton, and assented to by Her Majesty’s government in 1848, or
whether the Canal de Haro be adopted on the proof of contemporaneous
evidence that it was proposed by the British government, and in good
faith accepted by the United States as the boundary channel. In
either case the Canal de Haro would be the boundary channel. In
advocating it with Captain Prevost, I did not confine myself singly
to either of these sufficient grounds, but maintained both, with
others equally forcible and tenable.
Under the mere letter of the treaty, without any knowledge of, or
reference to, the motives which induced the adoption of the water
boundary, “the channel which separates the continent from
Vancouver’s Island” may fairly be construed as follows:
1. As “the channel,” that is, the main channel, if there be more than one. And
this is the view taken by nautical men generally, including officers
of our navy whom I have consulted in reference to the language of
the treaty.
2. The channel nearest to Vancouver’s Island,
without regard to its size, so that it is navigable; the proviso to
the first article requiring that the navigation of said channel shall be free and open to both
parties. If it had been intended to mean any other channel than that
nearest Vancouver’s Island, that island need not to have been
mentioned at all, or, if referred to, “the channel which separates
the continent from the archipelago east of Vancouver’s Island,” or
“the channel nearest the continent,” would have been the proper
description of the channel now claimed by the British commissioner
under “the peculiarly precise and clear” language of the treaty.
3. Upon the international ground that islands are natural append ages
to the continent, and that, unless otherwise agreed, all *the islands between the continent and
Vancouver’s Island east of the nearest navigable channel to
Vancouver’s Island pertain to the continent.[111]
The Canal de Haro would be the channel under either of the above
legitimate readings of the treaty.
But leaving the mere letter of the treaty, and referring to the
history of the negotiation to ascertain the cause which prevented
the United States and the British government from agreeing upon the
prolongation
[Page 184]
of the
forty-ninth parallel to the ocean, it will be found that the
southern end of Vancouver’s Island was alone the stumbling-block.
The British government refused to concede it to the United States,
four-fifths of the island being north of the forty-ninth parallel;
and the southern end, with its harbors, being the most valuable
portion. The United States, considering the disadvantages of a
divided jurisdiction of the island, and the probabilities of
difficulties arising therefrom, reluctantly yielded it. This was the
sole object in deviating from the forty-ninth parallel, and reduces
the water boundary to a very simple question. It was a second
compromise line. Divested of all quibbles, the meaning of the treaty
is that the forty-ninth parallel shall be the dividing line between
the territories of the United States and the British possessions
until it reaches “the middle” of the nearest natural boundary to Vancouver’s Island; and thence the line shall
be run to the ocean by the nearest natural boundary, in such a
direction as will give the whole of Vancouver’s Island to that power
upon whose side the greatest portion would fall by the prolongation
of the parallel to the ocean.
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, Commissioner
Northwestern Boundary Survey.
Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State.
