of this principle an exclusive right of preemption is held to belong to the Nation or State owning the fee, and from the foundation of the government purchases of Indian title have been made according to this rule. Vast sums have been paid to the Indians in purchase of their imperfect possessory right to the soil of our country.

Upon general principles of natural and moral law, an organized nation, its component states and citizens own the soil and jurisdiction of the entire territory, and no foreign nation can rightfully colonize any portion of it. President Adams, in 1826, in the instructions given by Henry Clay, his able Secretary of State, to the American Ministers to the Congress of Ministers of American Republics at Panama, thus lays down the doctrine of our Republic on this subject: "In December, 1823, the then President of the United States, in his annual message, upon the opening of Congress, announced, as the principle applicable to this continent, what ought hereafter to be insisted upon, that no European nation ought to be allowed to plant upon it new colonies. It was not proposed, by that principle, to disturb pre-existing European colonies already established in America; the principle looked forward, not backward. Several of the new American States have given intimation of their concurrence in the principle; and it is be

lieved that it must command the assent of the impartial world."

"Whilst America was, comparatively, a boundless waste, and an almost unpeopled desert, claimed, and probably first settled with civilized men, by the European powers who discovered it, if they could agree among themselves as to the limits of their respective territories, there was no American State to oppose, or whose rights could be affected by, the establishment of new colonies."

"But now the case is entirely altered; from the northeastern limits of the United States, in North America, to Cape Horn, in South America, on the Atlantic Ocean, with one or two inconsiderable exceptions; and from the same cape to the fiftyfirst degree of north latitude, in North America, on the Pacific Ocean, without any exception, the whole coasts and countries belong to sovereign resident American powers. There is, therefore, no chasm within the described limits in which a new European colony could be introduced, without violating the territorial rights of some American State. An attempt to establish such a colony, and by its establishment to acquire sovereign rights for

any European power, must be regarded as an inadmissible encroachment. If any portion of the people of Europe, driven by oppression from their native country, or actuated by the desire of im

proving the condition of themselves or their posterity, wish to migrate to America, it will no doubt be the policy of all the new States, as it ever has been ours to afford them an asylum, and, by naturalization, to extend to such of them as are worthy, the same political privileges which are enjoyed by the native citizen. But this faculty of emigration cannot be allowed to draw after it the right of the European State, of which such emigrants shall have been natives to acquire sovereign powers in America. The rule is good by which one, in judging of another's conduct or pretensions, is advised to reverse positions. What would Europe think of an American attempt to plant there an American colony? If its power would be provoked, and its pride exerted, to repress and punish such a presumptuous act, it is high time that it should be recollected and felt, that Americans, themselves, descended from Europeans, have also their sensibilities and their rights."

To prevent any such new European colonies, and to warn Europe beforehand that they are not hereafter to be admitted, the President wishes you to propose a joint declaration of the several American States, each, however, acting for, and binding only itself, that, within the limits of their respective territories, no new European colony will hereafter be allowed to be established."

"It is not intended to commit the parties who nay concur in that declaration, to the support of he particular boundaries which may be claimed by any one of them; nor is it proposed to commit hem to a joint resistance against any future atempt to plant a new European colony. It is beieved that the moral effect alone of a joint declaration, emanating from the authority of all the American nations, will effectually serve to prevent the effort to establish any such new colony; but if it should not, and the attempt should actually be made, it will then be time enough for the American powers to consider the propriety of negotiating between themselves, and, if necessary, of adopting, in concert, the measures which may be necessary to check and prevent it. The respect which is due to themselves, as well as to Europe, requires that they should rest in confidence that a declaration, thus solemnly put forth, will command universal deference. It will not be necessary to give to the declaration now proposed, the form of a Treaty. It may be signed by the several Ministers of the Congress, and promulgated to the world as evidence of the sense of all the American powers."

SECTION TENTH.

OF THE GREAT LAKES AND ST. LAW

RENCE, AND OTHER SIMILAR WATERS.

We have explained the territorial rights of nations. The extent and nature of their title to contiguous waters, and the boundary line of their jurisdiction, form our next subject of inquiry. Two nations sometimes border interior seas and embosomed lakes like Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, Ontario and their connecting straits, with the river St. Lawrence their natural outlet. Prior to the treaty of peace, which concluded the war of our revolution, Great Britain relinquished all claim, not only to the government, but to the 'propriety and territorial rights of the United States," whose boundaries were fixed in the 2d Article. "By this treaty, the powers of government, and the right to the soil, which had previously been in Great Britain, passed definitively to these States." Such is the language of the Supreme Court of the United States in Johnson against M'Intosh. By that treaty then the title and jurisdiction of the United States and States were extended over about one half those inland seas, their connecting straits and the St. Lawrence. The great navigable seas became common to the United States and Great Britain for the purpose of navigation, though each party held the municipal jurisdiction over its own waters.