When the War of 1812 ended, Great Britain set
up the preposterous claim that the war had abrogated all treaties,
and that with the treaty of 1783 our rights in the fisheries
were gone. There was alarm in New England; but it was quieted
by the knowledge that John Quincy Adams was one of our representatives.
It was well said at that time that, as
"John Adams saved the fisheries once, his son would a second
time."
When someone expressed a fear that the other commissioners
would not stand by his son, the old man wrote in 1814, that--
"Bayard, Russell, Clay, or even Gallatin, would cede the
fee-simple of the United States as soon as they would cede
the fisheries." (pp. 21-22).
These fisheries still support the important city of Gloucester,
and are a very valuable source of wealth to the hardy and
enterprising people who maintain them. Their story is full
of romance. A touching yearly ceremonial is celebrated at
the present time in Gloucester in commemoration of the men
who are lost in this dangerous employment.
But the value of the fisheries does not consist chiefly in
historic association or in the wealth which they contribute
to any such community.
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