Message Front the President of the United States . . . In Relation to Claims Set up by Foreign Governments to Territory of the United States Upon the Pacific Ocean

Author: Alexander I | Date: 1822

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The Russian Ukase on Alaskan Waters (1821)

Name: Message Front the President of the United States . . . In Relation to Claims Set up by Foreign Governments to Territory of the United States Upon the Pacific Ocean - The Russian Ukase on Alaskan Waters (1821)
Author: Alexander I

BY ALEXANDER FIRST

(ANONYMOUS TRANSLATION)

THE Directing Senate maketh known unto all men: Whereas, in an Edict of His Imperial Majesty, issued to the Directing Senate on the 4th day of September, and signed by his Imperial Majesty’s own hand, it is thus expressed:

"Observing, from reports submitted to us, that the trade of our subjects on the Aleutian Islands and on the northwest coast of America appertaining unto Russia, is subjected, because of secret and illicit traffic, to oppression and impediments; and finding that the principal cause of these difficulties is the want of rules establishing the boundaries for navigation along these coasts, and the order of naval communication, as well in these places as on the whole of the eastern coast of Siberia and the Kurile Islands, we have deemed it necessary to determine these communications by specific regulations, which are hereto attached.

"In forwarding these regulations to the Directing Senate, we command that the same be published for universal information, and that the proper measures be taken to carry them into execution."

Countersigned

COUNT D. GURIEF,

Minister of Finances.

It is therefore decreed by the Directing Senate, that His Imperial Majesty’s Edict be published for the information of all men, and that the same be obeyed by all whom it may concern. . . .

Printed at St. Petersburg, in the Senate, 7th September, 1821.

On the original is written, in the hand writing of his imperial majesty, thus:

Be it accordingly.

ALEXANDER.

SEC. 1. The pursuits of commerce, whaling, and fishery, and of all other industry, on all islands, ports, and gulfs, including the whole of the northwest coast of America, beginning from Behring’s Straits, to the 51° of northern latitude, also from the Aleutian islands to the eastern coast of Siberia, as well as along the Kurile islands from Behring’s Straits to the south cape of the island of Urup, viz: to the 45° 50′ northern latitude, is exclusively granted to Russian subjects.

SEC. 2. It is therefore prohibited to all foreign vessels, not only to land on the coasts and islands belonging to Russia, as stated above, but also to approach them within less than an hundred Italian miles. The transgressor’s vessel is subject to confiscation, along with the whole cargo.

SEC. 3. An exception to this rule is to he made in favor of vessels carried thither by heavy gales, or real want of provisions, and unable to make any other shore but such as belong to Russia; in these cases they are obliged to produce convincing proofs of actual reason for such an exception. Ships of friendly governments, merely on discoveries, are likewise exempt from the foregoing rule, (section 2.) In this case, however, they must previously be provided with passports from the Russian minister of the navy.

SEC. 4. Foreign merchant ships, which for reasons stated in the foregoing rule, touch at any of the above mentioned coasts, are obliged to endeavor to choose a place where Russians are settled, and to act as hereunder stated. . . .

SEC. 14. It is likewise interdicted to foreign ships, to carry on any traffic or barter with the natives of the islands, and of the north west coast of America, in the whole extent hereabove mentioned. A ship convicted of this trade shall be confiscated.

, April 17, 1822 (Washington, 1822), 20–23 passim. (This is House Document, 17 Cong., I sess., No. 112.)

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Chicago: Alexander, Message Front the President of the United States . . . In Relation to Claims Set up by Foreign Governments to Territory of the United States Upon the Pacific Ocean, trans. Anonymous in American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. Albert Bushnell Hart (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902), 488–489. Original Sources, accessed April 11, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DTL6GEUYZX53MHQ.

MLA: Alexander. Message Front the President of the United States . . . In Relation to Claims Set up by Foreign Governments to Territory of the United States Upon the Pacific Ocean, translted by Anonymous, in American History Told by Contemporaries, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Vol. 3, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 488–489. Original Sources. 11 Apr. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DTL6GEUYZX53MHQ.

Harvard: Alexander, Message Front the President of the United States . . . In Relation to Claims Set up by Foreign Governments to Territory of the United States Upon the Pacific Ocean, trans. . cited in 1902, American History Told by Contemporaries, ed. , The Macmillan Company, New York, pp.488–489. Original Sources, retrieved 11 April 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DTL6GEUYZX53MHQ.

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The Russian Ukase on Alaskan Waters (1821)

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