PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



620 



DOCUMENTS. Menage of Preti- 

 dent GKANT at the commencement of the third 

 aeuion of the Forty-Jirtt CongrtM, December 

 5, 1870. 



To tht Senate and Hovte of IttpretetUatictt ; 



\ vc-ar of peace and general prosperity to this na- 

 tion has passed since the last assembling of Congress. 

 \V, have, through a kind Providence, been blessed 

 with abundant crops, and have been spared from 

 complications and war with foreign nations. In our 

 mi.Ut, comparative harmony has Been restored. It is 

 to be regretted, however, that a free exercise of the 

 elective franchise has, by violence and intimidation, 

 been denied to citizens in exceptional cases in several 

 of the States lately in rebellion, and the verdict of the 

 people has thereby been reversed. The States of Vir- 

 ginia, Mississippi, and Texas, have been restored to 

 representation in our national councils. Georgia, the 

 only State now without representation, may confi- 

 dently be expected to take her place there also at the 

 beginning of the now year, and tfien, let us hope, will 

 be completed the work of reconstruction. With an 

 acquiescence on the part of the whole people in the 

 national obligation to pay the public debt, created 

 us the price of our union ; the pensions to our dis- 

 abled soldiers and sailors, and their widows and pr- 

 E liuus ; and in the changes to the Constitution which 

 ave been made necessary by a great rebellion, 

 there is no reason why we sllould not advance in 

 material prosperity and happiness as no other nation 

 ever did, after so protracted and devastating a war. 



Soon after the existing war broke put in Europe, 

 the protection of the United States minister in Paris 

 was invoked in favor of North Germans domiciled in 

 French territory. Instructions were issued to grant 

 the protection. This has been followed by an exten- 

 sion of American protection to citizens of Saxony, 

 Hesse, and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Colombia, Portugal, 

 Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chili, 

 Paraguay, and Venezuela, in Paris. The charge was 

 an onerous one, requiring constant and severe labor, 

 as well as the exercise of patience, prudence, and 

 good judgment. It has been performed to the entire 

 satisfaction of this Government, and, as I am officially 

 informed, equally so to the satisfaction of the Govern- 

 ment of North Germany. 



As soon as I learned that a republic had been pro- 

 claimed at Paris, and that the people of France nad 

 acquiesced in the change, the minister of the United 

 States was directed by telegraph to recognize it, and to 

 tender my congratulations and those or the people of 

 the United States. The regstablishment, in France, 

 of a system of government disconnected with the 

 dynastic traditions of Europe, appeared to be a prop- 

 er subject for the felicitations of Americans. Should 

 the present struggle result in attaching the hearts of 

 the French to our simpler forms of representative 

 government, it will be a subject of still further sat- 

 isfaction to our people. While we make no effort 

 to impose our institutions upon the inhabitants of 

 other countries, and while wo adhere to our tradi- 

 tional neutrality in civil contests elsewhere, we can- 

 not be indifferent to the spread of American political 

 ideas in a great and highly-civilized country like 

 France. 



We were asked by the new government to use our 

 good offices, jointly with those of European powers, 

 in the interests of peace. Answer was made that the 

 established policy and the true interests of the United 

 States forbade them to interfere in European ques- 

 tions jointly with European powers. I ascertained 

 informally and unofficially that the Government of 

 North Germany was not then disposed to listen to 

 such representations from any powers ; and, though 

 earnestly wishing to see the blessings of peace re- 

 stored to the belligerents, with all of whom the 

 United States are on terms of friendship, I declined 

 on the part of this Government to take a step which 



could only result in injury to our true interests, with- 

 out advancing the object for which our intervention 

 wan invoked. Should the time come when the ac- 

 tion of the United States can hasten the return of 

 IH .i'-' , by a single hour, that action will be heartily 

 t;iki;ii. I deemed it prudent, in view of the number 

 of persons of German and French birth living in tin- 

 United States, to issue, soon after official notice of 

 a state of war nad been received from both belliger- 

 ents, a proclamation denning the duties of the United 

 States as a neutral, and the obligations of persons 

 residing within their territory to observe their laws 

 and the laws of nations. This proclamation was fol- 

 lowed by others, as circumstances seemed to cull for 

 tin-in. The people, thus acquainted in advance with 

 their 'duties and obligations, have assisted in pre- 

 venting violations of the neutrality of the United 

 States. 



It is not understood that the condition of the in- 

 surrection in Cuba has materially changed since the 

 close of the last session of Congress. 



In an early stage of the contest the authorities of 

 Spain inaugurated a system of arbitrary arrests, of 

 close confinement, and of military trial and execution 

 of persons suspected of complicity with the insur- 

 gents, and of summary embargo of their properties, 

 and sequestration of their revenues by executive 

 warrant. Such proceedings, so far as tney affected 

 the persons or property of citizens of the United 

 States, were in violation of the provisions of the 

 treaty of 1795, between the United States and Spain. 

 Representations of injuries resulting to several per- 

 sons claiming to be citizens of the United States, by 

 reason of such violations, were made to the Spanish 

 Government. From April, 1869, to June last, the 

 Spanish minister at Washington had been clothed 

 with limited power to aid in redressing such wrongs. 

 That power was found to be withdrawn " in view," 

 as it was said, "of the favorable situation in which 

 the island of Cuba" then " was ; " which, however, 

 did not lead to a revocation or suspension of the ex- 

 traordinary and arbitrary functions exercised by the 

 executive power in Cuba, and we were obliged to 

 make our complaints at Madrid. 



In the negotiations thus opened and still pending 

 there, the United States only claimed that, for the 

 future, the rights secured to their citizens by treaty 

 should be respected in Cuba, and that, as to the past, 

 a joint tribunal should be established in the United 

 States with full jurisdiction over all such claims. 

 Before such an impartial tribunal each claimant would 

 be required to prove his case. On the other hand, 

 Spain would be at liberty to traverse every material 

 fact, and thus complete equity would be done. A 

 case which at one time threatened seriously to affect 

 the relations between the United States and Spain 

 has already been disposed of in this way. The claim 

 of the owners of the Colonel Lloyd Aspinwall for the 

 illegal seizure and detention 01 that vessel was re- 

 ferred to arbitration, by mutual consent, and has re- 

 sulted in an award to the United States, for the 

 owners, of the sum of $19.702.50 in gold. Another 

 and long-pending claim or like nature, that of the 

 whale-ship Canada, has been disposed of by friendly 

 arbitrament during the present year. It was referred, 

 by the Joint consent of Brazil and the United States, 

 to the decision of Sir Edward Thornton, her Britan- 

 nic Majesty's minister at Washington, who kindly 

 undertook the laborious task of examining the volu- 

 minous mass of correspondence and testimony sub- 

 mitted by the two governments ; and awarded to the 

 United States the sum of $100,740.09 cents, in gold, 

 which has since been paid by the Imperial Govern- 

 ment. 



These recent examples show that the mode which 

 the United States have proposed to Spain for adjust- 

 ing the pending claims is just and feasible, and that 

 it may be agreed to by either nation without dis- 

 honor. It is to be hoped that this moderate demand 

 may be acceded to by Spain without further delay. 



