256 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



treaties touching the premises, for the final ratifica- 

 tion of the President of the United States, by and 

 with the advice and consent of the Senate, if such, 

 advice and consent be given. 



In witness whereof 1 have caused the seal of the 

 United States to be hereunto affixed. 

 Given under my hand at the city of "Washington, 

 the second day of May, in the year of our 

 [L. s.] Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

 seventy-one, and of the Independence of 

 the United States of America the ninety -fifth. 

 By the President : U. S. GRANT. 



HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State. 



This full power was examined by the Brit- 

 ish commissioners, and found satisfactory. 



The joint commissioners determined that 

 they would embody in a protocol a statement 

 containing an account of the negotiations upon 

 the various subjects included in the treaty, 

 and they instructed the joint protocolists to 

 prepare such an account in the order in which 

 the subjects are to stand in the treaty. 

 XXXVI. Protocol of Conference between the High 

 Commissioners on the part of the United States of 



America and the High, Commissioners on the part 



of Great Britain. 



WASHINGTON, May 4, 1871. 



On May 4th, the commissioners having met, 

 the statement prepared by the joint protocol- 

 ists, in accordance with the request of the 

 joint high commissioners at the last confer- 

 ence, was then read as follows : 



ARTICLES I. TO XI. 



At the conference held on the 8th of March 

 the American commissioners stated that the 

 people and Government of the United States 

 felt that they had sustained a great wrong, and 

 that great injuries and losses were inflicted 

 upon their commerce and their material inter- 

 ests by the course and conduct of Great Brit- 

 ain during the recent rebellion in the United 

 States; that what had occurred in Great 

 Britain and her colonies during that period 

 had given rise to feelings in the United States 

 which the people of the United States did not 

 desire to cherish toward Great Britain ; that 

 the history of the Alabama, and other cruis- 

 ers, which had been fitted out, or armed, or 

 equipped, or which had received augmentation 

 of force in Great Britain, or in her colonies, 

 and of the operations of those vessels, showed 

 extensive direct losses in the capture and de- 

 struction of a large number of vessels, with 

 their cargoes, and in the heavy national ex- 



Eenditures in the pursuit of the cruisers, and 

 idirect injury in the transfer of a large part 

 of the American commercial marine to the 

 British flag, in the enhanced payments of in- 

 surance, in the prolongation of the war, and 

 in the addition of a large sum to the cost of 

 the war and the suppression of the rebellion, 

 and also showed that Great Britain, by reason 

 of failure in the proper observance of her 

 duties as a neutral, had become justly liable 

 for the acts of those cruisers and of their 

 tenders ; that the claims for the loss and de- 

 struction of private property which had thus 

 far been presented amounted to about fourteen 



millions of dollars, without interest, which 

 amount was liable to be greatly increased by 

 claims which had not been presented; that 

 the cost to which the Government had been 

 put in the pursuit of cruisers could easily be 

 ascertained by certificates of Government ac- 

 counting officers ; that, in the hope of an ami- 

 cable settlement, no estimate was made of the 

 indirect losses, without prejudice, however, to 

 the right to indemnification on their account 

 in the event of no such settlement being 

 made. 



The American commissioners further stated 

 that they hoped that the British commis- 

 sioners would be able to place upon record an 

 expression of regret by her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment for the depredations committed by the 

 vessels whose acts were now under discussion. 

 They also proposed that the Joint High Com- 

 mission should agree upon a sum which should 

 be paid by Great Britain to the United States 

 in satisfaction of all the claims and the inter- 

 est thereon. 



The British commissioners replied that her 

 Majesty's Government could not admit that 

 Great Britain had failed to discharge toward 

 the United States the duties imposed on her 

 by the rules of international law, or that she 

 was justly liable to make good to the United 

 States the losses occasioned by the acts of the 

 cruisers to which the American commissioners 

 had referred. They reminded the American 

 commissioners that several vessels, suspected 

 of being designed to cruise against the United 

 States, including two iron-clads, had been ar- 

 rested or detained by the British Government, 

 and that that Government had in some in- 

 stances not confined itself to the discharge of 

 international obligations, however widely con- 

 strued, as, for instance, when it acquired, at a 

 great cost to the country, the control of the 

 Anglo-Chinese flotilla, which, it was appre- 

 hended, might be used against the United 

 States. 



They added that although Great Britain had, 

 from the beginning, disavowed any responsi- 

 bility for the acts of the Alabama, and the 

 other vessels, she had already shown her will- 

 ingness, for the sake of the maintenance of 

 friendly relations with the United States, to 

 adopt the principle of arbitration, provided 

 that a fitting arbitrator could be found, and 

 that an agreement could be come to as to the 

 points to which arbitration should apply. They 

 would, therefore, abstain from replying in de- 

 tail to the statement of the American commis- 

 sioners, in the hope that the necessity for en- 

 tering upon a lengthened controversy might 

 be obviated by the adoption of so fair a mode 

 of settlement as that which they were in- 

 structed to propose ; and they had now to re- 

 peat, on behalf of their Government, the offer 

 of arbitration. 



The American commissioners expressed 

 their regret at this decision of the British com- 

 missioners, and said further that they could 



