210 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



ire oo individual a private claim upon the 

 Confederacy, eryo no such capture could give 

 any private individual a claim npop Great 

 Britain. And all that upon the sophism that 

 Great Britain was accessory to a principal; 

 all a mere play of words, by importing into 

 public law a nomenclature that ia known only 

 to municipal criminal law, and saying that 

 there is such a thing as a principal belligerent 

 nation and an accessory, and that the same 

 law applies to the one that applies to the other, 

 as if this very treaty and every claim we have 



Miade upon it did not go upon the ground 

 that there was a belligerent power, the Con- 

 federacy, and a neutral power, Great Britain, 

 who violated the duties and responsibilities 

 that belonged to her as a neutral. 



" That sophism, as I most respectfully call 

 it and I say it without the slightest disre- 

 spect at all, 'but I can only speak of it as it 

 seems to me that sophism is the sole founda- 

 tion upon which this bill proposes to take 

 four or five million dollars, in respect of which 

 the tribunal at Geneva made its award in favor 

 of the United States, from those who are the 

 legal owners of the claims in respect of which 

 the award was made, and divert it to some 

 other use, or keep it ourselves. Mr. President, 

 I say that will not do. In the first place, it 

 will' not do, for the reason I have already 

 stated. Bat it will not do for another reason. 

 The argument of my friend, I repeat, is that 

 no citizen of the. United States had any claim 

 upon Great Britain. He lays it down, in the 

 broaden and most unqualified manner, that 

 no citizen had any claim on Great Britain 

 whatsoever, any more than he hod a claim on 

 the Confederacy. Is that true, in the IL'ht 

 not simply of the public law of which ! 

 spoken, but in the light of the history of these 

 claims? Lot us see whether it is right or not, 

 in view of the history of these claim-. 



--:it Britain suffered certain cruisers to 

 be built in her ports, and to escape from her 

 portB, to go into tho service of tho Confeder- 

 acy. They went into the service of tho Con- 

 federacy. They made captures. Those cap- 

 tures commenced, I think, about the bnirinninR 

 of 1962, possibly a little earlier. The first 

 capture took place off tho coast of Portugal, 

 and wa reported by Mr. Harvey, then our 

 minUter to Portugal, to the Secretary of - 

 What did the Secretary of State do? Forth- 

 with he sent an authentic statement of that 

 capture, of the loss of two American ships, 

 the Brilliant and tho Manchester, to our min- 

 ister at Great Brit-tin. For what purji . 

 he * itemed there? To b,- IP 



fore tho British Government as claims of Aine.r- 

 ic.-in citizens for reparation by that Covern- 

 aecount of the want of fidelity to 



lentril oML'.iti<m that she had shown in 



Mia to escape, as she did. 



forward to the very sitting of 



va the United State* 

 tinned to present, and against the remon- 



stranco of the British Government to present 

 and to file with that Government, these- claims 

 as tho claims of citizens of the 1'nitcd States 

 upon the Government of Great Britain; and 

 among them were the claims of these very in- 

 surance companies. 



"The British Government refused to ac- 

 knowledge its liability ; and so matters went 

 on until eventually what is known as the 

 Johnson-Clarendon treaty was negotiated ; and 

 what was the Johnson-Clarendon treaty i The. 

 Johnson-Clarendon treaty in the most clear 

 and unmistakable manner recognized these as 

 claims of American citizens. Here is the first 

 article of that convention : 



The high contracting parties agree that all 

 chums on tho put of the subjects ofher Britannic 

 Miycstv <>n tliu Government of the United States, 

 and an claims on the put of citizens of the United 

 States upon the Government of her Britannic 

 Majesty which may have been presented to either 

 Government for its interposition with the other 

 since, the 26th day of July, 1653, the date of the ex- 

 change of the ratifications of tho convention con- 

 cluded between Great Britain and the United States 

 of America, at London, on the 8th of February, 

 1853, and which yet remain unsettled, as well as any 

 other such claims which may be presented within 

 the time specified in article tlir. i> or this convention, 

 whether or not arising out of the late civil war in 

 the United States, shall be referred to four commis- 

 sioners. 



" Observe the language : ' All claims on tho 

 part of the subjects of her Britannic M 

 on tho Government of the United States, and 

 all claims on tho part of the citizens of the 

 United States upon the Government of her 

 Britannic Majesty.' Now, sir, what was the 

 objection to that Johnson-Clarendon tn 

 I am not speaking of any thing which took 

 ]>l:icc in executive) session, I wish to be under- 

 stood; I am speaking of what is history. 

 What was tho objection to that treaty ? That 

 these wore recognized as claims of citizens? 

 Nobody ever heard of such an objection. The 

 objection was that that treaty did not go far 

 enough; that it did not include public claims 

 of tho United States. So far as claims of citi- 

 zens were concerned it was confessedly ample 

 and sufficient ; hut it was said that it left out the 

 part of Hamlet from tho piny, that here were 

 injuries done not simply to our citizens, but 

 injuries dono to the United States; that here 

 was tho coat of pursuing these cruisers; hero 

 .- the increased rate of insurance all over 

 the whole conntrv ; hen' was the prolongation 

 of the war entailing great expense upon the 

 country; and then, after all tin- demands the 

 rnmcnt might, lawfully make, that some 

 atonement should be made to its wounded 

 honor by the course Great Britain had pur- 

 sued. \\'c all remember very well th- -p< h 



of the distingui-'ied Senator from Massachu- 

 setts, then chairman of the Committee on 

 Foreign Relations, and which the Senate per- 

 mitted to he printed, although it was delivered 

 in executive session. Wo all know that not 

 one single objection did he take to that treaty 



