254 THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 



was known to have ignored the demand of 

 Sumner that a withdrawal of the British flag 

 from the Western Hemisphere should be a pre 

 liminary condition to any settlement whatever. 

 As a matter of fact, the Americans had no 

 desire to urge the extravagant claims that 

 Sumner had made so conspicuous. The British 

 commissioners, on their side, were without au 

 thority to consider them. Yet because popu 

 lar feeling was so sensitive about them on both 

 sides of the water the negotiators avoided all ref 

 erence to them, and by this very excess of caution 

 left room for a dangerous misunderstanding. 



The tribunal of arbitration met and organ 

 ized at Geneva, Switzerland, in the middle of 

 December, 1871. It consisted of five arbitra 

 tors, appointed respectively by the govern 

 ments of the United States, Great Britain, 

 Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil. The cases of 

 the two contending governments were at once 

 presented in printed form. That of the United 

 States was found to include, in addition to the 

 claims for losses due to the destruction of ves 

 sels by the cruisers and to the pursuit of the 

 cruisers, claims also for the loss involved in the 

 transfer of the merchant marine to the British 

 flag, the increased cost of insurance, and the 



