DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 755 



ports that are so freely and cheerfully accorded to her own in the 

 ports of the United States, and that thus the friendship and good 

 feeling which ought to exist between neighbouring nations may be 

 finally established and secured. 



JOHN SHERMAN. 



GEO. F. EDMUNDS. 



WM. P. FRYE. 



WM. M. EVARTS. 

 May 7, 1888. J. N. DOLPH. 



[Minority Report of the Committee of the Senate, whose Report is 



printed dbove.~\ 



VIEWS OF THE MINORITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS 



Upon the Treaty signed on the 15th February, 1888, ~by the Plenipo- 

 tentiaries of the United States and Great Britain, dissenting from 

 the Report of the Majority of that Committee, which recommends 

 that the Senate refuse to Advise and Consent to the Ratif.cation of 

 said Treaty. 



The minority of the Committee on Foreign Relations dissent from 

 the report of the majority recommending the rejection of the treaty 

 with Great Britain dated February 15, 1888, and submitted to the 

 Senate for its consideration, and present the following as their prin- 

 cipal reasons for their dissent: 



Two objections to this treaty were stated in committee. 



(1.) That it had been negotiated and signed by persons who were 

 not duly empowered, under the constitution and laws of the United 

 States, to conduct and conclude a treaty. 



(2.) That the treaty, on its merits, should not be ratified by the 

 Senate. 



To meet the first objection, a member of the minority of the com- 

 mittee introduced the following resolution : 



Resolved, That the treaty signed by Thomas F. Bayard, William L. Putnam, 

 and James B. Angell, as plenipotentiaries of the United States, in conjunction 

 with the British plenipotentiaries, on the 15th day of February, 1888, and sent 

 to the Senate by the President as a treaty duly negotiated, for the consideration 

 and action of the Senate, is properly authenticated as a treaty made by the 

 President of the United States, acting within his constitutional powers, and is 

 lawful and valid as a negotiation. 



The purpose of this resolution was to bring before the Senate, in 

 distinct form, the recommendation of the committee as to the merits 

 of the treaty, apart from any collateral matter relating to the negotia- 

 tion of -the instrument. 



In committee, this resolution was laid upon the table, and thereby 

 any recommendation as to the question it presents, in answer to the 

 first objection to the treaty, as above stated, was avoided. 



The minority of the committee hold that it is entirely competent 

 for a majority in the Senate to declare that the treaty has been ne- 

 gotiated and signed in a proper manner, and by persons duly quali- 

 fied, or otherwise to return it to the President as a paper that does 

 not call into exercise the powers and jurisdiction of the Senate upon 

 the question of its ratification by them. And, if a majority in the 



