ALAJIAMA CLAIMS. 01 



US ftiul oUiur States, uith ulilch tliat Tribunal liad 

 no ])0S8ible concern, — whicli it could not ]irctonil to 

 judge, — and of such obvious irrelevancy and imperii- 

 iiencc tliat not one of tlie Arbitrators condescended 

 to notice llieni except Sir Alexander Cockburn. 



The ])resentation in tlio l^ritisli Case of considera- 

 tions of this order, worthless and absurd as argu- 

 ment, and wantonly offensive to the United States, 

 was, in my judgment, an outrageous net, coni])ared 

 with whicli, in jwsslble susceptlltility of blame, there '.f^.. 

 is nothing to be found in any of the alllrmatlve doc- 

 uments i)rescnted by the American Government. 



It was the cause of a singularly perverse incident, 

 namely, complaint of the l^rltlsli Press against the 

 American Argument for im])utcd 'Uii/cin(hic\^s in al- 

 luding to subjects, whicli had been forced upon our 

 attention by the British Case. 



I mention these circumstances for the pui'pose of 

 sliowlng how relatively unjust it was to imi)ute of- 

 fenslveness of spirit and language to the American 

 Case in view of the much more objectionable things 

 in the British. Case; and for the further purpose of 

 pertinently stating that it was undignified for Great 

 Britain to complain of the manner in which the Agent 

 or Counsel of the United States miirht see fit to ar- 

 gue our cause, as it would bo for the American Gov- 

 ernment to undertake to ]-)rescribo limits of dlsci'e- 

 tion in this respect to the Agent or Counsel of Great 

 Britain. 



Thus, the 15th of April, looked forward to with so 

 much apparent di'cad by the British Government, 



