ALABAMA CLAIMS. 53 



indirect claims were not witliin the Jetter or spirit of 

 the Treaty of Washington. And he repels through- 

 out, peremptorily but dispassionately, the call of the 

 British Government on the United States to withdraw 

 this class of claims from the consideration of the Tri- 

 bunal. In fine, the position of the United States is 

 plainly expressed in difterent ^^arts of the disjDatches 

 of Mr. Fish, as follows : 



"They [the United States] desire to maintain the jurisdiction 

 of the Tribunal of Arbitration over all the unsettled claims, in 

 order that, being judicially decided, and the questions of law 

 involved therein being adjudicated, all questions connected 

 with or arising out of the Alabama Claims, or ' growing out of 

 the acts ' of the cruisers, may be forever removed from the pos- 

 sibility of disturbing the perfect harmony of relations between 

 the two countries. ... 



" What the rights, duties, and true interests of both the con- 

 tending nations, and of all nations, demand shall be the extent, 

 and the measure of liability and damages under the Treaty, is 

 a matter for the supreme determination of the Tribunal estab- 

 lished thereby. 



" Should that august Tribunal decide that a State is not lia- 

 ble for the indirect or consequential results of an accidental or 

 unintentional violation of its neutral obligations, the United 

 States will unhesitatingly accept the decision. • 



" Should it, on the other hand, decide that Great Britain is 

 liable to this Government for such consequential results, they 

 have that full faith in British observance of its engagements to 

 expect a compliance with the judgment of the Tribunal, which 

 a solemn Treaty between the two Powers has created in order 

 to remove and adjust all complaints and claims on the part of 

 the United States." 



The American Government could not avoid feeling 

 that the public discussion, which the British Minis- 

 ters had seen fit to excite, (ji*, at any rate, to aggravate, 



