MISCELLANEOUS CLAIMS. 197 



One of the earliest of our conventions of tbis nature 

 was contained in the Treaty of 1818, in execution of 

 an article of the Treaty of Ghent [1815], by which 

 the United States and Great Britain stipulated to re- 

 fer a certain question of indemnities to some friend- 

 ly Sovereign or State. Afterward the Emperor of 

 Russia was selected as such arbitrator, and rendered 

 an award against Great Britain, in general terms, by 

 reason of which it became necessary to provide by a 

 second treaty [1822] for the appointment of a com- 

 missioner and arbitrator on the part of the United 

 States, and a commissioner and arbitrator on the part 

 of Great Britain, to assemble at Washington and as- 

 sess damages under the umpirage of the Minister of 

 the mediating Power accredited to the United States. 

 This example is curious and instructive, seeing that 

 the debtor Government, so to speak, — Great Britain, — 

 in order to give effect to its engagement at Ghent 

 entered into three successive international comj^acts 

 with the United States, — one to appoint an arbiter, 

 another to name him, and a third to give effect to his 

 award. There could be no better illustration of the 

 moral force of treaties of arbitration in the estimation 

 of modern States. 



TENDENCY OF REASON AND JUSTICE TO PREVAIL OVER 



FORCE. 



These many examples, it seems to me, tend to man- 

 ifest the increasing desire of modern nations to ter- 

 minate all their controversies, if possible, by friendly 

 means rather than by force. Where they can not 



