THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON, whether it be regarded in the light of its general spirit and object, of its particular stipulations, or of its relation to the high contracting parties, constitutes one of the most nota ble and interesting of all the great diplomatic acts of the present age. It disposes, in forty-three articles, of five different subjects of controversy between Great Britain and the United States, two of them European or imperial, three American or colonial, and some of them of such nature as most imminently to imperil the precious peace of the two great English-speaking nations. Indeed, several of these objects of controversy are questions coeval with the national existence of the United States, and which, if lost sight of occasionally in the midst of other pre-occupations of peace or war, yet continually came to the surface again from time to time to vex and disturb the good understanding. of both Governments. Others of the questions, although of more modern date, incidents of our late Civil War, were all the more irritating, as being fresh wounds to the sensibility of the people of the United States. If, to all these considerations, be added the fact that negotiation after negotiation respecting these ques tions had failed to resolve them in a satisfactory manner, it will be readily seen how great was the diplomatic triumph achieved by the Treaty of Washington. It required peculiar inducements and agencies to accomplish this great result. Prominent among the inducements were the pacific spirit of the President of the United States and the Queen of Great Britain, and of their respective Cabinets, and the sincere and heartfelt desire of a great majority of the people of both countries that no shadow of offense should be allowed any longer to linger on the face of their international relations. Great Britain, it is but just to her to say, if not con. fessedly conscious of wrong, yet, as being the party to whom wrong was imputed, did honorably and wisely make the decisive advance toward reconciliation, by consenting to dispatch five Commissioners to Washington, there, under the eye of the President, to treat with five Commissioners on behalf of the United States. Diplomatic congresses have assembled on previous occasions to terminate the great wars of Europe, or |