last; the Senate were afterwards promptly advised by the President of the vote of the people of the islands in favor of annexation. Insomuch as this is the so-called long session of Congress, no inference. unfavorable to the success of the treaty can be drawn from the delay of its consideration in the Senate. On the 8th day of January instant, a special envoy of the Dominican Republic arrived here to inform us that that Government had reconsidered its rejection of our propositions for the purchase of Samana, and desired now to agree upon terms of cession. It was due to the Senate and to the country, to give a fair consideration to the Dominican proposition. That subject is therefore now under discussion in this Department. It is not unlikely that the Senate will prefer to wait for the result of my conferences with the Dominican minister before proceeding to a final consideration of the Danish treaty. Certainly the treaty for St. Thomas and St. John loses nothing in popular favor by a free examination upon its merits." Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Yeaman, Jan. 29, 1868, MS. Inst. Denmark, XIV. 313.

"I have your private letter of the 2d of January, for which I give you my thanks. I should regret if you were disturbed by the reflections and criticisms concerning the progress of the negotiation for the Danish islands to which you allude. It may well be understood, once for all, that no new national policy, deliberately undertaken upon considerations of future advantage, ever finds universal favor when first announced. If it were otherwise, and if the public in every nation were so well informed as to be prepared to accept a policy of that sort immediately upon its announcement, it would be difficult to conceive what necessity there would be for statesmanship. In that case the nation would direct beforehand, and infallibly, in all cases what should be done, and what should be left undone. It is the great advantage of a free republic, that all important subjects are examined in all the lights, favorable and unfavorable, in which reason, interest, prejudice, and passion can place them.

66

Certainly all that could be desired, and all that can be expected, is that decisions upon public questions shall be made within a reasonable time, be wisely made, and shall receive universal acquiescence. I am not aware that the Government of the United States, although it is rendered very complex by internal checks and balances, has failed at any time to act with not only as much wisdom but also with as much promptness in the conduct of its foreign affairs as other nations generally do.

"It is now seen that it was not necessary for Mr. Jefferson at any time during twelve years, to protest against hostile criticisms on the purchase of Louisiana. No one now thinks that the Government decided either rashly or unwisely in the acquisition of California.

The sharpness of criticism upon the acquisition of Alaska is manifestly abated already.

"The extension of the United States into the tropical seas is an affair scarcely less important than either of those. It would have been wonderful if it had escaped a searching popular investigation."

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Yeaman, Jan. 29, 1868, "private and confidential," MS. Inst. Denmark, XIV. 315.

In an instruction to Mr. Yeaman, Jan. 2, 1868 (MS. Inst. Denmark, XIV. 312), Mr. Seward said: "It would not be becoming for me to entertain correspondence with a foreign state concerning incidental debates and resolutions in regard to the treaty for the two Danish islands, while it is undergoing constitutional consideration in the Senate and in Congress." Early in 1868 the treaty was ratified by the Government of Denmark, but, as it still remained under consideration in the Senate of the United States, the ratifications could not then be exchanged.

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Yeaman, Feb. 20 and April 10, 1868, MS.
Inst. Denmark, XIV. 317, 320; same to Mr. Bille, Feb. 20, 1868, MS. Notes,
Danish Leg. VI. 243.

"Important domestic questions which have arisen at the close of the civil war and in a periodical political crisis have largely engrossed the attention of Congress and the country during the present year, to the exclusion of external policies. Owing to this cause, as it is believed, the House of Representatives has thus far delayed proceedings to fulfill the pecuniary conditions of the purchase of Alaska, which was effected with so much alacrity and unanimity in 1867. The Senate has delayed until the present moment the consideration of the treaty with Denmark for the acquisition of St. Thomas and St. John.

"Some other important treaties have been postponed. It is now manifest that the session of Congress is approaching its end. Judging from existing indications, I think the Danish treaty will be left for consideration until the next session of Congress, while the question upon the Alaska appropriation may be expected to be decided before. the adjournment.

"During the recess of Congress, we shall be more able than we are now to collect the public sentiment in regard to the Danish treaty, and to consider whether any change in the form of the question is needful or desirable."

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Yeaman, June 29, 1868, MS. Inst. Denmark,
XIV. 324.

Congress having adjourned in the summer of 1869 without action. by the Senate upon the treaty, Mr. Seward proposed to the Danish minister at Washington the conclusion of an additional article extending the time for the exchange of ratifications one year.

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Yeaman, No. 95, Aug. 17; No. 96, Aug. 17; and No. 98, Aug. 27, 1868, MS. Inst. Denmark, XIV. 329, 330, 331. In his No. 96, Mr. Seward said: "There is manifest in the public mind some

thing of a reaction in favor of the recent treaty acquisitions of Alaska and St. Thomas, and for establishing reciprocal trade with the Sandwich Islands. I do not, however, find this reaction as yet sufficiently strong to justify an expectation that the addition of Santa Cruz, with an increase of the purchase money stipulated in our Danish treaty, would probably render it more acceptable to the Senate and Congress."

Such an article was signed at Washington, Oct. 15, 1868.

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bille, Oct. 15, 1868, MS. Notes to Danish Leg. VI. 249; Mr. Bille to Mr. Seward, Oct. 11, 1868, MSS. Dept. of State; Mr. Seward to Mr. Yeaman, Nov. 28, 1868, MS. Inst. Denmark, XIV. 336; Mr. Seward to Mr. Bille, Jan. 14, 1869, MS. Notes to Danish Leg. VI. 255. By another article, concluded at Washington Oct. 14, 1869, the time for the exchange of ratifications was still further extended till April

14, 1870.

Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bille, Sept. 25, 1869, MS. Notes to Danish Leg.
VI. 277; same to same, Oct. 13, 1869, id. 279.

"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 12th instant in which you refer to the stipulations of the treaty of October 24, 1867, between the United States and Denmark and more particularly to the additional article signed on the 14th day of October last, whereby the ratifications of the treaty were to be exchanged in Washington on or before this date. You inform me in this note that you are prepared to proceed to that exchange so soon as you shall be informed that it can be made.

"The term limited for the exchange expires this day. The Senate of the United States has not given its advice and consent to the treaty and I am not authorized to proceed further with reference thereto.

"In communicating this result of the withholding by the Senate of the United States of its advice and consent from the treaty referred to, I take leave to call your attention to the fact that in the note which my predecessor, Mr. Seward, addressed to his Excellency General Raasloff, under date July 17, 1866, Mr. Seward expressly indicated to General Raasloff that any treaty resulting from the negotiations inaugurated and begun by that note, would require the constitutional action thereupon of the Senate of the United States."

Mr. Fish, Sec. of State, to Mr. Bille, April 14, 1870, MS. Notes to Danish
Leg. VI. 288.

Mr. Yeaman, with his dispatch No. 239, May 14, 1870, encloses a copy of a
speech of Gen. Raasloff in the Rigsdag, explaining, on the ground of the
failure of the treaty, his resignation from the Danish cabinet, as minister
of war and the navy. He adverts to the fact that, after the ratification
of the treaty by Denmark, he proceeded, at the request of his Government,
to Washington, with a view to remove the difficulties which had arisen in
the United States with regard to the treaty.

See Mr. Foster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Carr, Dec. 20, 1892, MS. Inst. Denmark, XV. 515; Mr. Wharton, Acting Sec. of State, to Sec. of Navy, Aug. 3, 1891, 182 MS. Dom. Let. 653.

H. Doc. 551 -39

"The treaty had no champion among the members of the Senate Committee on
Foreign Affairs.
The Senate decided to lay the treaty on the table;
Johnson's term expired, and Hamilton Fish became Secretary of
State before all hope of the treaty was abandoned. . . . In 1870 the
Committee on Foreign Affairs reported unanimously against ratification,
and the Senate seems to have given a unanimous acquiescence in that
opinion." (Bancroft's Seward, II. 486, citing Pierce's Sumner, IV. 623,
329, 624.)

See, also, Schuyler's Am. Dip. 23; "The St. Thomas Treaty; a Series of Letters
to the Boston Daily Advertiser," New York, 1869; Parton's The Danish
Islands, Boston, 1869.

In a confidential dispatch of November 28, 1892, Mr. Carr, then minister of the United States at Copenhagen, stated that he was unofficially authorized to say that the Danish Government would favorably consider a proposal from the United States to revive the convention of 1867." Mr. Foster, as Secretary of State, expressed appreciation of the friendly attitude of Denmark, but declared that, in view of the approaching end of the Administration then in power, the consideration of the subject at the moment was impracticable. He added, however, that the question of the acquisition of the islands was "one of far-reaching and national importance, the extent of which is appreciated by no one more than the President."

66

A similar intimation as to the favorable disposition of Denmark was conveyed to the United States in 1896, and informal discussions took place at Copenhagen and in Washington. January 24, 1902, a convention was signed at Washington by Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, and Mr. Brun, Danish minister, for the cession to the United States of the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Sainte Croix, in the West Indies, with the adjacent islands and rocks," for the sum of $5,000,000. The convention was ratified by the United States Senate February 17, 1902. The treaty was approved by the lower house of the Danish Rigsdag; but, Oct. 21, 1902, the Landsthing (the upper house) by a vote of 32 to 32 declined to ratify it.

(9) MOLE ST. NICOLAS.
§ 124.

"Successive Administrations have labored to secure a West Indian naval station. During the war of the rebellion the United States leased the harbor of St. Nicolas from Hayti for this purpose."

Report of Mr. Lodge, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, March 31, 1898, S. Doc. 284, 57 Cong. 1 sess. 19.

eS. Doc. 284, 57 Cong. 1 sess. 20.

Mr. Foster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Carr, min. to Denmark, confidential, Dec. 20, 1892, S. Doc. 284 57 Cong. 1 sess. 22. CS. Doc. 284, 5 Cong. 1 sess. 24-25.

dS. Doc. 284, 57 Cong. 1 sess. In this document will be found the report of Mr. Cullom, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, Feb. 5, 1902, in favor of the approval of the convention. See, also, as to the purchase of the islands and the alleged part of Captain Christmas in the transaction, report of Mr. Dalzell, from the Select Committee on Purchase of the Danish West Indies, July 1, 1902, H. Report 2749, 57 Cong. 1 sess.

In 1882, and again in 1884, while Mr. Frelinghuysen was Secretary of State, the United States declined to entertain a proposal from President Salomon, of Hayti, for the cession of a naval station in that country." In 1891, however, Rear-Admiral Bancroft Gherardi, U. S. N., was sent as special commissioner to Hayti, to endeavor, in cooperation with the United States minister at Port-au-Prince, to obtain a lease to the United States of Mole St. Nicolas for that purpose. The Haytian authorities objected to the form of the commissioners' powers." This objection was removed by sending new powers; but the Haytian Government ultimately declined to entertain the American proposals." The American minister reported that much excitement was caused in Hayti by the presence of the United States fleet at Port-au-Prince and by the negotiations for the lease of the Mole."

"Supra, § 100.

Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Adm. Gherardi, Jan. 1, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 160; Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Douglass, Jan. 1, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 159; same to same, Feb. 12, 1891, id. 169.

Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Admiral Gherardi, Feb. 18, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 171.

d Mr. Adee, Acting Sec. of State, to Mr. Douglass, May 20, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 187, acknowledging the receipt of the latter's dispatch No. 164, of May 7, 1891; see, also, Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Adm. Gherardi, Feb. 27, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 172; Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Douglass, Feb. 28, 1891, id. 173.

e

Mr. Adee, Acting Sec. of State, to Mr. Douglass, May 19, 1891, MS. Inst. Hayti, III. 186, acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Douglass' No. 159, of May 2, 1891; "Haiti and the United States," by Mr. Douglass, N. Am. Rev., Sept. 1891, 337, and Oct., 1891, 450: The Haytian Question, by Verax, New York, 1891.

As to a coaling station in Peru, see Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hurlbut, min. to Peru, Nov. 22, 1881, and Dec. 3, 1881, For. Rel., 1881, 948, 955; Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hicks, min. to Peru, June 27, 1889, MS. Inst. Peru, XVII. 388; Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hicks, min. to Peru, tel., Dec. 4, 1889, MS. Inst. Peru, XVII. 399, saying: "Postpone consideration of coaling station until further advised."

The Department of State "has received no recent information as to the proposed sale of the Galapagos Islands by the Republic of Ecuador to Great Britain or to any other European power." (Report of Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to the President, Dec. 13, 1899, S. Doc. 41, 56 Cong. 1 sess.)

See, generally, Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hall, min. to Cent. Am., April 7, 1884, 18 MS. Inst. Cent. Am. 374; Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Mr. Sampson, min. to Ecuador, April 22, 1899, MS. Inst. Ecuador, I. 569; same to same, Dec. 11, 1899, MS. Inst. Ecuador, II. 15; same to same, March 28, 1900, id. 34; Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Sec. of Navy, Aug. 1, 1900, 246 MS. Dom. Let. 653; Nov. 15, 1900, 249 MS. Dom. Let. 116; Jan. 18, 1901, MS. Dom. Let.