regard to the recognition of its independence, to follow the directions given him in the case of Roumania." A letter was given to him, addressed to the Servian minister of foreign affairs, and accrediting him as the bearer of full powers from the United States to negotiate the treaties therein described. Acting under this special authority from the President, Mr. Schuyler concluded at Belgrade, October 2/14, 1881, the treaty with Servia concerning the rights and privileges of consuls.c Liberia. 14. STATES IN AFRICA AND THE EAST § 42. In 1822 the American Colonization Society founded a settlement on the west coast of Africa for freedmen and recaptured slaves. In 1847 this settlement, called Liberia, was constituted a republic, which was recognized in the following year by certain European powers. President Lincoln, in his first annual message, December 3, 1861, declared that if any good reason existed "why we should persevere longer in withholding our recognition of the independence and sovereignty of Hayti and Liberia," he was unable to discern it; but, being "unwilling" to "inaugurate a novel policy in regard to them without the approbation of Congress," he submitted for consideration "the expediency of an appropriation for maintaining a chargé d'affaires near each of those new states." By an act approved June 5, 1862, the President was "authorized, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint diplomatic representatives of the United States to the Republics of Hayti and Liberia, respectively," each of such representatives to be "accredited as commissioner and consul-general," and to receive a stated sum as compensation. No immediate appointment was made under this act to Liberia; but on Sept. 23, 1862, Mr. Adams, then United States minister to England, was empowered to conclude the treaty of commerce and navigation which he signed with the President of Liberia, at London, on the 25th of the ensuing October. June 24, 1871, a full power and letter of credence were given to Mr. Edgeomb, United States consul at Cape Town, as a speOrange Free State. cial agent to negotiate a treaty with the Orange Free State. He concluded a treaty at Bloemfontein, December 22, 1871. a Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Schuyler, May 23, 1881, MS. Inst. Roumania, I. 46. See For. Rel. 1881, 36. Mr. Schuyler's full power to negotiate and sign a treaty with Servia was sent to him on May 28, 1881. (MS. Inst. Roumania, I. 49.) Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Schuyler, July 15, 1881, MS. Inst. Roumania, I. 53. c March 6, 1882, the Prince of Servia, on the invitation of the Skuptchina, assumed the title of King. (Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, IV. 2785.) 12 Stat. 421. Mr. Henry Winter Davis, in House Report 129, 38 Cong. 1 Sess., on the joint resolution on Mexican affairs, expressed the view that Hayti and Liberia were recognized by this act. e Sen. Doc. 40, 54 Cong. 2 Sess. 8. "In 1879 a body was formed calling itself the International Association of the Congo, which was presided over by the Congo. King of the Belgians acting as a private individual, and of which the members and officials were subjects of civilized states. It founded establishments; it occupied territory; it obtained cessions of sovereignty and suzerainty from native chiefs. Yet it was neither legally dependent upon any state, nor did its members reject the authority of their respective governments, and establish themselves permanently on the soil as a de facto independent community." In 1884 this association represented to the United States that it had "by treaties with the legitimate sovereigns" in the basins of the Congo and adjacent regions obtained the cession of territory "for the use and benefit of Free States established and being established under the care and supervision of the said association in said basins and adjacent territories, to which cession the said Free States of right succeed;" that it had adopted for itself and the Free States in question a flag; that it and the Free States had resolved to levy no customs duties on goods imported by the route constructed around the Congo cataracts; that they guaranteed to foreigners settling in their territories "the right to purchase, sell, or lease lands and buildings situated therein, to establish commercial houses, and to there carry on trade, upon the sole condition that they shall obey the laws:" and that they would extend equal treatment to the citizens of all nations, and do all in their power to prevent the slave trade." These representations bear date April 22, 1884. On the same day Mr. Frelinghuysen. Secretary of State, duly empowered by the President, and with the advice and consent of the Senate previously given, declared "that, in harmony with the traditional policy of the United States, which enjoins a proper regard for the commercial interests of their citizens, while at the same time avoiding interference with controversies between other powers, as well as alliances with foreign nations, the Government of the United States announces its sympathy with and approval of the humane and benevolent purposes of the International Association of the Congo, administering, as it does, the interests of the Free States there established, and will order the officers of the United States, both on land and sea, to recognize the flag of the International African Association as the flag of a friendly government." By the act of July 7, 1884, Congress made an appropriation for "an agent to the States of the Congo, said agent to be charged with introducing and extending the commerce of the United States in * * * @Hall, Int. Law, 4th ed. 94. See, as to the origin of the association, S. Ex. Doc. 196, 49 Cong. 1 Sess. 351. See Mr. Kasson to Mr. Bayard, March 16, 1885, S. Ex. Doc. 196, 49 Cong. 1 Sess. 186. a the Congo Valley." Germany, by a convention concluded November 8, 1884, recognized the association as a "friendly State," while Great Britain, in December, by an exchange of declarations, after the manner of the United States, recognized its flag as that of a friendly government. "Within the next two months Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Russia, and Portugal had recognized the association as a government; Austria, Sweden and Norway, and Denmark had acknowledged it to be a State, and Belgium placed its flag on an equality with that of a friendly State." February 26, 1885, the association was permitted by the Berlin conference to adhere, by a formal declaration, as an independent state, to the general act concluded on that day. When King Leopold II., acting under the authority afterwards given him by the Belgian Chambers, announced the formation of the Independent State of the Congo and his assumption of the place of sovereign of the new state, the President of the United States formally recognized him in that character." * * "The Independent State of the Congo has been organized as a government, under the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, who assumes its chief magistracy in his personal character only, without making the new State a dependency of Belgium. The action taken by this Government last year in being the first to recognize the flag of the International Association of the Congo has been followed by formal recognition of the new nationality which succeeds to its sovereign powers. 66 "A conference of delegates of the principal commercial nations was a"When you were designated as agent to the States of the Congo Association it was not intended, either by this Department or by Congress, to actually accredit you to the government of the States of the Congo Association, as it was well known here that those States, as a political entity, did not exist. You were charged with introducing and extending the commerce of the United States in the Congo Valley, and in order to definitely fix the scope of your mission, you were designated as agent to the States of the Congo Association, because it was believed here that the residents of the region adjoining and including the Congo Valley seemed on the verge of establishing constitutional States by progressive movement in that direction." (Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Tisdel, Dec. 12, 1884, S. Ex. Doc. 196, 49 Cong. 1 sess. 357; see also Annual Message, Dec. 1, 1884.) Hall, Int. Law, 4th ed. 94. CS. Ex. Doc. 196, 49 Cong. 1 sess. 184, 295–296. d King Leopold to the President, Aug. 1, 1885; the President to King Leopold, Sept. 11, 1885, S. Ex. Doc. 196, 49 Cong. 1 sess. 326, 331. By a convention between Belgium and the Independent State of the Congo, concluded July 3, 1890, it was provided that Belgium would advance to the Independent State the sum of 25,000,000 francs, and that six months after the expiration of the term of ten years Belgium would, if it seemed good to do so, annex the Independent State of the Congo, with all the property, rights, and advantages attached to the sovereignty of that State, and fulfill its obligations toward third parties. (Rivier, Principes du Droit des Gens, I. 67.) * * * held at Berlin last winter to discuss methods whereby the Congo Basin might be kept open to the world's trade. Delegates attended on behalf of the United States on the understanding that their part should be merely deliberative, without imparting to the results any binding character so far as the United States were concerned. Notwithstanding the reservation under which the delegates of the United States attended, their signatures were attached to the general act in the same manner as those of the plenipotentiaries of other Governments, thus making the United States appear, without reserve or qualification, as signatories to a joint international engagement imposing on the signers the conservation of the territorial integrity of distant regions where we have no established interests or control. "This Government does not, however, regard its reservation of liberty of action in the premises as at all impaired; and holding that an engagement to share in the obligation of enforcing neutrality in the remote valley of the Congo would be an alliance whose responsibilities we are not in a position to assume, I abstain from asking the sanction of the Senate to that general act.” Annual message, Dec. 8, 1885. See, generally, as to the Berlin conference, the volume entitled "Affairs of the Corea. January 27, 1868, Mr. George F. Seward, consul-general at Shanghai, was empowered to negotiate a commercial and claims convention with the King of Chosen, or Corea." No treaty was made with the country, however, till March 22, 1882, when Commodore Shufeldt signed on the part of the United States the treaty of amity and commerce of that date." III. RECOGNITION OF NEW GOVERNMENTS. 1. FRANCE. August 16, 1792, Gouverneur Morris, then American minister at Paris, wrote to his Government that another revoluRevolution of 1792. tion had been effected in that capital, and that "it was bloody." He referred in this statement to the deposition of the King on the 10th of the month and the events that attended it. He asked a Sen. Doc. 40, 54 Cong. 2 sess. 8. "Your action in refusing to recognize that Corean independence dates from the 6th of June, 1895, is approved. The position assumed by this Government toward Corea since contracting a treaty with it in 1882 has in no wise been affected by recent events. Corea's treaty independence since then has been for us an established fact." (Mr. Adee, Acting Sec. of State, to Mr. Sill, minister to Corea, July 9, 1895, For. Rel. 1895, II, 971.) for instructions as to the conduct he should pursue "in the circumstances about to arise." The present executive was, he said, just born, and might be stifled in the cradle; and he found himself "in a state of contingent responsibility of the most delicate kind." a Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, November 7, 1792, replied: "It accords with our principles to acknowledge any Government to be rightful which is formed by the will of the nation, substantially declared. The late Government was of this kind, and was accordingly acknowledged by all the branches of ours; so any alteration of it which shall be made by the will of the nation, substantially declared, will doubtless be acknowledged in like manner. With such a Government every kind of business may be done. But there are some matters which I conceive might be transacted with a Government de facto, such, for instance, as the reforming the unfriendly restrictions on our commerce and navigation, such as you will readily distinguish as they occur. Writing to Morris again, March 12, 1793, in an instruction which has often been cited as a fundamental authority, Mr. Jefferson said: Jefferson to Morris, "I am sensible that your situation must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of government to the reestablishment of some other legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with whom business might be done. Nevertheless when principles are well understood their application is less embarrassing. We surely can not deny to any nation that right whereon our own Government is founded-that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases, and change these forms at its own will; and that it may transact its business with foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks proper, whether king, convention, assembly, committee, president, or anything else it may choose. The will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded. On the dissolution of the late constitution in France, by removing so integral a part of it as the King, the National Assembly, to whom a part only of the public authority had been delegated, appear to have considered themselves as incompetent to transact the affairs of the nation legitimately. They invited their fellow citizens therefore to appoint a national convention. In conformity with this their idea of the defective state of the national authority, you were desired from hence to suspend further payments of our debt to France till new orders, with an assurance however to the acting power that the suspension should not be continued a moment longer than should be necessary for us to see the reestablishment of some person or body of persons authorized a Am. St. Pap. For. Rel., I. 333, 334. Jefferson's Works, ed. by Washington, III. 489. |