FUNDED I

UNITED STA

Hon.Hamilton Fish, Secretary of St disposition of Congress as provided in IN TH

To FIFTEEN MILLION FIVE HU This houd is issued in accordance with the provisions of an A NATIONAL DEBT, approved July 14.1870, amended by an Act appro after the first day of May, A.D.1881, in COIN of the standard value from the day of the date hereof, at the rate of five percentum per annu in each year. The principal and interest are exempt from the paymen form, by or under State TRANSFERABLE OND P

ACT OF JU

معبد

DAN OF 1881.

TES AMERICA

e, intrust to be held subject to the future e Act approved March 3.1873.Chap.CCLXI. SUM OF

DRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

Tof CONGRESS entitled "An Act to authorize the refunding of the ed January 20.1871" and is redeemable at the pleasure of the UNITED STATES the UNITED STATES, on said July 14.1870, with interest,in such COIN, ble quarterly, on the first day of February, May, August, and November, XES or DUTIES of the UNITED STATES as well as from Taxation in any al or Local authority.

exchange of the ratifications of the treaty a question arose as to the proper construction of that clause of the second rule by which the neutral was bound "not to permit or suffer either belligerent to make use of its ports or waters for

the purpose of the renewal or augmentation of military supplies or arms." This question arose in England very soon after the conclusion of the treaty, and an effort was made to secure the adoption by the Senate of the United States, simultaneously with its approval of the treaty, of a resolution setting forth its opinion (1) that the acts prohibited by the clause in doubt were prohibited only when done for the service of a vessel cruising or carrying on war, or intended to cruise or carry on war, against either of the belligerents," and (2) that the prohibition "did not extend to any exportation from the neutral country of arms or other military supplies in the ordinary course of commerce.' It seems that the second clause was inserted in the resolution by Mr. Fish after consultation with Judge Hoar. The Senate gave its approval to the treaty, but laid the resolution on the table; and the objection which the British Government had encountered still remained. On the 9th of June 1871 General Schenck telegraphed to Mr. Fish that it seemed probable that, in order to remove "serious objections" to the ratification of the treaty, some declaration would have to be made so limiting the interpretation of the second rule as not to restrict sales of arms or other military supplies in the ordinary course of commerce, and he inquired whether the President would authorize an expression to that effect in bringing the rules to the knowledge of other maritime powers and asking their assent to them. On the following day Mr. Fish replied that the President understood and insisted that the rule did not "prevent the open sale of arms or other military supplies in the ordinary course of commerce," and that the United States would, in bringing the rules to the knowledge of other powers and asking their assent to them, insist that such was their proper interpretation and meaning.3

On the 17th of June 1871, the day the ratifications of the treaty were exchanged at London, Earl Granville sent to Sir Edward Thornton a draft of a note to be used in presenting the three rules to the several maritime powers. In this note

Br. and For. State Papers, LXV. 393.

2 Id. 399.

3S. Ex. Doc. 26, 45 Cong. 3 sess. 3.