Mr. Seward to Mr. Johnson. [Telegram per cable.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 24, 1868. Insist on convention like 1853, without now naming arbiter. Convention must be submitted to Senate and the country. Objection would be raised to any arbiter who could be named in advance. When convention goes into effect, the two governments can instruct the commissioners to agree on arbiter. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Dispatch received. Will try to hasten claims convention. REVERDY JOHNSON. Mr. Johnson to Mr. Seward. [Extract.] No. 40.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Your cipher telegrams, dated the 21st, 24th, and 27th instant, respectively, have been received. I was to have had an interview with Lord Stanley to-day, but he has just advised me that he is obliged to leave the city, and therefore to postpone our meeting until to-morrow. Under the authority given me by your cipher dispatch of the 24th instant, I hope and believe that I shall be able to conclude a convention in relation to the Alabama claims and other similar claims, as well as all other claims, upon the basis of the convention of the 8th of February, 1853. His lordship, however, is very reluctant to leave the decision of the first two of those claims to a board composed of subjects of her Majesty or citizens of the United States, with an authority to call in an umpire to be selected by themselves, because of the character of the questions of international law which they present. He prefers that these should be submitted to some foreign friendly government. But this I think he will consider will be accomplished by a convention under which the selection of an arbitrator is to be afterwards made by the two governments, and not by the commissioners. I fully appreciate the force of the objections suggested by you to the naming of an arbitrator in regard to these claims in the convention itself, that it might hazard its confirmation by the Senate and be more or less distasteful to the country. It is understood between us that the arbitrator is not to be restricted to the consideration of any one point upon which the claims may rest, but may consider every one involved in them. I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant, REVERDY JOHNSON. REVERDY JOHNSON. Expect to sign Alabama convention, as instructed, next week. SIR: Although my last cipher dispatch advised you that the Alabama claims question was going on favorably, I think it as well to repeat the information. Under the authority of your cipher dispatch of the 24th instant, I believe I shall be able to conclude a convention upon such terms as you and the President will approve, and it is more than probable that this may be accomplished before you receive this note, and that you will be advised of it by telegraph. * * I have, therefore, the strongest hope that the President will be able to communicate in his next annual message to Congress a satisfactory adjustment of all the matters which have for some years, to a certain extent, weakened the friendly relations between the two countries. * I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant, REVERDY JOHNSON. Hon, WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Mr. Johnson to Mr. Seward. No. 47.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, November 7, 1868. SIR: I have now the pleasure in saying to you that I have good reasons for believing that there will be no such delay in the execution of the convention relative to the Alabama claims as I anticipated in my confidential dispatch No. 44, of the 4th instant. I think at present that a convention on the subject will be signed in the course of the coming week, and hope to be able to send it to you by the bag of Wednesday or Saturday night. If a satisfactory arrangement is thus made of this perplexing, and, for a time, rather dangerous controversy, there will then be nothing remaining to prevent the return of perfectly friendly relations between the two countries, and that such a result will be satisfactory to the people of both, and inure greatly to their joint advantage, I can have no doubt. I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant, REVERDY JOHNSON. Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Mr. Seward to Mr. Johnson. [Telegram per cable-Extract.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 7, 1868. San Juan protocol right, except President Switzerland must be named arbitrator. Claims protocol will meet opposition. No. 49.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the gratification to inform you of the particulars of the joint convention, signed by Lord Stanley and myself on this day, for the settlement of all the claims that the citizens of either country may have against this government and the government of the United States. What are known as the Alabama claims are of course embraced by it. The first article provides for the appointment of four commissioners, two by each government. The board to meet in London at the earliest period subsequent to their appointment, and before considering any claims to agree upon an umpire. In the event of their not being able to come to a decision upon any claim, the questions are to be submitted to the umpire. In relation to all claims other than the Alabama claims, decisions may be made by a majority of the commissioners. This provision is contained in the second article. It also stipulates that each government is to appoint one person to represent it before the board as agent, and points out in general terms his duties. By the third article all claims are to be presented within six months from the day of their first meeting; but authority is given them to extend the time for their presentation three months longer. And the whole is to be closed within two years from the first-named day. Articles four, five, and six apply only to the Alabama claims. By the fourth, before the commissioners are to consider such claims, the two governments are to agree upon some "sovereign or head of a friendly state as an arbitrator in respect of such claims, to whom such class of claims shall be referred in case the commissioners shall be unable to come to a unanimous decision upon the same." By the fifth, if the arbitrator appointed under the authority of the fourth shall decide in favor of any or all of these claims, they are to be referred back to the commissioners to ascertain the amount due upon each. This may be decided by a majority; and if there be not a majority, the decision is to be made by the umpire appointed by the commissioners under the authority given them by the first article. By the sixth article, the correspondence and evidence in regard to these. claims, now in the possession of either government, are, without further argument or evidence, to be alone considered by the commissioners or the arbitrator, unless they unanimously, or he, shall call for further argument or evidence. By the seventh, the decision by the commissioners or the arbitrator, as the case may be, is made conclusive upon both governments. Under the eighth article no claims are to be received which may have arisen prior to the 26th of July, 1853, the date of the exchange of the ratifications of the convention of 8th February, 1853, these having all been adjusted by the commissioners under that treaty. Under the ninth article the awards are to be paid in coin, or its equivalent, without interest, within twelve months after the date of each award. The tenth article makes the decisions arrived at under the convention conclusive upon all claims presented; and all claims which might be presented, but are not, are also to be barred. The eleventh article contains some details, and gives the authority to appoint the secretary of the board to the principal secretary of state for foreign affairs and United States minister in London. The salaries of the commissioners are to be fixed and paid by each government appointing them. The remaining article provides that the ratifications of the convention are to be exchanged at London as soon as may be within twelve months from its date. It is proper that I should give, as briefly as may be necessary, my reasons for assenting to the convention, or rather to some of its provisions: 1st. You have heretofore refused to enter into an agreement to arbitrate the Alabama claims unless this government would agree that the question of its right to acknowledge as belligerents the late so-called southern confederacy be also included within the arbitration. You will see by the terms of the first and the fourth articles that that question, as well as every other which the United States may think is involved in such claims, is to be before the commissioners or the arbitrator. This is done by the use of general terms, and the omission of any specification of the questions to be decided. And my authority for agreeing to this is found in your original instructions of the 20th of July last, and is indeed to be found in the correspondence between yourself and my predecessor regarding these claims. 2d. Upon reflection I thought it better for our claimants, particularly the Alabama claimants, that the commission should sit in London instead of Washington, because nearly all if not all the evidence upon which they rest is to be found here or in Liverpool, and my instructions were silent as to the place of meeting. 3d. The provision that the awards are to be paid in coin, or its equivalent, I deemed to be due to good faith. As those which may be made in favor of our citizens against this government will be paid in coin, I thought it obviously just that those which may be made in favor of British subjects should be discharged in the same way. Hoping and not doubting that the convention will meet with the approval of the President and yourself, and receive the sanction of the Senate, I remain, with high regard, your obedient servant, Hon. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State. Convention between Great Britain and the the settlement of all outstanding claims. 10, 1868. REVERDY JOHNSON. United States of America for Whereas claims have at various times since the exchange of the ratifications of the convention between Great Britain and the United States of America, signed at London on the 8th of February, 1853, been made upon the government of her Britannic Majesty on the part of citizens of the United States, and upon the government of the United States on the part of subjects of her Britannic Majesty; and whereas some of such claims are still pending, and remain unsettled; her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the President of the United States of America, being of opinion that a speedy and equitable settlement of all such claims will contribute much to the maintenance of the friendly feeling which subsist between the two countries, have resolved to make arrangements for that purpose by means of a convention, and have named as their plenipotentiaries to confer and agree thereupon, that is to say: Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Right Honorable Edward Henry Stanley, commonly called Lord Stanley, a member of her Britannic Majesty's most honorable privy council, a member of Parliament, her principal secretary of state for foreign affairs; And the President of the United States of America, Reverdy Johnson, esquire, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the United States to her Britannic Majesty; Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed as follows: ARTICLE I. The high contracting parties agree that all claims on the part of subjects of her Britannic Majesty upon the government of the United States, and all claims on the part of citizens of the United States upon the government of her Britannic Majesty, which may have been presented |
