or Board, be considered and treated as finally settled, barred, and henceforth inadmissible." What the United States will at lish. In accordance with the provisions of Article III of the Treaty, the United States have the tempt to estabhonor to lay before the Tribunal of Arbitration this their "Printed Case," accompanied by the documents, the official correspondence, and other evidence on which they rely. They propose to show, by a historical statement of the course pursued by the British Government toward the United States, from the outbreak of the insurrection in the Southern States of the United States, that there was on the part of the British Government a studied unfriendliness or fixed predispositon adverse to the United States, which furnished a constant motive for the several acts of omission and commission, hereinafter complained of, as inconsistent with its duty as a neutral. Having adduced the evidence of this fact, the United States will next endeavor to indicate to the Tribunal of Arbitration what they deem to have been the duties of Great Britain toward the United States, in respect to the several cruisers which will be named in this paper. They will then endeavor to show that Great Britain failed to perform those duties, both generally, and specifically as to each of the cruisers; and that such failure involved the liability to remunerate What the United the United States for losses thus inflicted upon States will at tempt to establish. Evidence and documents, and them, upon their citizens, and upon others protected by their flag. Lastly, they will endeavor to satisfy the Tribunal of Arbitration that it can find, in the testimony which will be offered by the United States, ample material for estimating the amount of such injuries, and they will ask the Tribunal to exercise the powers conferred upon it by Article VII of the Treaty, in awarding "a sum in gross, to be paid by Great Britain to the United States, for all the claims referred to." In April, 1869, the President communicated how referred to. to the Senate a mass of official correspondence and other papers relating to those claims, which was printed in five volumes. These, and two additional volumes, containing further correspondence, evidence, and documents, accompany this case. The whole will form "the documents, the official correspondence, and the other evidence on which [the United States] relies," which is called for by Article III of the Treaty. Reference will be made throughout this paper to these volumes thus: "Vol. I, page 1," &c., &c., &c. The United States understand, however, that they may, under the terms of the Treaty, present hereafter "additional documents, correspondence, and evidence," and they reserve the right to do so. PART II. THE UNFRIENDLY COURSE PURSUED BY GREAT BRITAIN TOWARD THE UNITED TO THE In 1860 the United States had been an inde Relations of the United States ain prior to 1860. pendent nation for a period of eighty-four years, with Great Britand acknowledged as such by Great Britain for a period of seventy-seven years. During this period, while sharing to a remarkable extent in the general prosperity of the Christian Powers, they had so conducted their relations toward those Powers as to merit, and they believed that they had secured, the good-will and esteem of all. Their prosperity was the result of honest thrift; their exceptional increase of population was the fruit of a voluntary immigration to their shores; and the vast extension of their domain was acquired by purchase and not by conquest. From no people had they better right to expect a just judgment than from the people of Great Britain. In 1783, the War of Separation had been closed by a treaty of peace, which adjusted all the questions then pending between the two Governments. In 1794, new questions having arisen, United States with Great Brit Relations of the growing out of the efforts of France to make the ports of the United States a base of hostile operations against Great Britain, a new treaty was made, ain prior to 1860. at the instance of the United States, by which all For an abstract of this act see Vol. IV, pp. 102–103. In Relations of the ain prior to 1860. passed an act authorizing the Government to exer- United States cise exceptional powers to maintain the national with Great Britneutrality. In 1842 the Government of the United States met a British Envoy in a spirit of conciliation, and adjusted by agreement the disputed boundary between Maine and the British Possessions. In 1846 they accepted the proposal of Great Britain, made at their own suggestion, to adopt the forty-ninth parallel as a compromise-line between the two Columbias, and to give to Great Britain the whole of Vancouver's Island. In 1850 they waived, by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, the right of acquisition on the Isthmus, across which for many years the line of communication from one part of their dominions to the other must run. In 1854, they conferred upon the people of the British Possessions in North America the advantages of a free, full commercial intercourse with the United States for their products, without securing corresponding benefits in return. Thus a series of difficult questions, some of which might have led to war, had been peaceably arranged by negotiations, and the increasing intercourse of the two nations was constantly fostered by continuing acts of friendliness on the part of the Government of the United States. tions of the two All the political relations of the United States Friendly relawith England, with the exception of the episode of the war of 1812, had been those of increasing amity and friendship, confirmed by a repeated Governments 1860. in |