In case of the death, sickness or necessary absence of any Commissioner, his place may be supplied by the appointment of another Commissioner, in the manner before mentioned, or during the recess of the Senate, by the President of the United States. The Commissioners shall be authorized to hear and examine, on oath or affirmation, every question relating to such claims, and to receive all suitable authentic testimony concerning the same. In order to facilitate the proceedings of this Board, His Majesty the King of Denmark engages, when thereunto required, to cause to be delivered to any person or persons, who shall be duly authorized for that purpose, by the Government of the United States, in addition to the papers already delivered, all the acts, documents, ships' papers and prize proceedings, which may still remain in the archives of the High Court of Admiralty, or the Prize Tribunals of Denmark, relating to the seizure, detention, condemnation or confiscation, of the vessels, cargoes or property whatsoever, belonging to the citizens of the United States of America before the said tribunals. The Commissioners shall award, and cause to be distributed among the several parties, whose claims shall be allowed by the Board, the sum mentioned in Articles 1 and 2, in a ratable proportion to the amount of the respective claims thus allowed. ART. 4. In consideration of the renunciation and payment mentioned in Articles 1 and 2, on the part of His Majesty the King of Denmark, the Government of the United States declares itself entirely satisfied, not only in what concerns the said Government, but also in what concerns the citizens of the said United States, on account of the claims hitherto preferred, or which may hereafter be preferred,relating to the seizure, detention, condemnation or confiscation, of their vessels, cargoes, or property whatsoever, which in the last maritime war of Denmark, have taken place under the flag of Denmark, or in the States subject to the Danish sceptre; and the said claims shall consequently be regarded as definitively and irrevocably terminated. ART. 5. The intention of the two high contracting parties being solely to terminate, definitively and irrevocably, all the claims which have hitherto been preferred, they expressly declare that the present Convention is only applicable to the cases therein mentioned; and having no other object, can never, hereafter, be invoked by one or the other as a precedent or rule for the other. ART. 6. The present Convention shall be duly ratified by the high contracting parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, in the space of ten months, or sooner if possible. In faith thereof, and in virtue of our respective full powers, we have signed the present Convention, and have thereunto set the seals of our arms. [L. S.] Done at Copenhagen, this 28th day of March, 1830. HENRY WHEATON, E. H. SCHIMMELMANN, STEMANN, L. S. [L. S. The said Convention was duly ratified on both parts, and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged at Washington, by MARTIN VAN BUREN, Secretary of State of the United States, on the part of said States, and the Chevalier PETER PEDERSON, Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Dannebrog, His Danish Majesty's Councillor of Conference and His Minister Resident and Consul General in the United States, on the part of His said Majesty. Papers relating to the Arrangement in Relation to the Trade between the United States and the British Colonies, &c. To the Senate of the United States: the United States, an apprehension I communicate to Congress was entertained by the Governthe papers relating to the recent ment of Great Britain, that, under arrangement with Great Britain the contemplated arrangement, with respect to the trade between claims might be set up, on our her colonial possessions and the part, inconsistent with the propoUnited States, to which reference sitions submitted by our minister, was made in my message at the and with the terms to which she opening of the present session. was willing to agree; and that this circumstance led to explanations between Mr McLane and the Earl of Aberdeen, respecting the intentions of Congress, and the true construction to be given to the act referred to. It will appear from those documents, that, owing to the omission in the act of the 29th May last of a clause expressly restricting importations into the British colonies in American vessels to the productions of the United States; to the amendment engrafted upon that act in the House of Representatives, providing that, when the trade with the West India colonies should be opened, the commercial intercourse of the United States with all other parts of the British dominions or possessions should be left on a footing not less favorable to the United States than it now is; and to the act not specifying the terms upon which British vessels coming from the northern colonies should be admitted to enter into the ports of To the interpretation given by them to that act, I did not hesitate to agree. It was quite clear that, in adopting the amendment referred to, Congress could not have intended to preclude future alterations in the existing intercourse between the United States and other parts of the British dominions; and the supposition that the omission to restrict, in terms, the importations to the productions of the country to which the vessels respectively belong, was intentional, was precluded by the propositions previously made by this Gov ernment to that of Great Britain, and which were before Congress, at the time of the passage of the act, by the principles which govern the maritime legislation of the two countries, and by the provisions of the existing commercial treaty between them. Actuated by this view of the subject, and convinced that it was in accordance with the real intentions of Congress, I felt it my duty to give effect to the arrangement by issuing the required proclamation, of which a copy is likewise herewith communicated, ANDREW JACKSON. Washington, 3d January, 1831. Extracts of a letter from Mr Van produce or manufacture of the nations to which such foreign ships or vessels might belong-such repeal to take effect in favor of any foreign nation which should abolish similar duties, so far as they operated to the disadvantage of the United States. In the year 1817, they restricted the importation into the United States, in foreign vessels, to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the country to which such vessels belonged, or as could only be, or were most usually shipped in the first instance from such country; provided that such regulation should not extend to the vessels of any foreign nation which had not adopted, or should not adopt a similar regulation with regard to them. In the year 1824, they declared the suspension of all discriminating duties, in relation to the vessels and produce of several European nations, and of their territories in Europe, which had accepted of the terms proffered by the act of 1815, and conferred authority upon the President to extend the same exemption to all nations thereafter complying with its requirements; and in 1828, an act was passed, authorizing the President to extend the exemp First. The trade between the United States and the British American Colonies. The policy of the United States in relation to their commercial intercourse with other nations is founded on principles of perfect equality and reciprocity. By the adoption of these principles, they have endeavored to relieve themselves from the discussions, discontents, and embarrassments, inseparable from the imposition of burthensome discriminations. These principles tion in regard to alien duties, were avowed while they were yet struggling for their independence, are recorded in their first treaty, and have since been adhered to with the most scrupulous fidelity. In the year 1815, they repealed all their acts imposing the vessels of any nation which discriminating tonnage duties on would allow a similar exemption foreign ships or vessels, and of in favor of the United States. impost, so far as respected the which, by the acts of 1815 and 1824, was restricted to the productions of the country to which the vessel belongs, to the productions of any foreign country imported into the United States in The terms proposed by our act ject of this country, and, until a very late period, the avowed wish of Great Britain. cember, 1826, there has been a total non-intercourse between the United States and the British American colonies in British vessels, and the same in regard to American vessels, (with the exception of the permission allowed to the latter, to carry on a direct trade with the British North American possessions, the Baba of 1815 were adopted in the commercial treaty between the United States and Great Britain in the same year, which has been The twelve years which have twice extended, and is now in full elapsed have, with occasional inforce. By it, the commercial in- termission, been employed in entercourse between the United deavors to arrange those terms by States and the British possessions negotiation, or to secure them in Europe is established upon just through the agency of separate and equal terms. The United legislative enactinents; and alStates desired to place their trade though the two Governments have with the British American colo- more than once concurred in each nies on the same footing. The other's views as to the conditions Government of Great Britain to which they would assent, their would not then consent to that respective acts have resulted in arrangement, and it was conse- the almost entire suppression of quently stipulated in the treaty the trade. Since the 1st of Dethat the intercourse between the United States and His Britannic Majesty's possessions in the West Indies, and on the continent of North America, should not be affected by any of its provisions, and that each party should remain in complete possession of its respective rights with regard to such intercourse. The trade and intercourse between the United ma Islands, and the Island of States and the British colonies Anguilla, upon terms prescribed previous to and at that time, were by Great Britain alone.) The only such as were permitted by acts of the two Governments British legislation, or regulation which have led to this result are by orders in Council. It had al- so intimately connected with the ways been of a restricted and positions which they respectively unequal character, and every pre- occupy, and of a nature calculavious attempt to place it upon ted to have so much influence on just terms had wholly failed. the measures of conciliation and Since 1815, both Governments have uniformly admitted it to be their belief that a commercial intercourse between the United States and the British colonial possessions referred to, upon terms of fair reciprocity, would promote their mutual interests. To establish it upon such terms has always been the sincere ob redress which may be adopted, as to render it important that they should be fully known and accurately understood. Your participation in the public councils has given you a general view of their principal outlines; but it is thought advisable to furnish you with a more particular exposition than the opportunities you have enjoy ed would allow you to obtain. A very brief sketch of such as are most prominent is, with this view, submitted to you. The direct trade between the United States and Great Britain was found to be so interwoven with and dependent upon, that between the United States and the colonies, as, in a great measure, to deprive the former of the advantages intended to be secured to them by the treaty of 1815, so long as the intercourse with the colonies was monopolized by British navigators. Several efforts were consequently made, between the years 1815 and 1818, to induce the British Government to adjust this collision of interests by amicable negotiation. They were unsuccessful. In 1817, a proposition was submitted to our Minister at London by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord Castlereagh, which was said to contain all that could then be assented to by Great Britain towards admitting the United States to a participation in the trade between them and the colonies. By this it was proposed to extend to the United States the provisions of their free port acts, which authorized a limited trade with portions of her colonies to the colonial inhabitants of foreign European possessions, in vessels of one deck, with some additional provisions in relation to the trade with Bermuda, Turks Island, and the British territories in North Ameri ca. The terms contained in this proposition were decided by the Government of the United States to be inadmissible, and counter vailing measures were resorted to. The act of Congress of the 18th of April, 1818, concerning navigation, was passed. Its object was to counteract acts of a like character long before existing on the part of Great Britain, restrictive of the trade with her colonies in vessels of the United States. By that act, the ports of the United States were closed against British vessels coming from any British colony, which was, by the ordinary laws of navigation and trade, closed against vessels of the United States; and British vessels sailing with cargoes from ports of the United States were laid under bonds to land their cargoes in some port or place other than a colony closed against vessels of the United States. The negotiation was in the same year renewed, and another attempt, equally unsuccessful, was made to open the trade, and establish it upon principles which were claimed by our Government to be those of fair reciprocity. The act of Congress of the 15th of May, 1820, supplementary to an act entitled "An act concerning navigation," followed. By it the ports of the United States were, after a certain day, closed against British vessels coming or arriving by sea from any British colonial port in the West Indies or America; and similar bonds were required from British vessels sailing from the ports of the United States, not to land their cargoes in any British American colony. Articles of British West Indian and North American produce were allowed by this act to be imported into the United States, |