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obtain the acceptance of the Marcy amendment of 1854. Early in 1868 Seward declined to authorize the inclusion of an immunity proposition in a treaty with the North German Union, as he believed the immediate conditions unfavorable. When Bismarck announced that in the war with France private property would not be seized, Secretary of State Fish was hopeful that the principle of immunity might soon be universally recognized, and he authorized its inclusion in a treaty with the North German Union. Three years later, in a treaty between the United States and Italy, provision was made that in case of war between them the private property not contraband of their respective nationals should be exempt from seizure by the armed forces of either party, but that this exemption should not extend to vessels and cargoes attempting to enter a blockaded port.

President McKinley in December, 1898, stated that the experiences of that year had brought forcibly home the desirability for immunity. He recommended that Congress should authorize him to enter into negotiations with maritime nations with a view to incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the exemption at sea of private property not contraband of war. President Roosevelt in 1903 renewed this recommendation, and during the next year Congress passed a resolution authorizing the Executive to further the proposition.

The American delegates to the Hague Conference of 1899 were instructed to present to the Conference a proposition for immunity. On the basis of this instruction the delegates made a formal definite proposal for immunity of private property, qualified in relation to contraband and blockade as in the treaty with Italy. The Secretary of State in 1907 instructed the delegates to the Hague Conference of that year that they were to propose again the proposition for immunity which the American delegation had offered to the earlier Conference.

DOCUMENTS

DOCUMENTS
1

Resolutions of the Continental Congress Regarding Captured Vessels and Cargoes, November 25, 17751

The Congress resumed the report of the Committee on General Washington's letter, and the same being debated by paragraphs, was agreed to as follows:

The Committee to whom so much of the letter from General Washington to the president of-the-Congress' dated the 8th Instant as relates to the disposal of the vessels and cargoes belonging to the enemy, which shall fall into the hands of or be taken by the inhabitants of the united colonies and so much of the report of the committee of Congress, which lately went to the Camp at Cambridge as related to that subject, were referred, have examined the matter · thereof and directed the same, as it appears to them, together with the resolutions of the Committee thereupon to be reported as followeth.

Whereas, it appears to your Committee from undoubted information, that many vessels which had cleared at the respective custom houses in these colonies, agreeable to the regulations established by acts of the British parliament, have in a lawless manner, without even the semblance of just authority, been seized by his majesty's ships of war, and carried into the harbour of Boston and other ports, where they have been riffled of their cargoes, by orders of his majesty's naval and military officers, there commanding, without the said vessels having been proceeded against by any form of trial, and without the charge of having offended against any law.

1 Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. III, pp. 371–375.

2 Deletion appears in text.

3

The portion of the letter referred to (printed in The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford, vol. III, pp. 203-204) is as follows:

"A vessel said to be from Philadelphia and bound to Boston with 120 pipes of wine (118 of which are secured) stranded at a place called Eastham, in a gale of wind on the 2d inst. Another from Boston to Halifax with dry goods, &c. (amounting per invoice to about 240£ lawful) got disabled in the same gale near Beverly. These cargoes, with the papers, I have ordered to this place, the vessels to be taken care of until further orders. I have also an account of the taking of a wood sloop bound to Boston, and carried into Portsmouth by one of our armed vessels-particulars not yet come to hand, and this instant of two others from Nova Scotia to Boston, with hay, wood, live stock, &c., by another of our armed schooners. These are in Plymouth.

These accidents and captures point out the necessity of establishing proper courts without loss of time for the decision of property, and the legality of seizures. Otherwise I may be involved in inextricable difficulties."

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