Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams.
Sir: Many free persons of African derivation residing within the United States have made known to the President their desires to emigrate to foreign countries if they could do so with the consent of the government and with [Page 203] guarantees of its guardian care over them while arranging their departure and pursuing their voyages, choosing their new homes and purchasing lands, or otherwise contracting for their permanent location and settlement abroad, and especially securing them, in every event, against being hereafter reduced to slavery or bondage. It is believed that the number of this class of persons so disposed to emigrate is augmenting and will continue to increase.
On the other hand, some foreign governments situated within the tropics, and others having colonies or dependencies there, have intimated to the President a desire to receive such accessions to their population upon conditions favorable to the welfare, prosperity, and happiness of the emigrants.
In view of these facts, the President has authorized me to enter into negotiations upon the subject with the government of Great Britain, if it shall be inclined to such a course.
It is not within the purposes of this communication to present the project of a convention, but simply to state some of the general principles which this government supposes proper to be recognized in any treaties which may be contracted with reference to the objects which I have presented.
First. That all emigration of persons of African derivation to take place under the stipulations of the treaty shall be perfectly free and voluntary on the part of adults, and with the full and expressed consent of parents and guardians for minor children and wards.
Second. That agents of the government desiring to receive such emigrants shall be recognized by this government and authorized to solicit such emigration, but such agents shall be appointed by such government or with its sanction. Their names, with the dates of their appointments and the terms for which they are to continue, shall be made known to this government, which shall engage to protect them while peacefully and inoffensively pursuing their occupation, but shall have always a right to require the dismissal of any such agent whose conduct or deportment shall be found injurious to the peace, safety, or welfare of the United States.
When any government which shall have entered into the treaty shall have obtained the consent of a colony or party of emigrants, a record of their names, ages, sexes, and conditions shall be made up with their proposed place of embarcation and destination, duly attested and verified. Such government shall then cause them, with their personal effects, to be received with all convenient despatch on board of sea-worthy vessels, which shall afford them healthful and convenient accommodations of space, air, food, water, and other necessaries for their intended voyage, and shall, in all cases, suffer no cruelty, inhumanity, or unnecessary severity to be practiced upon them. And families so emigrating shall not be separated without their consent. Any party of such emigrants who may desire it may be attended by an agent, being a citizen of the United States, to be selected by them and approved by the government, who may remain with them during the voyage and after their arrival at their destination, until they shall have been established in their new settlement; but such agent shall be paid by them or by the United States, and he shall be liable to be removed or recalled by this government and may be replaced upon representation from the other contracting party that his proceedings or conduct are disloyal or offensive to the government receiving such emigrants.
On arriving at the place of debarkation such emigrants shall be furnished with plain but comfortable dwellings, one for each family, or with comfortable homes in the families of resident inhabitants of the country, and either with lands to be occupied and owned by themselves adequate to their support and maintenance, they practicing ordinary industry in cultivating the same, or else with employment on hire, with provision for their wants, and [Page 204] compensation adequate to their support and maintenance, clothing, and medicines and an education of the children in the simple elements of knowledge, which provision shall continue for the term of five years, minors and infants being permitted to reside with their parents and guardians during their minority, unless apprenticed with the consent of their parents and guardians. All such emigrants and their posterity shall forever remain free, and in no case be reduced to bondage, slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for crime; and they shall specially enjoy liberty of conscience and the right to acquire, hold, and transmit property, and all other privileges of person common to inhabitants of the country in which they reside. It should be farther stipulated that in cases of indigence resulting from injury, sickness, or age, any of such emigrants who shall become paupers shall not thereupon be suffered to perish or to come to want, but shall be supported and cared for as is customary with similar inhabitants of the country in which they shall be residents.
You are authorized to bring this subject to the attention of Earl Russell, and to inquire whether the British government has a desire to enter into such a negotiation. Should an affirmative answer be given, you may transmit to this department any suggestions that Earl Russell may desire to make in the premises, and you will, upon due consideration of the same, be furnished with a draft of a convention.
It should be understood that it is not desired by the United States to give to any State a monopoly of the proposed emigration, but to open its benefits on equal terms to all States within the tropics, or having colonies there, which, maintaining free constitutional governments, shall desire those benefits. As it might be expedient to fix upon a definite period for the duration of the proposed treaty, you may suggest ten years as the term, with the privilege, after that time, of terminating it at the expiration of one year’s notice to that effect.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Charles Francis Adams, Esq., &c., &c., &c.
Same, mutatis mutandis, addressed to ministers of the United States at Paris, the Hague, Copenhagen.