Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Accompanying the Annual Message of the President to the Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part IV

Mr. Harvey to Mr. Seward.

No. 278.]

Legation of the United States, Lisbon, May 19, 1864.

Sir:Her Majesty’s government has just published a decree (of which I enclose a copy in translation) intended to promote the culture of cotton in the province of Angola, one of its African colonies.

The soil and climate of that country are well adapted to the production of the plant, but it may be doubted if the mere inducement of prizes will serve to advance an object which the temptations of high prices and short supplies have failed to attain.

With a system of skilled and organized labor the Portuguese possessions in Africa might be made immensely valuable, but this requires more capital, enterprise, and energy than the country can now furnish, and hence there is no serious prospect of immediate competition in the production of cotton from that quarter.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,

JAMES E. HARVEY.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Navy Department.

It being convenient to regulate the manner in which the prizes referred to in articles 3 and 4 of the law of 4th December, 1861, are to be awarded to all growers of cotton in the province of Angola, I am hereby pleased, in conformity with the opinion of the colonial council, remitted under date of 3d instant, to approve the regulations which form part of the present decree, and are countersigned by the secretary of state for marine and colonial affairs.

Let the said minister and secretary of state thus understand these presents and put the same, in execution.

Royal Palace, 13th May, 1864.

KING.

José da Silva Mendes. [seal.]

Regulations referred to in the decree of this date, and of which they form a part, for the execution of articles 3 and 4 of the decree of 4th December, 1861, granting sundry prizes to cotton-growers in the province of Angola.

Article 1. All land-owners in the province of Angola, who may have the most extensive and best plantations of cotton, may lay claim to and receive through the state treasury, in each year up to 1872, one of the following prizes: One prize of 4,000||000 reis; one prize of 2,000||000 reis; four prizes of 1,000||000 reis, each.

Article 2. All cotton-growers under the following heads are considered as competitors for the aforesaid prizes, as follows:

As competing for the first prize, all such as may have at least 500 hectares of ground under said cultivation.

As competing for the second prize, all such as have from 300 to 500 hectares.

As competing for the third prize, all such as have from 100 to 300 hectares,

§ Solus. The plantations may be in contiguous or separate pieces of land.

Article 3. The plantations are to be under a regular and careful state of cultivation, and the ground occupied in such manner as that there shall not be less than 2,000 cotton shrubs in each hectare, and no prize to be claimed for the cultivation of arboraceous cotton.

Article 4. In the granting of prizes, according to the respective area of culture, the preference is to be given to all such proprietors as cultivate cotton of the following species, and in the following order: 1st, long cotton, (sea island;) 2d, short cotton, (upland;) 3d, Brazil cotton; 4th, Indian cotton; 5th, any other species of shrub or arboraceous cotton.

Article 5. Once a prize has been given to one plantation, the same cannot receive a similar prize in subsequent years, nor can more than one prize be conceded. to one cultivator in the same year.

Article 6. All proprietors wishing to compete for any of the aforesaid prizes must petition the governor general to that effect within the time to be published by the latter in the Provincial Bulletin, stating the title of his property, its situations, and the extent of the plantations, together with the quality of cotton grown thereon—addressing his said petition through the chief or governor of the district where the cultivated ground lies, so that these authorities may add their information to the petition.

Article 7. The governor general shall name such committees as he may see fit to survey the grounds and verify the title of the property, its extent and state of improvement, culture and quality of the cotton.

§ 1. These committees are to consist of one of the chiefs of the nearest districts to the plantations, who is to be the chairman; the provincial engineer, and in his absence, of a duly authorized surveyor, and of a planter of the same or other locality, named by the governor general; the scrivener or secretary of the district to act as secretary.

§ 2. The results of these surveys are to be recorded, authentically, in books or especial registers, to be furnished by the state, and signed by the respective surveyors and members present.

§ 3. These books or registers are to serve for one year only, and to be countersigned by the governor general, with an entry, at the commencement thereof, and one at the closing of the same, under his signature.

Article 8. The members of committees are to receive daily pay or remuneration, to be stipulated by the governor general in council, and are to have a free passage by sea, if necessary, in a government vessel, or in a merchant ship, in the absence of men-of-war.

§ 1. The expenses declared in the present article are to be defrayed through the item expressed in article 31, of the Budget of the Angola province, approved by the law of 21st July, 1863, for the protection of the cotton growth, or through any other article which may in future be adopted.

§ 2. The expenses of surveys of all lands under an area of twenty-five hectares are to be paid by the proprietor interested.

Article 9. Any proprietor intending to compete for a prize, and whose plantation is under 100 hectares, will be responsible for the payment of all expenses incurred in virtue of his intention as aforesaid, and these expenses are to be claimed and exacted as debts to the state.

Article 10. The committees whilst surveying will collect a portion of cotton pods from the land under examination, and after closing and putting them up in such manner as to prevent their substitution, are to deliver the same along with the book declared in article 7 to the governor general, so soon as they shall have closed their investigations.

Article 11. After the surveys on such plantations as are competing for prizes, the governor general in council is to name three commercial jurors to examine and classify the cotton treated of in the preceding article. The examination is to be made in presence of the governor and his council and the members of such committees as may then find themselves in the provincial capital, and the same is to be reduced to a deed of writing in a special book, and to be signed by all.

Article 12. During the same sitting (if time permit) or at another meeting the governor general, after obtaining the assenting vote of the council, shall proceed to adjudicate such prizes as shall have been awarded; and in case he dissent from the opinion or vote of the council, the affair shall be submitted to the decision of the home government, accompanied by all the respective documents and vouchers.

Article 13. The prize having been adjudicated, the governor general is to issue an order (portario) in legal form to the finance “junta,” in order that the party interested may receive the amount of his prize.

Department of Marine and Colonial, May 13, 1864.

JOSE DA SILVA MENDES. [seal.]