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

Mr Morris to Mr. Seward.

No. 181.]

Legation of the United States of America, Constantinople, November 30, 1866.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit enclosed a translation of a note of his Highness Aali Pacha, relative to the recent arrival and settlement of a colony of American emigrants in Palestine, in the vicinity of Jaffa.

In the early part of the present year I received two communications, one from Hon. L. M. Morrill, of the United States Senate, and the other from Rev. Mr. Adams, the head of this colony, asking for a grant of land from the Sultan for its uses. The negative answer made by the minister of foreign affairs to the prayer of the applicants was transmitted to Mr. Morrill, and Mr. Adams before the departure of the colonists from the States, which I supposed it would have prevented.

The policy of the Turkish government does not favor the acquisition of real estate by foreigners, and the laws of the empire do not authorize the granting of fee-simple titles to foreigners. If the Porte were to give its consent to the establishment of the colony in question, it would sanction a violation of the standard policy and legislation of the empire, and would establish a precedent for the creation of similar settlements by subjects of other countries also. It is under the apprehension of the consequences of its expressed or tacit authorization of the establishment of the American colony in question that it deems it its duty to officially declare that it does not meet its consent.

The laws of the empire, I beg to add, are very liberal to that class of emigrants who propose to become subjects of the Sultan, conferring on them grants of land, and exempting them from taxes for a certain term of years.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. JOY MORRIS.

Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.

[Translation.]

Aali Pacha to Mr. Morris.

Sublime Porte, Bureau of Foreign Affairs, November 28, 1866.

Sir: The governor of Jerusalem has recently informed the Sublime Porte that some forty American families have arrived at Jaffa, for the purpose of establishing a colony in that neighborhood.

It is unnecessary, sir, to remind you that the imperial government has always manifested an earnest desire to grant all possible facilities to strangers who resort to this empire as travellers, or for the purpose of engaging in industrial or commercial pursuits, but the object of the emigration of such a number of families at the same time is evidently with a view to the colonization of a part of the empire, and to the acquisition of landed property. On the other hand, if such a precedent should be admitted, the proprietorship of the soil and the agriculture of one of the most important provinces of the empire would inevitably, to the great detriment of the native population, pass into the hands of the new colonies, that would not fail to follow the first.

The imperial government therefore believes it to be its duty, in regard to the interests of the population of the empire, to notify the legation of the United States that it cannot give its consent to the establishment of these families in Palestine.

AALI.

Mr. E. Joy Morris, Minister of the United States of America.