Mr. Johnson to Mr. Seward
No. 35.]
Legation of the United States,
London,
October 17, 1868.
Sir: I am glad to tell you that I have this day
signed with Lord Stanley a protocol for the settlement, by arbitration,
of the northwest boundary controversy. By the first article the arbiter
is “to determine what is the line which,” according to the terms of the
treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, “runs southerly through the middle of
the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver’s island and of
Fuca’s straits to the Pacific ocean.”
By the second, if the arbiter shall be unable to determine what is such
line, he is then to decide “upon some line which,” in his opinion, “will
furnish an equitable solution of the difficulty, and be the nearest
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approximation that can be made
to an accurate construction of the words of the treaty.”
By the fourth, the decision of the arbiter, whatever it may be under the
authority conferred upon him, is agreed to be final and conclusive upon
both governments.
By the third, in the discharge of his duty the arbiter is given the right
to consult all correspondence which has been had between the two
governments on the subject, and all the evidence or other matters which
were before the commissioners heretofore appointed to run the line, and
all evidence that either government may produce.
By the first, the arbiter, who is to be some friendly sovereign or state,
is to be selected by the two governments within three months after the
ratification of the convention.
Not being authorized to make this arrangement at once operative because
of the restrictions contained in your modified instructions in your
dispatch No. 20, of the 23d of September, it is provided that the
convention is not to be final until the naturalization question is
conclusively settled by treaty or act of Parliament, or both, unless the
two governments in the interval shall otherwise agree. The
subject-matters of the submission, you will see, are those contained in
Lord Lyons’s dispatch to Secretary Cass, of the 10th of December, 1860,
and which, as I understand by your original instructions to me in
dispatch No. 2, of the 20th of July, 1868, I was authorized to consent
to.
The protocol accompanies this dispatch, and I hope that it will receive
the sanction of the President and yourself.
This matter having been disposed of, I am to have an interview with Lord
Stanley on Tuesday next, to commence negotiating as to what is known as
the Alabama claims question, and I believe that I shall be able at an
early day to communicate to you a satisfactory adjustment of it.
I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
Protocol.
The undersigned, Reverdy Johnson, esq., envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, and Edward
Henry, Lord Stanley, her Britannic Majesty’s principal secretary of
state for foreign affairs, being respectively authorized and
empowered to place on record the basis on which the United States of
America and her Majesty, the Queen of the United kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, are prepared to close all further discussion
with regard to the true direction of the line of water boundary
between their respective possessions, as laid down in article I of
the treaty concluded between them on the 15th of June, 1846, have
agreed upon the following protocol:
I.
Whereas it was stipulated, by article I of the treaty concluded at
Washington on the 15th of June, 1846, between the United States of
America and her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, that the line of boundary between the
territories of the United States and those of her Britannic Majesty,
from the point on the 49th parallel of north latitude up to which it
had already been ascertained, should be continued westward along the
said parallel of north latitude “to the middle of the channel which
separates the continent from Vancouver’s island, and thence
southerly, through the middle of the said channel and of Fuca’s
straits, to the Pacific ocean;” and whereas the commissioners
appointed by the two high contracting parties to mark out that
portion of the boundary which runs southerly through the middle of
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the channel aforesaid
have not been able to determine which is the true line contemplated
by the treaty—
It is agreed to refer to some friendly sovereign or state to
determine the line which, according to the terms of the aforesaid
treaty, runs southerly through the middle of the channel which
separates the continent from Vancouver’s island and Fuca’s straits
to the Pacific ocean; and it is further agreed that within three
months after the exchange of the ratifications of any treaty that
may hereafter be concluded for giving effect to the terms of this
protocol, the contracting parties shall select some friendly
sovereign or state to act as referee in the premises.
II.
If such sovereign or state should be unable to ascertain and
determine the precise line intended by the words of the treaty, it
is agreed that it shall be left to such sovereign or state to
determine upon some line which, in the opinion of such sovereign or
state, will furnish an equitable solution of the difficulty, and
will be the nearest approximation that can be made to an accurate
construction of the words of the treaty.
III.
It is agreed that such soverign or state shall be at liberty to call
for the production of, and to consult all, the correspondence which
has taken place between the American and British governments on the
matter at issue, and to weigh the testimony of the American and
British negotiators of the treaty, as recorded in that
correspondence as to their intentions in framing the article in
question; and such sovereign or state shall further be at liberty to
call for the reports and correspondence, together with any
documents, maps, or surveys bearing on the same, which have emanated
from, or were considered by, the commissioners who have recently
been employed by the two governments, to endeavor to ascertain the
line of boundary as contemplated by the treaty, and to consider all
evidence that either party may produce. But the referee shall not
depart from the true meaning of the article as it stands, if he can
deduce that meaning from the words of that article; those words
having been agreed to by both parties, and having been inserted in a
treaty ratified by both governments
IV.
The respective parties formally engage to consider the decision of
the referee, when given, as final and conclusive; whether such
decision shall be a positive decision as to the line of boundary
intended by the true meaning of the words of article I of the treaty
of 1846, or whether the said referee, being unable to give such
positive decision, shall give as a decision a line of boundary as
the nearest approximation to an accurate construction of those
words, and as furnishing an equitable solution of the difficulty;
and such decision shall without reserve be carried into immediate
effect by commissioners to be appointed for the purpose of marking
out the line of boundary in accordance with such decision of the
referee.
V.
It is understood that this agreement shall not go into operation or
have any effect until the question of naturalization now pending
between the two governments shall have been satisfactorily settled
by treaty, or by law of Parliament, or by both, unless the two
parties shall in the mean time otherwise agree.
Done at
London, the 17th of October,
1868.
REVERDY JOHNSON.
STANLEY.
