No. 1.
Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish.
Washington , November 13, 1871.
Sir: Herewith I hand you a printed copy of the Case which I have prepared to be presented to the Tribunal at Geneva on behalf of the United States.
This Case will be accompanied by seven volumes of Documents, Evidence, and Correspondence. Five of these volumes consist of the correspondence and other matter transmitted to the Senate by the President, April 7, 1869. The sixth volume contains an arranged selection from the previous five volumes, and a quantity of new matter from the captured rebel archives and elsewhere. This volume and its full table of contents and the excellent index in the seventh volume, were prepared by Charles C. Beaman, jr., esq. It gives me much pleasure to record my sense of the great value of Mr. Beaman’s services. Any one who looks at this volume will see how carefully and intelligently he has performed his work.
The seventh volume contains some miscellaneous matter and full statements of the claims for losses, national and individual. The former were prepared at the Navy Department. Their completeness leaves nothing to be desired. The latter were prepared under my direction by the clerks in this Department, and show the nature and amount of each claim, and the proof on file in the Department by which it is supported. I desire to bear testimony to the intelligence and fidelity with which this work has been done by the clerks charged with it. For days, I may say weeks, in the most oppressive part of the summer, they staid cheerfully at the Department, working upon this statement until nearly midnight each day. Without such labor on their part it could not have been got ready in time.
I have the honor, &c.,