No. 105.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Washburne.
Washington, March 14, 1873.
Sir: By an early steamer from the port of New York for Havre will be dispatched to your care six cases of silver, intended to be presented, on behalf of the United States, to the arbitrators named by the King of Italy, the Emperor of Brazil, and the President of the Swiss Confederation under the provisions of the treaty of Washington. Two of these are intended for Count Sclopis, the arbitrator named by the King of Italy, and are to pass in transit through France to Turin, in Italy. Two are intended for Mr. Staempfli, the arbitrator named by the President of the Swiss Confederation, and are to pass in transit through France to Berne, in Switzerland. The remaining two are destined for the Viscount d’Itajuba, the distinguished representative at Paris of His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, who was the arbitrator named by that sovereign.
You will receive due notice by cable of the vessel by which these several cases will be dispatched.
You will please obtain the necessary orders to enable them to pass the customs unopened and free of duty; and on the receipt of the cases intended for the Viscount d’Itajuba, you will present them to him in the name of the United States, as a mark of their appreciation of the dignity, ability, learning, and impartiality with which he discharged his arduous duties at Geneva, and as an expression of the President’s deep sense of the unselfishness with which he devoted his time and his great [Page 249] abilities to the solution of the difficult questions which had then arisen between Her Britannic Majesty and the United States, and which are now so happily laid at rest by the action of the Tribunal of Arbitration, of which the Viscount d’Itajuba was so distinguished a member.
I am, &c.,