Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 1, 1873

No. 17.
Mr. Jay to Mr. Fish.

American Legation,
Vienna, April 11, 1873. (Received May 9.)

No. 582.]

Sir: Referring to that part of my No. 574, of the 2d of April, which related to the occupancy by the English commission under a written allotment by the Baron Schwarz-Senborn of an important part of the space which I had understood had been originally designated for the American department, and referring also to the diagram which accompanied that dispatch, I have the honor to advise you of the steps which were successfully taken for the maintenance of our rights in that matter. On the 3d of April I received a letter from Messrs. McElrath and James, acting commissioners at Vienna, submitting the correspondence which they had had on the subject with the secretary of the British commission, Mr. P. Cunliffe Owen, and the letters they had addressed to the Baron Schwarz-Senborn, to which they had been unable to procure a response, and asking me to take such action as in my judgment might best promote harmony and at the same time preserve our national rights and dignity.

The first letter in the correspondence submitted to me by the commissioners was one addressed by them to the Baron Schwarz-Senborn, advising his excellency that a grave question had arisen between them and the English commission, from the appropriation by the latter without the knowledge of the American commission, and in violation of the geographical plan of the exposition, of a large part of South America; all, in fact, except that occupied by Brazil; and also of the space in the main hall between the courts and transepts of North and South America, In violation, as the American commission submitted, of the baron’s early assurances, and with the effect of excluding our republic entirely from that hall, and making her space in the exposition simply a side adjunct of the English exposition.

While submitting the case to the baron, as the supreme arbiter, and praying him to submit it to the English commission, whose high character and great intelligence, they trusted, would enable them to appreciate at once the extent of the wrong which had been done to us, no doubt, without the smallest intention, they frankly advised his excellency that they could not consent to what they considered an unwarrantable absorption of our proper territory; and that if his excellency should be averse to an interference in a matter of such moment, they begged leave to express their readiness to leave the question of boundary and the rights of exhibitors in the Palace of Industry between the United States and England to the international arbitration.

The next note was one simultaneously addressed by the same commissioners to Mr. Philip Cunliffe Owen, the secretary of the English commission, communicating to him a copy of their letter to Baron de Schwarz-Senborn, and making directly the proposal for arbitration with the remark that they would be ready for an immediate hearing. “The rivalry,” they observed, “between English and American exhibitors will no doubt be a sharp one. The British commission, with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales at its head, assisted by illustrious noblemen and gentlemen, whose names are a guarantee equally to both countries, will undoubtedly desire that the exposition should commence with the feeling on either side that each commission, however zealous for the interests of its own country, has been ready at all times to exhibit toward the other equal justice and a graceful courtesy.”

The third letter submitted was the reply of Mr. Owen, so short that it may be given entire. It was as follows:

66 Praterstrasse, April 3, 1873.

Gentlemen: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 1, inclosing the copy of a letter which you addressed on the same day to His Excellency Baron de Schwarz-Senborn. I cannot enter into any discussion on the claims which it puts forward, and have only to state that the royal commission holds the official allotment of all the spaces referred to under the signature of Baron de Schwarz-Senborn, and that these spaces have long since been rented and paid for by British exhibitors. The royal commission have therefore no power to cede any part of them to others, nor can the rights under which they are held by private parties be a subject for arbitration.

I do not doubt that your communication has been made upon an imperfect knowledge of the official guarantees given to Her Majesty’s commissioners.

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

P. CUNLIFFE OWEN.

Messrs. Thomas McElrath,
Amédie James,
Assistant United States Commissioners.

The last letter was one addressed by our commissioners, Messrs. McElrath and James, to the Baron Schwarz-Senborn, dated April 4, submitting to his excellency their note to Mr. Owen, and that gentleman’s reply, and remarking that that reply left them no alternative but to state to his excellency with perfect frankness the position of the United States. They then recalled the fact that by the geographical plan, as explained by the baron himself to the American envoy at Vienna, the western end of the industrial palace was appropriated to America, and that the crowd entering at the western portal were to find themselves at once in the American department; that the baron had promised to reserve space appropriated to our republic, as late as the 25th April, and that the cession of it before that time to English exhibitors, giving to the British empire our own position, as the great western power, must have been made in forgetfulness of that assurance, and could have no validity until after the failure of the United States to be ready at the appointed day; that the change was contrary to the understanding on which the American Government and people had accepted the invitation of the imperial and royal government, and that it would be necessary for them to remit the matter to the American minister for the immediate advice of the President.

After the receipt of this letter his excellency had made an appointment to receive Messrs. McElrath and James, but had been unable to meet them at the time appointed, and as the matter seemed of immediate importance, they submitted it to me without further delay.

The case was evidently attended with grave difficulties, arising from the fact that his excellency the Baron de Schwarz-Senborn had actually allotted the space to England under his hand; that the English commissioner had sold it to English exhibitors; who had been put into possession and were rapidly occupying it with their show-cases and arrangements.

The baron had paid me a visit within a day or two to speak of the presidencies and vice-presidencies assigned to the United States; but he had also alluded to the notes he had received from our commissioners, one of which he produced and seemed to wish me to understand, although I thought it best at that time to avoid any expression of opinion on the subject; that while he was extremely sorry that the commissioners were dissatisfied—and he wished they had applied in time, &c.—a change now was simply impossible, and that the English, being in possession, would never yield.

The letter, too, of Mr. Owen, who was known to be on terms of intimacy with the baron, and who had been seen examining the space in company with Sir Andrew Buchanan, the latter having the note of our commissioners in his hand, seemed to indicate a fixed resolve on the part of the English commission, concurred in by the British embassador, to resist our claim, to ignore our original right, to treat with contempt our just claim to national equality, to decline arbitration, to avoid discussion, and to rest upon the fact of possession and of a written allotment from the chief manager.

This position on their part, and the necessity of a prompt decision, induced me to think that our best hope of success lay in a plain presentment of the facts and of their bearing on the United States; and in pressing for an immediate response—yes or no—to be submitted to the President for such action as he might deem proper.

With this view I prepared the draft of the letter, a copy of which, in its completed form, is hereto appended; and I secured an appointment with the Baron de Schwarz-Senborn for Wednesday, the 9th, at his office in the Prater.

His excellency received me with his usual courtesy, and assented to my request that he would allow me to read to him the draft of my note, to which he listened attentively.

At its close he said that he would be glad to have a copy of my note, and that he would reply to it. I said that a copy already nearly completed should be sent to him by the evening, and that I would with pleasure, transmit to the President the text of his reply; but that I hoped he would not think me unreasonable in asking the favor of an immediate verbal answer which could be transmitted to the President by the cable; that in case we were not to be restored to the position of equality, which we thought belonged to us, it might present a grave question for the consideration of the President; that I was utterly unadvised what view might be taken of it at Washington; but that if the President should hold the position now assigned us to be so materially different from that which had been anticipated by the Government and by Congress as to induce him to ask permission to withdraw the acceptance, which Congress had given of the imperial invitation, under a misapprehension of the footing on which the republic would be received, his excellency would see that inconvenience and expense would be saved were the vessels intended for the exposition, and now about arriving at Trieste, enabled to return at once before their cargoes had been unloaded and forwarded to Vienna.

The baron seemed unpleasantly surprised at this suggestion, and un-willing to believe that such a decision by the President could be possible. He alluded warmly to the anxiety he had shown from the beginning to meet the wishes of the American exhibitors, and the pleasure he had had in giving them the presidency of the two important groups of “education” and “the trade and commerce of the world.” I said in reply, that no one had appreciated more than myself the very friendly disposition he had constantly manifested, and which had been frequently alluded to in my dispatches; but that our exclusion from the main hall for the benefit of English exhibitors was another question; that his excellency knew sufficiently well the spirit of the American people to enable him to judge, without my assistance, whether they were likely to regard the new arrangement as consistent with the equal competition they had anticipated at the Austrian exposition, or how far they would be inclined to accept in an international assemblage so inferior a position.

After a few remarks, the baron said that with my permission he would do himself the honor to call upon me at the legation the next day at 1 o’clock, when he would render a decisive answer.

On leaving the baron, I drove to the Foreign Office. I had at first proposed to await the baron’s reply, and in case it was unfavorable, to submit it to the Count Andrassy before announcing it by cable to the Department, but on reflection I was inclined to think that it might be safest to invoke the influence of Count Andrassy at once, on the ground that it might be more easy to secure it while the question was still open than after a decision of the baron intended to be final.

I found that the count was engaged, but he sent me word that he would see me at half past 6 that evening. At that hour I called, and, in a pleasant interview, frankly explained to his excellency the situation. The count suggested that questions connected with international expositions should never be brought into diplomacy; that such questions had arisen during the Paris exposition; that there had already been a sharp one at Vienna between the French and the Germans, and that diplomacy could not stand if it were dragged into matters over which it had no proper control; that as Count Andrassy he would do what he could to arrange it, but as the minister for foreign affairs he could do nothing. I thanked his excellency for the assurance of his personal efforts, suggesting that while the principle he broached was generally sound, I thought cases might occur deserving of diplomatic attention from their close connection with international harmony.

He asked me to repeat what Baron de Schwarz-Senborn had originally told me about visitors entering at the western portal finding themselves on American territory and passing first through the American exposition; and he said that assurance had clearly entitled us to the space in the main hall between the transepts devoted to North and South America.

He made a note of the hour at which the baron was to see me the next day, and said he would see him before our interview.

As I was coming away the count said to me, with a smile, “Now, tell me, what is your minimum?” I said, “We think England should retire from all the American territory, which she has occupied without our consent.” He replied, laughingly, “Yes, yes, but what is the least you will take?” I said, that which is essential to our national equality, as, the space in the main hall between the American transepts and half of the space opposite our court.

The next day the baron called upon me and said that he had arranged to restore to North and South America all that part of the main hall lying between the transepts, and all that part of the South American transept which England had appropriated; that, to accomplish this, the imperial commission would have to inclose for the English exhibitors, thus displaced, one-half of the South American court. That in giving us this space he would ask the American commission to undertake the ornamentation of the western portal, as the commission from the Orient had undertaken that of the extreme eastern portal; and that they would also assume the placing of articles coming from other American states not represented by commissioners.

I cordially accepted this arrangement as satisfying our national dignity, and as in accord with the policy of our republic toward the other American states. I may add, that this arrangement gives us more space than we had expected to obtain, as his excellency the Baron de Porto-Sicuro, the envoy from Brazil, who had taken great interest in our reclamation of our rights, has offered us also half of the South American court, which had been appropriated to that empire.

The arrangement has given, I believe, entire satisfaction to the American commission in Vienna, and will enable a larger number of American exhibitors to send articles for the exposition; as the baron obligingly reminded me that he had long since consented to receive articles from America after the 1st of May, and that the juries do not commence their sessions until 15th of June.

I have, &c.,

JOHN JAY.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Jay to the Baron de Schwarz-Senborn.

American Legation,
Vienna, April 9, 1873.

Baron de Schwarz-Senborn: It is with some hesitation that I now address your excellency on a grave question connected with the exposition, for my official relations might perhaps seem to require me to communicate on such a subject only with his excellency the Count Andrassy, and yet, in view of the long and constant correspondence I have had the honor to hold with your excellency on various branches of the exposition, and of the friendly regard which has uniformly marked our pleasant intercourse, it seems due to that regard, that, before advising with the imperial and royal minister for foreign affairs, I should ask your excellency permission, as I now beg leave to do, to submit without complaint, simply for your excellency’s advice, the following statement:

I have received our official communication from Mr. McElrath, the senior American commissioner in Vienna, advising me that the British commissioners have taken possession, as they state, under a written authority from your excellency, of that part of the main hall of the exposition palace which lies directly in front of the transept and court allotted to the United States. “This change,” the commissioner remarks, “entirely excludes our exhibitors from any participation in this conspicuously wide and spacious hall, and deprives us of the advantages of our geographical position.” Accompanying letter of the commissioner is a copy of their first note to your excellency on the subject, dated April 1; of their note to Mr. P. Cunliffe Owen, secretary of the British commission, of the same date, sending that officer a copy of their note to your excellency, and expressing their willingness to leave the matter to international arbitration; of the reply of Mr. Owen, dated April 3, declining all discussion and rejecting the proposal for arbitration, and of their second letter to your excellency, dated April 4, inclosing a copy of the correspondence with Mr. Owen, and asking the favor of a reply at the earliest possible moment.

The commissioner states that, having received no reply from your excellency, and having been unfortunate in not finding your excellency at the appointments made for an interview, the correspondence is submitted to me as the Immediate representative of the President, with a request that I will take such action upon it as in my judgment will best promote harmony, at the same time that it preserves the rights and dignity of the United States.

The letters of the American commissioners have advised your excellency of the difficulty which they find in understanding the reason of the change, which had been effected without their knowledge, in the plan of the exposition and the position of America, and a similar difficulty is likely to exist in the United States.

In explaining to me the original plan of the Industrial Palace, your excellency advised me of the geographical arrangement which had been adopted; that the exposition was intended to instruct by the eye, and that the different countries were to appear in succession in their proper place; that the two Americas, North and South, would occupy the western end of the palace, standing together and apart from Europe; that on entering the palace at its western portal the visitors would find themselves on American territory, and pass first through the American exposition on their way to England, France, and Germany.

The advantage thus pointed out by your excellency as belonging to the American Republic, as the extreme western power, was not unnoticed in the United States, where the exposition has been regarded with peculiar interest, as affording the first opportunity for the proper presentment of the Western Continent to the people of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

By the new geographical arrangement Great Britain appears as the extreme western power of the world, occupying nearly half of South America, and the whole of the principal nave between the American courts and transepts. The stream of visitors, on entering, will find itself not in American, but in British territory, surrounded by British manufacturers, and in that grand gallery, from the western portal to the rotunda, amid all the articles exposed for exposition, there will be no more reminder of the American Republic than if America had yet to be discovered, or if the United States were yet to be recognized by Austria-Hungary as entitled to a place among the great powers of the world.

The new position assigned to America accords as little with international history as with geographical truth; and, as the Vienna exposition is intended fairly to represent the present and not the past, your excellency will pardon me for the remark, that nearly a century has passed since the fitting place for the United States in a gathering of the powers of the world was as a side adjunct to the British Empire.

To the natural question of the commissioners, why those changes had been made; why the proper place assigned for America in the great nave, and of which your excellency showed me the advantages, has been taken from her and assigned to England, not with any equivalent advantage to our republic, but wholly to her disadvantage, banishing her absolutely from the central hall, and remitting her to a comparatively inferior and obscure position; and especially to the question why if England wanted more space it could not be taken in her own transepts, instead of taking the space allotted to America in the nave, no answer has been given beyond the reply of the secretary of the royal commission, which can hardly be expected to satisfy my countrymen, that they decline discussion or arbitration, and rest their claim to the space in question upon an allotment from your excellency, which had been duly paid for

If for this deprivation of the republic from her equal rights, and her banishment from the great hall of the palace, without even a notice to her commissioners, any apology has been afforded by the conduct of the American commission, I am unadvised of the fact. I have not heard the smallest complaint of the course of that body, and I believe that their conduct in the matter, from the beginning, has been marked by the most perfect courtesy and fairness. I understand that they have accepted in the various departments the arrangements made by your excellency for the American Republic without complaint, if not always without surprise, at the inequality of the allotment, and that they have incurred without hesitation the expense of inclosing their court, and building a hall for machinery, rendered necessary by the scanty space in that department.

I have no hesitation in saying, that had any authorized member of that commission attempted to mar the harmony of an international gathering intended to illustrate the height of the world’s culture by any act of discourtesy or unfairness toward another nationality, or by any attempt to gain an advantage over rival exhibitors by means unbecoming the dignity and honor of the republic, his conduct would have been met by the reprobation of Americans as certainly as it would have been by the contempt of the world.

In the bearing of the President and of Congress toward this great work of the imperial and royal government, I am equally at a loss to find an excuse for this unexpected treatment of my country at the moment when their efforts for a generous representation of American products from its fullest limits were being crowned with success.

Permit me to recall to your excellency the fact, that before the close of the year 1871 the imperial and royal government had received the most cordial assurances on this subject from the United States. In an official note addressed to this legation on the 7th January, 1872, and which was published at Washington in the diplomatic correspondence of that year, his excellency the Count Andrassy, master of the imperial house, and imperial royal minister for foreign affairs, said:

“The minister for foreign affairs has observed with great pleasure, from a report of the Austro-Hungarian legation at Washington, how friendly an interest is cherished by the Government of the United States of America in the success of our great patriotic work, the universal exposition at Vienna.

“As it has not failed to impress him that these favorable feelings are chiefly to be ascribed to the active co-operation exhibited by the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, John Jay, in behalf of the enterprise, the undersigned minister of the imperial house and of foreign affairs has the honor to express the most sincere thanks of the imperial and royal government, and solicits a continuance of his favorable support.”

In reply to this last clause I said:

“The undersigned begs leave to assure his excellency that it will afford him the sincerest pleasure to do whatever lies in his power to accomplish, in this regard, the favoring wishes of the President, whose friendly interest in the success of the exposition has been so cordially expressed to the envoy of the imperial and royal government.”

The promise thus given by me has been, as your excellency is aware, faithfully kept, and the proceedings in the United States for accomplishing your wishes have steadily advanced.

In June, 1872, Congress passed the first act on the subject for the appointment of commissioners. In December, President Grant recommended to Congress the making of an adequate appropriation, referring to the exposition “as being on a scale of very great magnitude,” and remarking that “the tendency of these expositions is in the direction of advanced civilization and the elevation of industry and of labor, and of the increase of human happiness as well as of greater intercourse and good-will between nations.”

Congress, thus appealed to, made an appropriation of $200,000. The President appointed, in accordance with their joint resolution, eight practical artisans, seven scientific men, and eighty-nine honorary commissioners. Two ships of the United States Navy, now on their way to Trieste, were detailed to bring the goods of the exhibitors, who are reported to be about 700 in number, and it is stated in a New York journal that from 1,200 to 1,500 exhibitors, mechanics, and assistants will be employed in the American department and in the working of the machinery.

I need scarcely say to your excellency that the interest which I have felt from the commencement in the fitting representation of America at the exposition, and the friendly interest which the President so cordially expressed to his excellency the Baron Lederer, at Washington, in. December, 1871, which was so gracefully acknowledged by the Count Andrassy in January, 1872, was based upon the assumption that, the United States had been invited to assist at the exposition on an equal footing with the other great powers, and that no American envoy, no President of the United States, no member of Congress, and no true American citizen would consent to the appearance of the republic at an international exposition upon any other condition.

The partial plan of the Palace of Industry, furnished to me by your excellency, showing the American section marked and colored, showed no appropriation of any part of the nave, and there was nothing in its lines to dispel my belief that the nationalities occupying transepts would have, of course, their share of the nave adjoining them.

Among the great powers who are to assemble at Vienna, America is the only one whom it is now proposed to exclude from that common privilege.

Without touching these questions that will be thoroughly and widely discussed hereafter in regard to the motives and the measures connected with this attempt to oust America from her geographical place in the principal hall of the exposition, and to exclude from competition and observation in that hall all American products and manufactures, I ask your excellency simply to observe that the American commission, when their ships are approaching your port of Trieste, are requested to acquiesce in that exclusion, to yield the place of the American Republic as the first western power to Great Britain’, and to accept for her hundreds of exhibitors from thirty States, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the borders of Canada to those of Mexico, a position inferior in dignity to that awarded to the exhibitors of England, France, Italy, and Germany.

Your excellency, I think, will frankly admit that these conditions differ so widely from that equal footing on which the President, the Congress, and the people of the United States supposed that they were invited to assist at this international festival, that no duty will be left me, should I submit the case without avail to your excellency, than to advise his excellency Count Andrassy of the unexpected circumstances which must forbid my longer fulfilling the assurances which I gave so cordially in response to the request of the imperial royal government, and to announce to the President the final decision of the imperial commission.

I deem it but justice to your excellency to add the expression of my belief that, in consenting to the cession of the space in question, your excellency, immersed in perplexing duties, and with an unusual strain upon your time and thoughts, did not appreciate the full significance of the act, and that your excellency had no real intention of ignoring the equality of right between rival nationalities, or of offending the just susceptibilities of the American people.

Further than this, I think that your excellency is now convinced that, apart from any assurances given or implied in your excellency’s language to me, of which I had never a doubt, the geographical plan of the exposition, as announced to the world, entitled the Americas, equally with Europe, to be represented in the nave, and that the American Republic should not have been shut out, without an opportunity of being heard, on the solicitation or for the benefit of European exhibitors.

Entertaining these convictions, I have pleasure in asking your excellency’s attention to the following passage in the note of Mr. Commissioner McElrath:

“The eminent French contractors, Messrs. Bose and Matthiessen, now inform me that on three days’ notice they will contract to inclose a court similar to the one they are now building for us, and complete it within fifteen days.”

“If, therefore, the exclusion of America from the nave has been, as I assume, unintentional on the part of your excellency, there is still time and opportunity to repair the error. England has two courts, either of which will afford to her exhibitors more than the space of which she has obtained possession in the American department, and her manufacturers can be amply accommodated without excluding from the hall the American Republic.

I therefore venture to trust that your excellency will not hesitate to restore at once the original geographical plan, and return to the Americans the whole of their transepts and courts, and the space in the great hail lying between them.

Although formally unauthorized to speak for the States of North and South America who are unrepresented at Vienna, your excellency will. I trust, permit me, as the envoy of the American Republic, to exercise the friendly office of saying a word in behalf of those absent American States which may be preparing to assist at your exposition, and to ask that so much of the South American court and transept as may not be required by the empire of Brazil shall be reserved exclusively for exhibitors from the two Americas, as they may agree together. I am informed that a vessel is now on its way from Venezuela with a cargo for the exposition; and it is possible that, before its close, articles may come from Mexico, the States of Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chili.

I have, to-day, seen Sir Andrew Buchanan, one of the members of the royal commission of Great Britain, and, in a conversation on this subject, commenced by his excellency, I learned that his excellency had been entirely unaware, until I informed him of the fact, that the space which he had regarded as beyond the reach of arbitration, for the reason that it had been assigned and paid for by British exhibitors under a written allotment by your excellency, had been previously allotted to North and South America under the geographical plan, and that, under that plan and your excellency’s assurance that visitors would enter on American territory and pass first through the American exhibition, we had regarded our fair share of the hall as pledged to us as certainly and sacredly by the imperial invitation and your excellency’s word as if it had been given under the imperial seal.

I presume that the members generally of the royal British commission are equally unaware of the true state of the case, and that his royal highness and the illustrious noblemen and gentlemen who compose that distinguished body, true to their ancestral mottoes, noblesse oblige and fair play, would be as prompt to disapprove any want of fairness to their American rivals as they would have been to resent the wrong if an American commissioner, with uninclosed courts at his disposal, had obtained, without notice to them, a concession of the nave, between the British sections, to compel Englishmen, thus excluded from the principal hall, to enter their transepts as side adjuncts to an American department.

I am sure that your excellency has never intended that your exposition, looking, as it does, to the increased good-will of nations, should to any degree impair the supremacy of international courtesy and international justice as the unwritten but inexorable law of nations, the smallest violation of which is to be adjudged before the tribunal of the world.

For this reason, now that your excellency has learned that the foreign occupation of our proper American territory is conspicuous neither for courtesy nor for justice, and that an easy solution of the difficulty by the substitution of space in the courts happily presents itself, I indulge the hope, not devoid of confidence, that the American department will be at once restored to its integrity and independence, and the republic re-instated in its original and geographical position; nor am I without a hope that the royal commission of Her Majesty, when made aware of the facts, will give to this arrangement their prompt and full approval.

Should I he unfortunately disappointed in my expectations as to the action which your excellency may think fit to take in restoring us to what we believe to be Our rights, I have only to say that, in announcing to the President the change that has been made, and the circumstances under which it has been effected, I will faithfully transmit to the President whatever explanations your excellency may think fit to furnish.

I have, &c.,

JOHN JAY.