No. 443.
Mr. Fish to Mr. Rublee.
Washington , March 28, 1873.
Sir: By the St. Laurent, from New York on the 5th of April next for Havre, will be sent, to the care of Mr. Washburne at Paris, two cases of silver intended to be presented to Mr. Staempfli on behalf of the United States, as a mark of their appreciation of the ability, learning, dignity, and impartiality with which he performed his arduous duties at Geneva.
I inclose a copy of the instructions to Mr. Washburne, by which you will perceive that he is to retain these sets until he receives directions from you as to the time and manner of forwarding them. It is presumed that there will be no difficulty in securing their admission duty-free and unopened into the territories of Switzerland, and it is greatly to be desired that they should not remain on deposit in Paris any longer than is absolutely necessary.
I would suggest that you should be prepared, either personally or otherwise, to receive the silver at Berne as soon as it can be forwarded there from Paris and deliver it to Mr. Staempfli.
In delivering it, you will say that it is presented 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 abilities to the solution of the different questions which had there 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 Mr. Staempfli was so distinguished a member.
Any necessary expenses which you may incur may be charged in a separate account, as incurred under the provisions of the act approved December 21, 1871, entitled, “An act making appropriations for expenses that may be incurred under articles 1 to 9 inclusive, of the treaty between [Page 1087] the United States and Great Britain, concluded at Washington May eighth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one,” and you will draw on the Secretary of State for the amount.
I am, &c.