Office of the Historian

[Protocol of Conference between the High Commissioners on the Part of the United States of America and the High Commissioners of Great Britain]

Washington, May 3, 1871.

The High Commissioners having met, the protocol of the conference held on the 25th of April was read and confirmed.

The High Commissioners then proceeded with the consideration of the matters referred to them.

The American Commissioners produced the following further full power, under the seal of the United States, authorizing them to conclude and sign a treaty:

[Page 395]

ULYSSES S. GYANT, President of the United States of America, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting:

Know ye that whereas, by my power bearing date the 10th day of February last, Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, Robert C. Schenck, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, Samuel Nelson, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ebenezer R. Hoar, of Massachusetts, and George H. Williams, of Oregon, were authorized to meet the commissioners appointed, or to be appointed, on behalf of Her Britannic Majesty, and with them to treat and discuss the mode of settlement of the different questions which should come before them;

And whereas that meeting and discussion have taken place, and the said mode of settlement has been agreed upon:

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby appoint the said Hamilton Fish, Robert C. Schenck, Samuel Nelson, Ebenezer R. Hoar, and George H. Williams, jointly and severally, Plenipotentiaries for and in behalf of the United States, and do authorize them, and any or either of them, to conclude and sign any treaty or treaties touching the premises, for the final ratification of the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, if such advice and consent be given.

In witness whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

[seal] Given under my hand at the city of Washington, the second day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-fifth.

U. S. GRANT.

By the President:
Hamilton Fish,
Secretary of State.

This full Power was examined by the British Commissioners and found satisfactory.

The Joint High Commissioners determined that they would embody in a protocol a statement containing an account of the negotiations upon the various subjects included in the Treaty, and they instructed the Joint Protocolists to prepare such an account in the order in which the subjects are to stand in the Treaty.

The conference was adjourned to the 4th of May.

  • J. C. BANCROFT DAVIS.
  • TENTERDEN.