Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1877

No. 319.
Mr. Maynard to Mr. Fish.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, January 30, 1877. (Received March 3.)

No. 126.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that the conference, the first meeting of which was mentioned in my dispatch of 26th December last, No. 113, brought its sittings to a close Saturday, the 20th instant. It was followed by the departure of all the representatives of the guaranteeing powers, beginning with that of the Marquis of Salisbury, the special ambassador of Great Britain, who left one week ago, and ending with that of Count Corti, the Italian plenipotentiary, who has just sailed to-day.

A note from the Russian ambassador, a copy of which is inclosed, gives the situation of affairs in a few words and saves me the necessity of dwelling upon it.

No official publication of the proceedings of the conference has yet been made that I am aware of; though I understand one is in preparation at the Porte, and one may be expected also at the meeting of the British Parliament next week. My information is that the proceedings were little more than a series of inadmissible propositions and counter-propositions by the plenipotentiaries of the powers and the Ottoman representatives respectively. Finally an ultimatum was submitted on the part of the powers, which the ministers laid before a grand council of state for decision. The council, it is said, rejected it unanimously, and the conference dissolved.

Two communications from Mr. Schuyler contain some of the propositions offered by the powers for the acceptance of the Sublime Porte. * * * On the part of the Turks and their partisans, it is insisted that the conference was an ignominious failure, and a great effort is made through the press to display a public opinion in that sense, a kind of effort in which the Turks are by no means deficient. * * * I will not indulge in speculation, when the most sagacious confess themselves at fault, but will keep the Department informed of events as they occur, and purposes as they transpire.

I am, &c.,

HORACE MAYNARD.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Schuyler to Mr. Maynard.

Consulate-General of the United States,
Constantinople, January 24, 1877.

Sir: Referring to my previous reports I hare the honor to inclose to you the project for the administrative autonomy of Bulgaria, as agreed upon in the preliminary conferences, and presented for the acceptance of the Porte at the first meeting of the plenary conference. With the exception of dividing Bulgaria into two districts, it is, in other language, substantially the same as the project prepared by Prince Tseretelef and myself. I inclose also the minimum or ultimatum which was rejected by the Porte at the final meeting of the conference, which is in fact a mere résumé of the project without any important concession.

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

EUGENE SCHUYLER.

Project for the administrative autonomy of Bulgaria, as agreed upon by the preliminary conference, and presented for the acceptance of the Porte at the first meeting of the plenary conference.

I.

From the territories herein designated there shall be formed two vilayets, which shall be administered as follows:

The eastern vilayet, which shall have as its capital Tirnova, shall be composed of the sandjaks of Rustchuk, Tirnova, Toultcha, Varna, Sliven, Philippopolis (with the exception of Sultan Jeri and Akhir Tchelibi), and of the cazas of Kirk-Killissi, Moustapha Pasha, and Kizil Agatch.

The western vilayet, having as its capital Sophia, shall be composed of the sandjaks of Sophia, Widdin, Nish, Uskub, Bitolia (with the exception of two cazas to the south), of a part of the cazas of Seres (the three cazas of the North), and of the cazas of Strom-nitza Tikvesch, Velessa, and Kastoria.

II.

The canton (nahie) becomes the administrative unit. It is formed by the reunion, of communes, so that the population of the cantons shall be from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. As far as possible, each canton is to be formed of a group of inhabitants of the same religion.

The cantons shall be administered by a mayor elected for four years by the cantonal council and chosen from among the members of this council.

The cantonal council shall be composed of representatives of each commune, and shall be elected for four years without distinction of religion.

The commune shall preserve its present organization.

All questions relative to the interests of the commune, such as ways of communication, assessment and collection of certain taxes, which shall be regarded as being within its competence by the commission of control, shall belong to the initiative of the cantonal council under the control of the superior authority.

The cantonal council shall meet once a month. Two of its members, elected by it for four years shall act as assistants of the mayor.

The international commission shall try to find a method of assuring the representation of minorities in the cantons.

Cities and towns, the population of which exceeds 10,000 souls> shall have municipal institutions analogous to those of the canton.

III.

The sandjak or department is formed by the reunion of several cantons, and is administered according to its importance by a mutessarif or caïmacam. Its functionaries are Christians or Mussulmans, according as the majority of the sandjak is non-Mussulman or Mussulman. They are named for four years by the Porte on the proposition of the governor-general. These functionaries shall have as their duty the surveillance of the acts of the cantonal councils.

The mutessarifs or caïmacams shall have a chancellery and councilors, appointed by the governor general from a double list prepared by the provincial council.

The vali shall have the power of suspending the governors for three months, and of proposing to the Porte their dismissal.

IV.

There shall be placed at the head of each province a governor-general (vali) appointed for five year by the Porte with the agreement of the guaranteeing powers. He shall receive a suitable salary.

In case of the death or resignation of the vali, his duties shall be provisionally performed by one of the Christian governors, appointed for this purpose by the Porte.

The vali cannot be removed except upon the order of the court of appeals, after having been judged and condemned.

The vali shall represent the supreme authority, and shall watch over the execution of the general laws of the empire as well as the application of the provincial regulations. He shall be a Christian, and may be either an Ottoman subject or a foreigner.

The vali shall administer the province conjointly with the provincial assembly, the members of which shall be elected, without distinction of race or religion, for a term of four years, by the cantonal councils grouped in circumscriptions, without any intervention on the part of the government.

Contested elections shall be judged by the provincial assembly itself.

The electoral circumscriptions shall be formed by the reunion of several groups of cantons. They shall represent an average population of 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. Each group thus formed shall elect a deputy.

The right of voting or of being eligible to office shall be given:

1. To all the inhabitants of the province above twenty-five years old, who own real estate or pay some kind of a tax.

2. To members of the clergy and ministers of the different rites.

3. To schoolmasters and teachers.

The deliberations of the assembly shall be public. The provincial assembly shall name an administrative commission for four years, which shall act as the council of the governor-general. The chiefs of the recognized religions shall be by right members of this commission, one for each confession.

There shall be at least one member of this commission for each sandjak, but the total number ought not to exceed ten. They shall have fixed salaries.

The governor-general shall be obliged to take the opinion of this administrative council in all questions which are outside of the pure and simple execution of legal dispositions, as well as in those which refer to local regulations.

V.

The provincial assembly shall meet once a year to examine and control the budget of the province and the division of the taxes. The accounts shall be established every year by the vali and submitted to the Porte.

The system of the collection and division of taxes shall be modified in order to facilitate the development of the resources of the country, while diminishing charges, which at present weigh upon the population.

The bedeli asherié (exemption-tax from military service) can be applied only to able-bodied men, between the ages of twenty and forty years, who do not wish to enter into the local militia.

The payment of taxes in arrear up to January 1, 1877, shall not be exacted.

The custom-houses, posts and telegraphs, the duties on tobacco, spirits, and the excise shall only be collected by the provincial authorities in the measure fixed upon by the regulations at present Observed in the rest of the empire. The farming of taxes shall be abolished. Those who shall renew it shall incur penalties to be fixed by a special law. The collection of the other taxes shall be regulated by the provincial assembly and by the cantonal councils.

The vali and the provincial assembly shall establish by an agreement every five years the budget of the revenues of the province, with a view of determining the sums to be remitted to the Sublime Porte, taking, as -far as possible, as a basis for their calculations the revenues of the last ten years and the increase of the prosperity of the country.

The cantonal authorities shall divide the taxes among the communes, and shall collect, at fixed periods, the sums to be paid by it. These sums, after deducting the cantonal expenses, shall be transmitted to the treasuries of the departments.

The mode of collection of the taxes shall be left to the decision of the cantonal authorities.

A sum, which shall be fixed by the international commission, and which shall not exceed 30 per cent, of the revenues of the province, shall be paid to the branches of the Ottoman Batik, in order to be employed for the payment of the public debt, and for the needs of the central government. The rest of the revenues shall be destined for the local needs of the province.

VI.

Until the special regulations for the administration of justice shall have been elaborated by the commission of control, the tribunals shall be organized as follows:

In the canton the mayor and his adjuncts have the powers of justices of the peace, and take cognizance, without appeal, of civil affairs in which the sum of litigation does not exceed 1,000 piasters. They have cognizance, also, of contraventions and simple police cases. They also have cognizance under appeal of suits in which the sum of litigation does not exceed 5,000 piasters. In their judgments they must take into account the particular usages of the canton.

In each sandjak there shall be created a tribunal of the first instance. It shall be composed of two judges chosen by the vali, with the sanction of the international commission, for three years. Afterwards these judges shall be chosen with the sanction of the administrative council. They shall be suitably paid. They may be appointed again at the expiration of this period, and then become immovable for life. They have cognizance of civil and criminal affairs, subject to appeal, but, if they are not equal to their duties, they may be dismissed after having been judged by the court of appeals.

A court of appeals is created in each of the two capitals of the villayets. The president and judges are named by the Sublime Porte, with the consent and approbation of the representatives of the guaranteeing powers. The judges may be either Christians or Mussulmans. They shall judge, according to the Ottoman code.

An European element may be represented in the courts of appeal. In this case the European magistrates must be provided with a certificate emanating from a competent judicial authority, which bears testimony of their capacity.

The duration of the functions of the members of the courts of appeal shall be the same, and submitted to the same conditions, as for the judges of the tribunals of the first instance. The tribunals shall take cognizance of all civil and criminal cases, with the right of appeal to the court of appeals established in the capital of the province.

The sessions of the tribunals shall be public, and preliminary inquests shall be obligatory.

Cases relating to a single confession shall be submitted to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the competent ecclesiastical authorities, and the sentences rendered by them shall be decisive.

VII.

There shall be complete freedom of worship. The support of the clergy of religious establishments and of public instruction is a charge of each commune.

Any one shall be allowed to change his religion, on, the sole condition that the proselytes must be women sixteen years and men eighteen years old, and before their conversion must pass a whole week with the minister of the sect that they wish to abandon.

No obstacle shall be interposed to the construction of religious edifices or to the accomplishment of religious ceremonies.

The provincial and cantonal assemblies shall provide for the necessities of public instruction by means of special taxes for the creation and support of schools.

The local language shall be employed concurrently with the Turkish language in the tribunals and in the administration.

In the cantons where the Greek language is in general use th3 cantonal authorities may employ it.

VIII.

The Ottoman regular army shall be garrisoned in the fortresses and in the chief cities, and ie destined for the defense of the country against a foreign enemy. It can be employed in the interior in case of war, or at the demand of the governor-general of the province.

A militia or national guard shall be created. It shall be composed of Christians and Mussulmans, according to the proportion of their number in the population. The national guard shall not contain more than 1 per cent, of the male population. It shall be drilled separately, under the direction of officers named by the vali. If, by his order, a body of militia of more than 1,000 men shall be concentrated at a fixed point, the superior officers beneath the commandant shall be named by the Sublime Porte.

A corps of gendarmes, supported at the expense of the province, and in sufficient number to guarantee public security and to act as police, shall be composed of Christians and Mussulmans according to the number of inhabitants of each confession.

The officers shall be Mussulmans and Christians. They shall be appointed by the governor-general, and shall be distributed over the country.

The Sublime Porte shall renounce hereafter establishing Circassians in its European, provinces. As to the Circassian families which are now living in Europe, it shall favor their removal by aiding them to establish themselves in the Mussulman provinces of Asia.

IX.

The Ottoman Government shall grant a full and entire amnesty to the inhabitants of the three provinces who have been exiled or transported, or who have been arrested without having been judged by virtue of simple orders of the authorities, or by the decisions of different Ottoman commissions.

X.

An international commission shall be appointed for one year by the guaranteeing powers. It shall be charged with watching over the execution of those regulations-which shall be put in force within three months after the signature of the protocol.

Instructions for the commission in Bulgaria.

1. The international commission for the two vilayets, the eastern and western, shall be charged with taking part in the inquiries to be made by the government upon the authors of the massacres and other excesses; with seeking out the guilty parties, watching over the interrogatories, and assuring the punishment of the guilty.

2. The commission shall examine if it be necessary to prohibit the wearing of arms, in certain parts of the province, and of watching over the restoration to the state depots of the arms distributed to the Mussulman population and to the Circassians. It shall propose any other police regulation that it may think useful to guarantee the security of the inhabitants, and its decisions shall be executed by the aid of the special gendarmery.

3. This gendarmery, paid from the revenues of the province, shall, in the beginning, be organized by means of officers, sub-officers, and soldiers drawn from European armies to the number of from 2,000 to 4,000, as well as by volunteers recruited in all parts of the empire. After the commission shall have finished its labors, this gendarmery shall remain in the service of the Porte.

4. The commission shall estimate the losses of the Christians, and shall determine the method of indemnifying them. It shall determine the means for aiding in a general way the populations which have fallen into misery. It shall provide, as far as possible, that the necessary materials be furnished for rebuilding the houses and churches.

5. The commission shall proceed to the revision of the judgments pronounced against the Christians by the extraordinary tribunals. It shall revise the titles of certain properties, in order to restore to the Christians those which were taken away from them during the insurrection.

6. The commission shall examine into complaints made against the officials, and shall have the faculty of demanding their suspension or their dismissal, which are to be pronounced by the vali.

7. The commission shall in general watch over the execution of the regulations established by the conference, and especially over the administration of justice in the elections.

8. It shall take part, according to the regulations, in the nomination of a certain number of employés.

9. It shall collect the necessary statistical information requisite to control the equitable adjustment of the taxes, and shall trace on the spot, in concert with the Ottoman authorities, the limits of the powers and the distribution of the cantons and of the departments.

10. By virtue of these dispositions, the commission shall be free to add or to cut off any canton in the cazas, situated along the boundary of the provinces, as well as to modify the present division of the sandjaks and cantons, when it shall judge it useful from a geographical, ethnographical, or administrative point of view.

11. The commission shall draw up protocols of its sessions, and in case of grave dissensions between its members, it shall refer them to the representatives of the powers at Constantinople.

12. The commission may send its members or delegates to exercise the surveillance which is incumbent upon it.

13. The commissioners themselves shall fix the place where, according to circumstances, they shall sit.

14. The president of the commission shall be renewed every month and each commissioner shall in turn perform the duties of president.

15. Finally, the international commission shall draw up a detailed programme of the labors with which it is charged. This programme approved by the representatives of the guaranteeing powers at Constantinople, shall serve as complementary instructions.

Minimum or ultimatum presented by the conference to the Porte.

Montenegro.—Rectification of the frontier, with annexation of Banvani, Piva, Niksitch, Drobniak, a part of Sharanzi the district of Kalatchine, the Kutchi Drekalovitchi, the Kutchi Kraini, the Vassoicvitchi from Tivni to Lim, the Mali and Veli Brdo, Sponz and Jalbnak. An international commission for the arrangement of the frontier ad hoc. The liberty of navigation of the Boyana. Neutralization of the fortresses.

Servia.—Statu quo ante bellum.—The regulation of the difficulties of the limits of the frontier on the side of Bosnia. A commission of arbitration, in accordance with the batti-sherif of 1833, for the two principalities. Evacuation by the Ottoman troops and by the troops of the principalities of the territories outside of the limits fixed. Exchange of prisoners of war, and amnesty of subjects employed in the enemy’s service.

Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria.—The governors-general of the provinces will be named for the first five years with the consent of the powers. Special divisions into districts and sandjaks with the mutessarifs named by the Porte on the proposal of the valis for a fixed term, and into cantons or mudirliks of 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants, with the cantonal authorities freely elected by the population in each commune, and competent for every question touching the interests of the canton.

Provincial assemblies elected for a term of four years by the cantonal councils. They will establish the budget of the province upon the system indicated, and will name the provincial administrative councils of which the valis must take the advice in cases going beyond the pure and simple execution of the legal reglementary dispositions, and upon which they may refer to the Sublime Porte. Amelioration of the assessment of the taxes. The provincial assemblies and cantonal councils will have the repartition and levying of the taxes, except the customs duties, posts, telegraphs, and, taxes on tobacco and spirits, and the régie. The complete abolition of the farming of taxes. The remittance of taxes in arrear. The fixing of the budget of the province for five years on the average of the revenues. A part will be applied to the payment of the public debt and to the needs of the central government, and the rest to the needs of the provinces. The reorganization of justice in the sense of a greater independence of the judiciary. Nomination of the judges of the civil and criminal tribunals by the valis, with the consent of the administrative council, and of the members of the court of appeal by the Porte on the proposal of the valis. Publicity of the sittings of the courts and of judicial inquests obligatory. Exclusive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical authorities for special causes of the different religious communities. Entire liberty of religion. Support of the clergy, the religious establishments, and of public instruction by the communities themselves. Guarantees against forced proselytism. Use of the language of the country in the tribunals, and the administration on an equality with the Turkish. Absolute prohibition to employ irregular troops. Formation of a militia and gendarmery of Christians and Mussulmans in proportion to the population, with subordinate officers named by the governor-general. Prohibition of the colonization of Circassians. General amnesty for Christians condemned and proscribed for political causes. Amelioration of the condition of laborers and farmers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Facilities for the acquisition of lands of the state, as also for the return of emigrants. The execution of this project within a fixed term of three months. Commission of control. Two commissions of control will be named by the powers to watch the execution of the ultimatum and to assist the local authorities in taking the different measures touching public order and security. These commissions will receive special instructions.