No. 67.
Mr. Hilliard to Mr. Evarts.
Rio de Janeiro, October 1, 1878. (Received October 29.)
Sir: Having received a full power authorizing me to conclude a convention between the United States and Brazil for the protection of trademarks for articles of American manufacture and commerce, I brought the subject to the attention of his excellency, Baron de Villa Bella, minister and secretary of state for foreign affairs, and expressed a wish that we might proceed without delay to accomplish that object.
[Page 129]He replied promptly, inviting me to submit a project for such a convention. I proceeded to do so, and after an exchange of views in regard to the subject we reached a satisfactory conclusion.
I have the honor now to forward the convention agreed upon, and I hope that it will meet your approval.
You will observe that it provides that the citizens and subjects of the United States and Brazil shall enjoy in the dominions and possessions of the other the same rights as belong to native citizens or subjects in everything relating to property in marks of manufacture and trade. Nothing can be more satisfactory than this.
I have examined the laws of Brazil on this subject and I find that they are thorough, comprehensive, and stringent. A citizen of the United States will, under this convention, enjoy all the rights of a native subject of Brazil.
Such a convention is imperatively demanded for the advancement of the interests of our people engaged in manufacture and commerce, and they will find, under its provisions, ample protection.
It affords me great pleasure to be able to forward a convention so important to the interests of our people doing business in this country. I do not doubt that it will meet your approval and that of the President, and that it will be duly ratified after having been submitted to the Senate.
It will ever be a source of great satisfaction to you, and to myself, to feel that we have been able to accomplish a convention that must exert the most beneficent influence upon the manufacturing and commercial interests of our country.
There is in Brazil a wide undeveloped field for the employment of the energy, the enterprise, and the capital of our countrymen.
I know how earnestly you desire to conduct the great Department over which you preside so as to promote, in the highest degree, the interests of our country, and to give to the United States the most commanding advantages in our foreign relations.
I shall be at all times ready to co-operate with you in the accomplishment of that object so long as I have the honor to represent our country at this important post.
I believe that the policy of the administration, both at home and abroad, will contribute largely to the prosperity and glory of the country, and that it will be sustained by our people.
The administration will achieve a complete triumph, and while it secures domestic tranquillity, it will give to our foreign relations a higher prosperity than they have heretofore enjoyed.
Never was the country more respected abroad and never were its commercial advantages greater than they are to-day. So far as our intercourse with Brazil is concerned there is the greatest encouragement for the enterprise of our people.
I shall hereafter make some suggestions as to measures for the advancement of our commercial interests.
I inclose the original of the convention agreed on in regard to trademarks of manufacture and commerce, in the tin case which is forwarded with this dispatch.
I have, &c.,