No. 38.
Mr. Bayard to Mr.
Tree.
Department
of State,
Washington, September 11,
1885.
No. 5.]
Sir: Mr. Fish’s No. 349, of the 2d ultimo,
transmits certain documents received through Count de Borchegrave d’Alténa,
the King’s secretary, concerning the assumption by His Majesty King Leopold
II of the sovereignty of the Independent State of the Congo, and the
appointment of Mr. Edmond van Eetvelde as the medium of diplomatic
communication on the part of that State with other Governments.
The President having been for some weeks absent from the seat of Government,
it has not been practicable to convey to him, until his return hither, the
autograph letter of His Majesty announcing the assumption of the title of
Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo. I have now the pleasure to
transmit, herewith, the autograph reply of the President, with the request
that you will cause the same to reach His Majesty’s hands through the proper
channel, to which you will apply for that purpose. In this connection due
notice is taken of the declaration that the relation between the new State
and Belgium is “exclusively personal,” by which it is understood that His
Majesty in assuming the sovereignty acts for himself alone, and not as
creating a dependency of the State of the Congo upon the Crown of
Belgium.
I also transmit my sealed reply to Mr. van Eetvelde’s letter, of 1st of
August, announcing his appointment to be administrator general of the
department of foreign affairs of the Independent State of the Congo. This
reply operates as a full recognition of and entrance upon diplomatic
relations with the new State as a member of the family of nations. An office
copy of my letter is inclosed, of which you will retain a transcript on the
files of your legation.
In addition to these, I transmit with office copy my letter in
acknowledgement of the receipt of Mr. van Eetvelde’s notification of the
neutrality and boundary limits of the said Independent State.
It is observed that Mr. van Eetvelde informs me that—
In conformity with the tenth article of the general act of the
conference of Berlin, the Independent State of the Congo, by these
presents, declares itself forever neutral, and that it claims the
advantages guaranteed by the third chapter of the said act; at the
same time assuming the obligations which pertain to neutrality [and
further that]: The régime of neutrality will
be applied to the territory of the Independent State of the Congo
comprised within the boundaries which appear from the treaties
successively concluded by the International Association [of the
Congo] with Germany, France, and Portugal, and which treaties have
been notified to the conference or Berlin and annexed to the
protocols thereof.
Mr. van Eetvelde’s letter thereupon recites the boundaries in question.
As you are aware, the Government of the United States, in authorizing the
attendance of Mr. Kasson as a delegate to the conference of Berlin, and of
Mr. Sanford as an associate delegate, did so under expressed reservations,
among which was the understanding that those gentlemen were without
plenipotentiary powers, and that this Government, in its sovereign
discretion, reserved wholly the right thereafter to accede or withhold its
accession to the results of that conference.
It appears, however, that their signatures were attached to the general act
in the same manner as those of the plenipotentiaries of other Governments,
and that the United States are thus made to appear as signatories to a
general international treaty, imposing on the signatories [Page 61] a common duty in respect of the conservation of
the territorial integrity and neutrality of distant regions where this
Government has no established interests or control of any kind.
This Government does not, however, regard its prior and entire reservation of
liberty of action in the premises as at all thereby impaired. And until the
United States shall, by subsequent accession and ratification of the general
act of the conference of Berlin in the manner therein provided, and
according to their constitutional forms, become a party to the stipulations
thereof, it will be impossible to determine the due and proper weight to be
given by this Government to the declaration and claim which is thus
communicated by Mr. van Eetvelde on behalf of the Independent State of the
Congo. But this reservation is wholly distinct from the recognition of the
sovereign status of the Independent State of the Congo, which does not rest
upon the conventional arrangements contemplated by the conference of
Berlin.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 5.]
President Cleveland
to His Majesty King Leopold,
Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo.
Esteemed and Great Friend: I have had much
pleasure in receiving your Majesty’s letter of the 1st or August last,
announcing that the possessions of the International Association of the
Congo will henceforth form the Independent State of the Congo, and that
your Majesty, under the authorization of the Belgium Legislative
Chambers, and in accord with the Association, has assumed the title of
Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo. I observe your
Majesty’s further statement that the convention between Belgium and the
new State is exclusively personal. This Government at the outset
testified its lively interest in the well-being and future progress of
the vast region now committed to your Majesty’s wise care, by being the
first among the powers to recognize the flag of the International
Association of the Congo as that of a friendly State; and now that the
progress of events has brought with it the general recognition of the
jurisdiction of the Association, and opened the way for its
incorporation as an independent and sovereign State, I have great
satisfaction in congratulating your Majesty on being called to the chief
magistracy of the newly-formed Government. The Government and people of
the United States, whose only concern lies in watching with benevolent
expectation the growth of prosperity and peace among the communities to
whom they are joined by ties of friendship, cannot doubt that under your
Majesty’s good government the peoples of the Congo region will advance
in the paths of civilization, and deserve the good will of all those
states and peoples who may be brought into contact with them.
I am, my esteemed and great friend, your faithful friend,
Done at Washington this 11th day of September, 1885.
By the President:
T. F. Bayard
,
Secretary
of State.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 5.]
Mr. Bayard to Mr.
van Eetvelde.
Department of State,
Washington, September 11,
1885.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 1st ultimo, in which you are pleased to
proffer, through me, to the Government of the United States of America
an official guarantee of the neutrality of the newly-constituted
Independent State of the Congo, and whereby you acquaint me with the
boundary demarkation of the new State.
I observe that this proffered guarantee of neutrality is made by you in
conformity with article 10 of the general act of the conference of
Berlin.
[Page 62]
The Government of the United States having been represented by delegates
in that conference under the expressed reservation of the right, in its
sovereign discretion thereafter to accede or withhold its accession to
the results of its deliberations, it will not be possible for me to
determine the due and proper weight to be given by this Government to
the declaration and territorial claim thus communicated by you on behalf
of the Independent State of the Congo, so far as such declaration and
claim rest on the provisions of the general act, until the United States
shall, by subsequent accession and ratification of the said general act
of the conference of Berlin, in the manner therein provided and
according to their constitutional forms, become a party to the
stipulations thereof.
The relationship of cordial recognition and earnest good will heretofore
initiated by the Government of the United States toward the
International Association of the Congo, and now confirmed and, I trust,
perpetuated in respect of the new independent State which succeeds to
that Association, is, however, complete of itself and apart from any
conventional relationship flowing from or defined by the general act of
the conference of Berlin, and the obligation to respect the precepts of
neutrality and friendly intercourse is held by the Government of the
United States to be as perfect toward the Sovereign and Independent
State of the Congo as toward any and all sovereignties with which the
United States maintain friendship and intercourse.
Accept, sir, &c.,
[Inclosure 3 in No. 5.]
Mr. Bayard to Mr.
van Eetvelde.
Department of State,
Washington, September 11,
1885.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your
letter of the 1st ultimo, whereby you are pleased to inform me that His
Majesty King Leopold, Sovereign of the Independent State of the Congo,
has conferred upon you the office of administrator-general of the
department of foreign affairs of that State.
In furtherance of the good will and amity which the Government has
heretofore testified toward the organization of the independent tribes
of the Congo Basin, under a common system of administration, and which
it equally bears, now that the Government of the Independent State of
the Congo has taken rank among the sovereign communities of the world,
it will be my aim and my gratification to maintain and strengthen by all
means in my power the most agreeable and lasting good relationship
between the United States and the newly constituted State of the
Congo.
I embrace, &c.,
