Office of the Historian
No. 493.

Viscount das Nogueiras to Mr. Bayard.

Legation of Portugal in the United States,
Washington, March 15, 1885.

Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to call your attention to a matter which concerns both Portuguese commerce and that of the United States.

In the law, Public No. 67, an act to remove certain burdens on the American merchant marine and encourage the American foreign carrying trade, and for other purposes, section 14, we find:

That in lieu of the tax on tonnage of thirty cents per ton per annum heretofore imposed by law, a duty of three cents per ton, not to exceed in the aggregate fifteen cents per ton in any one year, is hereby imposed at each entry on all vessels which shall be entered in any port of the United States from any foreign port or place in North America, Central America, the West India Islands, the Bahama Islands, the Bermuda Islands, or the Sandwich Islands, or Newfoundland; and a duty of six cents peraton, not to exceed thirty cents per ton per annum, is hereby imposed at each entry upon all vessels which shall be entered in the United States from any other foreign ports: Provided, That the President of the United States shall suspend the collection of so much of the duty herein imposed, on vessels entered from any port in the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Bahama Islands, the Bermuda Islands, the West India Islands, Mexico, and Central America, down to and including Aspinwall and Panama, as may be in excess of the tonnage and light-house dues, or other equivalent tax or taxes, imposed on American vessels by the Government of the foreign country in which such port is situated, and shall, upon the passage of this act, and from time to time thereafter, as often as it may become necessary by reason of changes in the laws of the foreign countries above mentioned, indicate by proclamation the ports to which such suspension shall apply, and the rate or rates of tonnage duty, if any, to be collected under such suspension: And provided further, That all vessels which shall have paid the tonnage tax imposed by section forty-two hundred and nineteen of the Revised Statutes for the current year, shall not be liable to the tax herein levied until the expiration of the certificate of last payment of the said tax. And sections forty-two hundred and twenty-three, and forty-two hundred and twenty-four, and so much of section forty-two hundred and nineteen of the Revised Statutes as conflicts with this section are hereby repealed.

According to the letter and spirit of this law, his Excellency ex-President Arthur issued the inclosed proclamation on the 31st of January last, (Doc. No. 1.)

It appears from this document that a duty of 3 cents per ton, not exceeding, in all, the sum of 15 cents per ton per annum, is levied upon [Page 652] vessels coming to the United States, or going to the ports of certain countries which are therein specified, without regard to the duties that American vessels may pay in the said countries, and with the additional declaration that the President will suspend the collection of such part of this duty as may exceed the tonnage or light-house dues paid by American vessels in the ports of the countries named in the proclamation.

Article XIII of the treaty of August 26, 1840, concluded between Portugal and the United States, says:

If either party shall hereafter grant to any other nation any particular favor in navigation or commerce, it shall immediately become common to the other party, where it is freely granted to such other nation, or on yielding the same compensation or an equivalent, quam proxime, where the grant is conditional.

Notwithstanding the precise nature of the stipulation contained in this article of the treaty, a duty of 6 cents per ton, or 30 cents per annum, is now, and has been, levied ever since the promulgation of that instrument upon vessels coming from or going to the ports of Portugal.

Under these circumstances, and with the view of securing the redress of an injustice and of encouraging commerce between our two countries, I deem it my duty to bring this matter to your notice, and I trust that, after having examined it, you will admit the justice of my complaint, which is confined to requesting that vessels engaged in trading between the ports of Portugal and those of the United States may be allowed to enjoy the benefits granted to those of other countries by the proclamation issued by ex-President Arthur on the 31st of January last.

Accept, &c.,

Viscount das NOGUEIRAS.
[Inclosure.]

by the president of the united states of america.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me that upon vessels of the United States arriving in ports of the Province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada, or arriving at any port in the island of Monserrat, in the West Indies, or at Panama or Aspinwall, United States of Colombia, or at the ports of San Juan and Mayaguez, in the island of Porto Rio, no duty is imposed by the ton as tonnage tax or as light money, and that no other equivalent tax on vessels of the United States is imposed at said ports by the Governments to which said ports are immediately subject; and whereas by the provisions of section fourteen, of an act approved June 26, 1884, “to remove certain burdens on the American merchant marine, and encourage the American foreign carrying trade, and for other purposes,” the President of the United States is authorized to suspend the collection in ports of the United States from vessels arriving from any port in the Dominion of Canada, Newfoundland, the Bahama Islands, the Bermuda Islands, the West India Islands, Mexico, and Central America, down to and including Aspinwall and Panama, of so much of the duty at the rate of 3 cents per ton as may be in excess of the tonnage and light-house dues, or other equivalent tax or taxes imposed on American vessels by the Government of the foreign country in which such port is situated:

Now, therefore, I, Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the act and section hereinbefore mentioned, do hereby declare and proclaim that on and after the first Tuesday in February, 1885, the collection of said tonnage duty of 3 cents per ton shall be suspended as regards all vessels arriving in any port of the United States from any port in the province of Ontario, in the Dominion of Canada, or from a port in the island of Monserrat, in the [Page 653] West Indies, or from the ports of Panama and Aspinwall or the ports of San Juan and Mayaguez, in the island of Porto Rico.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this 31st day of January, 1885, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninth.

[seal.]
CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

By the President:

Fred’k T. Frelinghuysen
,
Secretary of State.