The New International Encyclopædia/Washington, Treaty of

WASHINGTON, Treaty of. A treaty concluded in 1871 between the United States and Great Britain for settling various differences between the two governments, but chiefly those with regard to the Alabama claims (q.v.). In the beginning of 1871 the British Government sent Sir John Rose to the United States to ascertain whether negotiations looking toward the settlement of the question in dispute would be acceptable to the President. The United States Government received his advances with cordiality and on the 26th of January Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister at Washington, formally proposed the appointment of a joint high commission to meet at Washington for the purpose of devising means for settling the matters at issue. The United States readily consented to the proposal, provided the differences growing out of the Civil War should be included among the subjects to be considered. The British Government promptly accepted the American proviso and the President appointed as Commissioners Hamilton Fish, E. R. Hoar, Justice Samuel Nelson, Robert C. Schenck, and George H. Williams. The British Government selected as its Commissioners Earl de Grey (Marquis of Ripon), Sir John Macdonald, Sir Stafford Northcote, Sir Edward Thornton, and Montague Bernard. The joint commission entered at once upon its task and on the 8th of May concluded a treaty which received the prompt approval of the two governments, and which is known as the Treaty of Washington. Aside from the settlement of the dispute growing out of the so-called Alabama claims (for a treatment of which see that title), provision was made for the adjustment of the differences with regard to the Northeastern fisheries by the appointment of a mixed commission to meet at Halifax and pass upon the relative value of certain reciprocal privileges granted each of the contracting parties. Finally provision was made for submitting to the arbitration of the Emperor of Germany the dispute concerning the Northwest boundary. See San Juan Boundary Dispute.

The so-called rules of Washington agreed upon by the contracting parties for the guidance of the tribunal in the interpretation of certain terms used in the treaty, and of certain principles of international law governing the obligations of neutrals, are: (1) That due diligence “ought to be exercised by neutral governments in exact proportion to the risks to which either of the belligerents may be exposed, from a failure to fulfill the obligations of neutrality on their part.” (2) “The effects of a violation of neutrality committed by means of the construction, equipment, and armament of a vessel are not done away with by any commission which the Government of the belligerent power benefited by the violation of neutrality may afterwards have granted to that vessel; and the ultimate step by which the offense is completed cannot be admissible as a ground for the absolution of the offender, nor can the consummation of his fraud become the means of establishing his innocence.” (3) “The principle of exterritoriality has been admitted into the laws of nations, not as an absolute right, but solely as a proceeding founded on the principle of courtesy and mutual deference between different nations, and therefore can never be appealed to for the protection of acts done in violation of neutrality.” The agreement on the part of Great Britain to these rules was qualified by the declaration that “her Majesty's Government cannot assent to the foregoing rules as a statement of principles of international law which were in force at the time when the claims mentioned arose, but, in order to evince its desire of strengthening the friendly relations between the two countries and of making satisfactory provision for the future, agrees that the arbitrators should assume that the British Government had undertaken to act on the principles set forth in the rules.”

Consult: Cushing, Treaty of Washington (New York, 1873); Davis, Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims (Boston, 1893); Adams, The Treaty of Washington; Moore, International Arbitrations (Washington, 1898).