IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 1.4 M III 2.2 1.6 V] <^ /^ c3 .^ > ^"^^oy^ /a c^. .>* ^':> "^ / y /^ ^^ ^^y-j"^^ % V 'e d'images n^cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 THE BRITISH TREATIES or 1871 & 1874, LETTERS TO TllK PRESIDENT OF THE U:N^ITED STATES: Bt II. C. CAREY. PHILADELPHIA: COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET. 1874. '/ '/ ' ( TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. President: — The Senate having postponed action upon the Treaty submitted for confirmation just previous to the adjournment of Congress, and the public press having fortunately caused removal of the seal of secrecy to which it had been subjected, opportunity has been thus afforded for public examination of the question of our relations with the British provinces, and to that end I venture to invite your attention to the brief statement of facts which will now be given, as follows: — Somewhat more than f.jur years since, in June, 1870, the two houses of Congress by a joint resolution instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint a special agent charged with inquiiing into "the extent and state of the trade between the United States and the several dependencies of Great Britain in North America;" and in conformity therewith that ofBcer selected for the perform- ance of a duty so important Mr. J. N. Larned, a gentleman who appears, by his report of Jan. 28, 1871, now before me, to have been actuated by no feeling other tlian that of a sincere desire to obtain for himself, and for public use, an accurate idea of the effects wdiich had resulted from the adoption of reciprocity, so called, in 1854, and from its repudiation in 1865, in compliance with an almost unanimous demand to that effect, at the close of the first decade of its existence. To some of the facts thus obtained and reported it is that I now, Mr. President, invite your attention, as follows : — In the last year of the previous system, 1854, as therein is shown, the imports from Canada amounted, in round numbers, to $6,700,000, our exports meanwhile somewhat exceeding §15,300,000, the bal- ance being favorable to the Union to the extent of $8,600,000. In the last of the Treaty years, to wit, in 1866, the six millions of im- ports in 1854 had grown to forty-six millions, our fifteen millions of exports of this latter year having remained throughout almost entirely unchanged, and the balance having become adverse to the extent of more than thirty millions ; thereby enabling our northern neighbors to profit to that large amount by selling in the dearest markets, and applying the proceeds to purchasing in the cheapest ones. Extending tlie fiekl of observation so us to embrace all the provinces now included in the Dominion, we obtain, Cor the four last ol' the treaty years, the results here given as Ibllows: — 18G:{ 18CG Exports. $28. (;'J( 1.000 2(;.r)('.T,oo() 2H,8(iL>,(l(lO 'ifj.iVJ 1,000 Ir>i|iortB. §'J4.(;21,0()() :i8.;)*j'.'.ooo ■ :{(■). iTO.doo r):{.;5HT,ooo Dalaiicc. 84,r)!)'.),0OO ]'2,;ir):<,oo() 7,:n 4.000 27,8(U),060 favoral)l(;. iiul'avoruble. We see, thus, that the Dominion market for our products actually declined; that here furnished for Dominion products having mean- time more than doubled. The years 1869 and 1870, reciprocity having ceased, still ex- hibited adverse balances, greatly less adverse, however, than had been that of 1860: those of the two years combined having been but §3o, 000,000. [Since then, as shown by the British Commis- sioners themselves, the movement thus described lias been continued, and with such eft'ect that the adverse balances of the three past years combined have but little exceeded !^16,000,000, little more thari half that of the last year of the Treaty, or of the two more recent years, 1869 and 1870].* Commenting u})on the unsatisfactoriness of this state of trade, the s]>ecial agent is led to study the causes of its existence, and finally, to an inquii'y as to the process by means of wliich they may be remedied, with the result which will be now exhibited, as follows : — " It appears, tlioreforc, that an intimate freedom of commerce between this country and its northern ueight)ors, which is so desiraljle for l)oth parties, c.iniiot be contemphited except in connection with a material chanpe in the conditions of the foreign relationsliip that the provinces sustain towards us. Jt involves, of necessity, an entire idenlilication of the material interests of the two countries, by their common association in some form or other. If the provinces do not choose to become one with us jjoliticaliy, they must, at least, become one v/ith us commercially, before the barriers arc thrown down which shut them out from an equal participation with us in the energetic working of the mixed activities of the >»ew World, and which deprive us in a great measure of the reinforcement tliat they are capal)le of tiringing to those activities. The alternative of annexation is the Zollverein, or a customs union, after the plan of that under which the (jlerman states secured free trade among themselves and identity of interest in their com- merce with the outside world. * * -^ * •'There does exist a feeling in the United States with reference to them which it ought not to be d'fiicult for the i)eople of the provinces to understand. Jtis the unwillingness of a reasonal)le jealousy, and of a just ])rudeutial selfishness, to ex- tend the material benefits of membership in the American Union, without its re- sponsibilities and reciprocal ol)ligation«, to communities with which the certain relations of an independent friendship cannot be cultivated or maintained; which are controlled by a distant foreign power, and which are at all times liable to be * Believing the import entries in all cases to be those most likely to be correct, the special agent gives them as obtained from both sides of the Hue. What has lieen the course adopted by tlie British Commissioners is not known, and it is for that reason ditlicult to account for the fact, among others, that while tlie American account of im- ports and exports for 1872-3 exhibits an unfavorable balance exceeding $10,000,000, that of the Commissioners gives one of little more than half of that amount. 1 the I lour •ahh;. fumble. tually incan- 11 ex- \n had g been * jinniis- tiiiued, eo past. e more more trade, ice, and dh they jited, as ween this >s, cannot iditidus of ivolves, of countries, PS ilo not nc v.ith us It from an ties of the nient that u'xation is le (jlernian their com- hein which 1. Jtisthe less, to ex- ont its re- ;he certain led ; which iable to be correct, the las tieen the that reasou !ount of im- $10,000,000, )UUt. phiccd ill an attitmh' of iinfrieiHllincs.^ or hostility tu tliis country l)y causes outsi(lo (if thcinsclvoH, or tlironjih events in connectiuit with which liiey have nothinu' on their own part to do. Metween two e(|nally indepeiuh'nt and responsilde mitiunali- ties, hoinofifeneous in l)lo(id and iiharacter, and with every interest in common, situ- ated as the United States and their northe>'n neijjhixirs are toward each otiier, it would 1)0 as easy to settle the relations of intimate fellowship upon an endurincared to be on the side of a renewal of that j>()licy by means of which Canadian farmers had, througln^ut a whole decade, been allowed to sell their produce at the high [irices prevailing here as a consequence of the building of furnaces, fac- tories, and rolling-mills, while j)urchasing their ploughs and their harrows at the lower prices prevailing in British markets, conse- quent upon that American competition which, by means of a protec- tive tariff', had been established. The rUBLic opinion thus manufac- tured, and intended for operation on senatorial minds, coining next to be gathered together, it stands now before me, forming as large a collection as perhaps was ever made of variations of a single tune, evolved from a single mind, and apparently given to the world by aid of scarcely more than a single pen. Little mc^re, Mr. Tresident, than a fortnight later the putjlic mind is found to have been startled by announcement of the faet of a Treaty being "now before the Senate" having ior its object that of car- rying into practical effect the jj'////R'')2j////o/i which so skilfully had been manufactured; and now it is that we arrive at a course of di[)lomatic operation wholly unprecedented, to wit, that of sending to the Senate an elaborate argument, on the part of tlic British and Cunndian Commissioner.s, in I'avor ol'a renewal oCllio but-Iately-so-niiiversally- coii(l;Miiii('(l cjonimerciiil policy, uiiaeuoiiipanied by even a single word from llie State Department to the elVeet tlnit an absolute refutation of most of what was therein pr(!sented would be found in a tlooument furnished to the Senate in January, 1871; and that so eonelusivc had been regarded the l{e[)ort then maile that the question had, as I believe, never even been brought bel'ore the Congress by wliitdi the Washington Treaty had been negotiate(h Marked "confidential," and thus prevented from apj)earance be- fore the jniblic eye, this plausible argument was meant to remain unanswered, and it may well be doubted if even a dozen copies have ever been seen outside of the senatorial body. With much difliculty, and after weeks of elYort, I myself succeeded in obtaining one, to a single passage from which I shall, Mr. President, invite your attention in another letter, with a view to enabling you to form an idea of its gener.'d character, giving, however, in advance a briel' statement of real facts derived from authorities tliat cannot at all be questioned; meanwhile retnaining. Very truly and respectfully yours, IIENliY C. OaKEY. November 18, 1874. LETTEK SECOND. Mr. Prksidkn^t : — The subject-matter of the jiassage above referred to is that of the ^mmunication of the Canadas with the outside world througliout the many months when the St. Lawrence is closed by ice or fog, or by both combined. For nearly thirty years past they have been allowed tlie j)i-ivilege of free j)assage for men and things through the territory of the Union, and to liow serious an extent their very existence has been dependent upon continuance of that grant will now be shown, as follows: — By the census of 1839, Upp_r Canada, now Ontario, was sliown to have a population but slightly exceeding 400,000 souls. Six years later Congress granted to it, and to its sister colonies, the free right of way above referred to, and from that time forward — further aided by reciprocity, so called, granted in 185-1 — the growth of num- bers was so rapid that in 1861 the population amounted to almost 1,400,000, or nearly three and a half times more than it had been twenty-two years before. With tlie slightest possible exception, from the date of the grant above referred to, the British free-trade policy had been that of the^ American Union, and with such effect, as regarded immigration, tli.'it in the closing year of the period above described it liad fallen to but a single hundred thousand; or little more than a third of the number at, which it iiad stood a dozen years before, when that ))olicy had but begun to produce its natural elVect in closing mills, mines, and I'actories throughout the Union. With 18t)l there came, however, a total change, making such demand for labor in the field, the factory, the furnace, and the mine, that with each successive year the attractive force of the Union increased, with such diminu- tion in the j)owe'' of the Canadas to retain even their home-grown l)oj)ulation that the total increase of the decade ending in 1871 was but little in excess of 800,000, or about 12^ per cent.* Such having been the sad stale of things resulting from abolition of privileges in our markets granted under the nanie of " reci- procity," where reci|>rocity had really had no existence, there occurred, most surprisingly, to Canadian statesmen, the "happy thouf^ht" described in a passage from the Toronto corresi)ondent of the Neia York Tribune^ which reads as follows: — " The amount of compensation to ho piiiil to Caniula by the United States for the louse of tlio iu-slioro tishorios was, accordinfj to tiio Treaty of Wusliiniitou, to lio (loterminod by a commission. 'I'ho data upon whicii to dotormine tlwir value, however, wore so uncertain, and tlu' dillicultios in the way of arrivinjif at a solution of tlio point wore soon to bo so LToat, that tho liappy tliouj^ht occurred to tiio Governinout to combine an abandonmoiit of this claim with tho i)ositive obliira- tions in connection with the canals iu order to induce the United States to renew reciprocal relations with (^'anada, 'I'here can bo little doubt that those reasons, combined with the desire on the part of Canada for a renewal of reciprocity, constitute the determiniur cause for her takinjf the initiative iu tho matter." Row insignilicaiit, compared with this magnificent suggestion, is the real value of the fisheries, will be shown hereafter. What is the value of the transit privilege that has now for thirty years been gratuitously accorded is shown in the facts that have above been given. To the end, however, of enabling themselves to obtain a large price for the one, while paying nothing for tl)e other, it was needed to show how readily the Canadas could dispense with tliat which for so long a period had constituted, during two-fifths of the year, their sole means of communication with the outer world free from custom-house interru{)tion, and hence it is that we find in lids remarkable document the passage above referred to, and which reads as follows: — " Under the influence of the formal notice given by the United States in 181);'). of their intention to terminate the Treaty, federation of the Provinces, then under dis- * Upper Canada Lower *' 18(il. l.SDG.Otil l,110,ti()() 2..')(i(i,727 1,620,851 1,11)1,51(5 2,812,:iC7 IIow groat had boon the (lifference of the two policies as regarded their iuflueiice on populatiou is sliowu by tlie fact that tho increase of Minnesota alone had been greater than that of Upper Canada, and that of Missi ari nearly twice that of the Canadian provinces combined. 8 cussion, wiiH liurricil on iiiul Iiociinn' ii /'»^< nrrdinph' whhin fiftcon months iiftor its rcpciil. Tlic Intcrcoloiiiiil riiilwiiy wiis iit onco iindiTtaki'M, iit u cost of over .«!'_*(),(l(i(l,0(l(), lit the nutionul cxpcnHc, to si'curo diri'ct connection to imd from tli»» Atlantic Occiui, at Halifax and St. .loiins on Cunudiiin soil ; ami the last section ol'tiiat road will lie siioitiy opened i'or t ranic." So far !is regiirds tlio mere words of tlii.s stiitcinent it is (uu'tiiiiilv true. A roail has hem in i)rocess of construction, atid will itroUably bo cornj)lof('(l in tltc (iourse of tlio coniiiiL' year; but how iar it can by aiiv possibility be attended with such results us are l)cre sug- gesteii, if not even vouched for, by Coinuiissioucrs, one of whom represents her Britannic Majesty (^ueen Victoria, and the t)ther the Government of the Dominion, you will he enabled, ^[r. President, to judge after study of the following facts: — From ^fonirijal to Portland the distance is less than 2<)0 nules, most of the country thrt^ugh which the road passes being suiriciently s(>ttled to enable it to contributt; larizely toward maintenance and further improvement of its ccMumunications within itself and with the outside world. From Montreal to Halifax, through British territory, the distance is about lOOO miles, of the last SOU of which, passing, as they maiidy do, on the edge of an uniiduibitcd and uninhabitabledcsert, there are but very few which can, under any circumstances whatsoever, con- tribute toward maintenance and improvement of a road that has been made for no iiurjiose other than that of ])urchasing. by means of a large and wastet'ul exj)enditure, the assent of the lower pro- vinces to the federation; but which, as the Commissioners would now liave us believe, is to render the Dominion entirely indepen- dent oi' her neighbors south of the lakes. How far this can prove to be true we may now examine as follows: — The (diarges for transportation of the rudest products on such a road, cannot be less then 2h cents per mile, or, for 800 miles, $20 per ton ; equivalent to 60 cents I'or a bushel of wheat. Add to this one-third as much for transport of merchandise received in return, and we have 80 cents per bushel addilional to the tntnl cJianje hji vcnj of Portlaml. Trade under such circumstances ct)uld, for little less than half the year, liave no existence whatsoever, and the upper provinces, limited to that route alone, must steadily decline in population, passing gradually toward the condition in which they had stood at the date of the first grant of transit ]irivileges. Having studied carefully these facts, Mr. President, you can have little hesitation as to the cause of the sudden appearance of the " ha})py thought" above referred to. Having so studied them you will, Mr. President, be enabled to form a somewhat correct idea of the general value of this "memo- randum," the accuracy of whose presentations is vouched for by Her Britatmic Majesty's Kepresentative in Washington, Sir Edward Thornton, and by the Canadian Commissioner, the Honorable George Bro'vn; and also to appreciate the real motives of those by wlu)m you had been induced to transmit such a Treaty, and even to urge 9 its consideration, at a time when there leniaincd hut three .\, .lime IT. l.-^Tt. " I Imvo tlio honor to inclose ii copv of tlir* (Iruiiulit of a trciitv for tlic r('ii|»i'(i('iil roi-iiliilions of the connniTcc and tnulc Ix'twccii tlio L'liili'il States und Camiilii, with provisious for tlie enhir^ji'ment ol the ('auudiau canals, and for thcii- nse liy United Slates vessels on terms of <'(|iiality with Hritish vessels, whii h iJritisli pleMiiKiicniiaries liave jiropiiseil lo this (ioverniiu'iit. (Si-ned) IIAMIL'I'ON FISII. 'I'liK I'i:ksii)i:.\t." You will hero observe, Mr. President, that this important Treaty was passed forward to yourself uiiaccoinj)anied by even the slight- est suggestion that it liad ever been considered, or even read, by your Secretary of State. That it had not been so would seem to be conclusively established l)y the fact that that gentleman subse- quently, in conversation with at least one distinguished senator, gave assurance thtit he '^ assumed for himself no responsibilit;/ whatso- ever, the Treaty having been prepared by the British Commission 3rs, and he having merely as a matter (jf duty caused its presentation to the Senate." Most certainly, Mr. President, you could not so have understood this matter at the time when you said to the Senate — "I tiierefore express an earnest wish, that the Senate may be able to consider and determine before the adjournment of Congres- whether it will give its constitutional concurrence to the conclusion of a Treaty with Great Britain for the purposes already named, either in such form as is proposed by the British i)lenipotentiaries or in such other more acceptable form as the Senate may prefer." CouKl it have been possible that you would so have spoken, Mr. President, had you understood tlie real facts? Assuredly not. You would certainly have seen that a fraud had been in preparation far exceeding any of those wdiicli V.ati recently so much occuj)ied the Congressional attention, and would have required, for examination into the character of a measure so important, that ti'ue of which it had been the object of the conspirators engaged in its preparation to deprive both yourself, Mr. President, and the many millions of people who were to be bound by its provisions throughout the long period of five and twenty years. 10 ITavinti thus exhibited in some small detjree the curiosities of this remarkable diplomatic feat, I ))ro})()se in another letter to show how this negotiation compares, in the arrangements therefor, Avith the Treaty of Washington; and how the two com])are with each other as to the importance of the questions proposed by them to be settled; meanwhile renuiining, Mr, President, Yours very ^'espectfully, IIENEY C. CAEEY. Pnu..\T)Ki,i-iiiA, Xov. 19, 1874. LETTER THIRD. Mr. President : — Toward the close of the administration of President Johnson the Hon. Reverdy Johnson was sent to England, charged with an effort at obtaining satisfaction for the many and serious injuries under which thrcjughout ihe whole period of the rebellion we had so severely suffered. By very many of his constituents, and by me among the rest, the course of proceeding thus indicated was deemed unwise, no nation having ever yet obtained justice from any other nation by means of such solicitation as was to be now attempted. Tliat in the view thus expressed they were certainly right came soon to be proved by the fact, that the British press with one voice denounced our claims as utterly absurd ; and, that so little was the satisfaction granted that not only did the Senate refuse to ratify the convention then submitted for its consideration; but that you, yourself, ^^r. President, in your first message, denounced it in the terms that follow, to wit: — " Toward the close of the last administration a convention was signed at London for the settlement of all outstanding claims between (Jreat IJritain and the United States, which failed to receive the advice and consent of the Senate to its ratifi- cation. The time and the circumstances attending the negotiation of tliat treaty were unfavorable to its acceptance by the people of the United States, and its pro- visions were wholly inadequate for the se tlenient of the grave wrongs that had been sustained l)y this government as we'l as by its citizens. The injin-ies result- ing to the United States by reason of the course adopted by (Jreat F)ritain during our hite civil war in the increased rates of insurance; in the diminution of exports and imports, and other obstructions to domestic industry and jjroduction : in its effect upon the foreign commerce of the country, in the decrease and transfer to Great JJritain of our commercial marine; in the jtrolongation of the war, and the increased cost (both in treasure and in lives) of its suppression ; could not be ad- justed and satisfied as ordinary commercial claims which naturally arise l)etween commercial nations. And yet the convention treated them simply as such ordi- nary claims, from which they ditter more widely in the gravity of their character than in the magnitude of their amount, great even as is that difference. Not a word was found in tlie treaty, and not an inference could be drawn from it, to re- move the sense of the unfriendliness of the course of (Jreat liritain in our struggle for existence, which had so deeply and universally impressed itself upon the people of this country." 11. Tlie year that followed having exhibited no change in the rela- tions of the two countries, and no improvement on the part of the provincial authorities, your second message recommended, first — "The appointmont of a commission to take proof of the amonnis and tlia owner- ship of their several claims on notice to the representatives of her majesty at Washiufiton ; and that authority he {j;iven for the settlement of their claims l)y the United States, so that tiie govornmeiit shall have the ownership of the private claims as well aS the responsible control of all tlu; demands afjainst (!reat iiritain. It cannot he necessary to add that whenever her majesty's fjovernment shall enter- tain a desire for a full and friendly adjustment of these claims, the United .States will enter upon their consideration with an earnest desire for a conclusion consist- ent with the honor and dignity of both nations." and second, the passage of a joint resolution authorizing the Presi- denc — " To suspend hy proclamation the rperation of the laws authorizing the transit of goods, wares, iind merchandise in bond across the territory of the United States tol'anada; and, further, should such an extreme measure become necessary, to suspend the operation of any laws whereby the vessels of the dominion of Canada are permitted to enter the waters of the United States." Now, for the first time, did the British people awake to the fact that they were really to be held accountable for the many and grievous sins of which they had been guilty, prompted thereto by an almost universally prevalent idea — so gladly expressed by Karl Russell when using the term Dis- United States — that the prosperity of Britain was to be pi'omoted by any and every measure tending to production of discord between the farming, the planting, and the industriiil portions of the Union ; between tiiose in which freedom had been established, and those in which slavery had been until then niaintainee here below given from the special agent's report (the italics being mine), then on the tables of both Houses of Congress, as follows: — " No ono will question that wo find convenience iind adviintape in the nso of Caniidiun clmiincls for the jiassapo of our commerce lietween the Eastern and AVestcin States, nor tluit we find ))roiit in acting as the carriers of so large a part of the commerce of Canada with the outside world. 15oth these arrangements of trade are of important value to this country, and its interests would suffer materially from any suspension of either ; but the difference in the situation of the two cotui- tries with reference to them is very marked. To the (Janadian provinces their importance is jiotliiihj Ifi^s flitin cifal, since on the one hand (hr veri/ snslrnaiife iif the arfen'al si/s/em of the Canailas is ilrrived from the American commerce vihich circnlates through it; while on the other hand their own commerce with the world abroad can only be conducted at exceeding disadvantage, if at all for live months of the year, otherwise than across the territory of the United States, and by the privilege of the customs regulations of the American government." — Lamed, Report o}i the State of Trade, Jan. 1871. Graciously now permitted to make contributio.is toward support of Canadian canals and roads ^vithout which they could not be maintained, we were required to jvay for the privilege of so doing by granting to Canadian .ships the same right of way on Lake Michigan, within our border, that they enjoyed upon the border lakes. Fourth. The fisheries question was disposed of by providing that we might re-purchase rights which had been secured to us by the peace of 1788, but which had been brought into question under Canadian interpretation ol' the convention of 1818. The price to be paid was, lirst, a renewal of that free admission of fish which had been granted under the former treaty, and under which our imports of fish and their products had grown from $800,000 to $8,000,000, while our tonnage engaged in the fisheries had fallen from 187,000 in 18.J-1 to 89,000 in 1866 ; and, by aid of constant jicrsecution on the part of the Dominion authorities, to an average of but 78,000 in 1868 and 1869. The gain from reci[)rocity having, as here is shown, been all on the Canadian side, we were now, of course, required not only to renew the former stipulation as to cotnpensa- tion to be made therefor, but also, to add thereto the free enjoyment of fishing rights along our Atlantic coast as well as free market here for all their products. Not content with having thus secured a price far greater than the real value of all they seemed to grant, the Dominion authorities insisted upon a money payment in addition; and by way, probably, of proving that no limit could be set to our concessions, it was jirovided that a commission should be instituted whose duty it would be to determine what further price must be paid should it, on investigation, be proved that the rights of older times, whose re-purchase had been authorized, had a greater money value than could be assigned to the extensive and important privileges now granted to the colonists. In full accord- ance with the general principles which seem to have been established /^ 13 fo" government of the liotly by ^vJiicli this remarkable treaty was negotiiited, not a word appears to have been said in reference to the question as to wliether or not payment sliould be made to ns in the event of its being established that the privileges we had granted had a value far greater than could be assigned to tlie rights upon whose re-entry we were to be now permitted.* Absolutel}'' worthless as was all we had obtained, we were now, in further payment, required to renew to the Canadas, free of charge, a grant nf right of way that, as, Mr. President, has been shown, is vital to their existence ; and further, not only to grant to Britain a full and entire release from the dangers to whioh^ in the event of war, her commerce had become subjected, but also such a defini- tion of neutral rights as must in all the future secure British pro- perty on the ocean from seizure by our ships.f Such, Mr. President, were the concessions obtained at a moment * " Thf^ stateniHut of the provisions of tlie Treaty relating to the fisheries, is th« best argument against them. For tlie privilege of lishing without annoyance, and buying bait, for catching mackerel only, within three miles of tlie shore of the Hrilisli province, which has been and can he demonstrated even by the admission of the Canadian authorities themselves to be scarcely worth seven thousand dollars a year, tli(! Treaty throws open all our fisheries, from Eastport to Delaware Bay, to British fishermen in full competition with our own. " In addition to wliiih we are to give the introduction of all kin(is of fish and fish- oils free of duty into this country, and virtually open to Canada a trade and imliistry which produces more than twelve millions yearly to the United States. And while we surrender all this, we make no provision for tlie reimbursement of our fishermen for their vessels seized and confiscated without right, while prosecuting their hardy toil of the sea, for a serit^s of years by Canadian and British cruisers. And yet all the people are [assumed to he] in favor of every provision of the Treaty of Wash- ington !"— //oh. n. F. Butler. t "Hear in recollection that Great Britain, during the war, had in elfect ruined our commerce ; that from that shock it has in no considerable degree recovered ; that England is to-day doing the carrying trade of the world in her ships ; that it is of the last importance to her to he able to protect her shipping, so that she may bring to her island raw material and there manufacture it and carry hack the product; and you will understand the necessity of this second rule to (heat Britain in time of war — especially, if adopted, as we have covenanted it shall be, by the other maritime powers; and this necessity appears more clearly in view of the fact, as the British Commissioners claim, that this rule is not now a part of the Law of Nations. " Under this rule, no private or public armed vessel of a nation at war can get any supplies to aid her in carrying on warlike operations in any foreign port of the world. Now it has, without doubt, come to be settled law that coal, to a steam vessel -of- war, is a military supply. Nothing is more certain than that all attacks upon an enemy's commerce must hereafter be made by swift armed steam-vessels, as was done by the Shenandoah and Alabama in the (Confederate raid upon our own. But speed in a Steam-vessel uses up coal almost in an arithmetical ratio of progression to the amount of speed attained. Therefore steam-vessels pursuing the commerce of an enemy must use vast quantities of coal, requiring frequent visitations to ports and harbors for renewal. Now, the United States have not c sinirle coaling station iu the world, beside the h i-s on her own coasts, other than hired docks in neutral ports, from which, undei rule, we must be at once shut out in case of war. The establishment of this rule, therefore, protects British commerce in all time, because under it no steam-vessel of war of tile United States, either private or public, can steam more than five days' distance from our own coasts, for the reason that no one of them can carry, with its armament, more tl',au ten days' coal, and it is neither prudent nor safe for a war steamer to be on the oceau without coal to return to port — five days out and five days back." — Ibid. 14 when Britain had really become alarmed at tlie dangers witli which she was threatened, and when but slight manil'estation of self-respect on onr f-art would have been required for obtaining something a]iproaching to a reality of justice. IIow enormous was the further price j)aid therefor will be seen on a comparison of the claims secured with those enumerated in the passage here given from your first message and now rejected. Such comparison would, as I think, certainly result in establishment of the fact tiiat in the admirable maxim festina lente — make haste slowly — would lirve been found the true policy of the Union ; and that the Treaty of Washington, witli its unparalleled array of knights and nobles, ministers and judges, president elective and sovereigns hereditary, has been, so far as the Union was concerned, one grand mistake. Comparing now the admirable position in which we should have stood had your advice, as given above from your second message, been followed ; or, still further, had Congress authorized you, under certain circumstances, to notify Britain that she was no longer to hold herself entitled to the privileges accorded to "the most favored nations," with the contemptible one in which we have since been placed, need we wonder that the British nation should have raised its chief negotia- tor on this occasion to a Marquisate? Assuredly not : never has diplomatist better earned his laurels than did the Earl de Grey on this occasion. Reserving for another letter, Mr. President, consideration of the single reason that has recommended this unfortunate Treaty to many of our citizens, I remain, Yours very respectfully, IIENEY C. CAREY. November 20, 1874. LETTER FOURTH. The recommendation of the Treaty referred to in my last is, Mr. President, that by its means peace had been preserved ; and hence it is that the example thereby set is now so strongly urged upon the world at large. Than this, however, there could be no greater mis- take. The American people had no desire for war, and all the fear thereof was on the British side. For this the plain and simple reason is, that fronv day to day she is making herself more and more dependent on foreign trade, and less and less capable of engag- ing in war with any civilized power of even moderate force. Hence it is that she now turns one cheek v^hen ihe other has been smitten, quietly submitting when Germany and Russia turn deaf ears to her remonstrances on behalf of Danes and Poles ; or when the Czar tears to rags that Treaty of Paris which was meant to secure in all the future the control of Turkey to France and England. Never 15 in tbe history of the world has tliere been a case of submission more complete ; never a wider contrast than that presented by the almost contemporaneous conduct of l^ritain toward the weak com- munities of the East, as this latter will here be shown, as follows: — Taking first the case of the Burmese Empire, we have a statement of facts, given by Mr. Torrens in his recent valuable volume enti- tled "Empire in Asia," which reads as follows: — " At first the lieutenant, of the Queen demands restitution of £9'.)(), iiiul an apology, from the governor of a 15urn ?se town ; without giving time for fair dis- cussion, he raises the terms of his requisition to £100,0(1(1 and an apology from the IJurmese Court ; and while a temjjerate letter from the King, otfering to negotiate, remains unanswered, he hurls an invading force against his realm, drops all men- tion of compensation or apology, and seizes an extensive province, with threats of further partition of his dominions if he will not pay the expenses of the war, the world being asked the while to believe that all has been done unwillingly, in self- del'ence." Numerous cases of a similar kind are given by Mr. Torrens, but, leaving them and turning now to China, we find the following in reference to the Opium wars, the most disgraceful of all those of recent times: — "Mr. Gladstone, in speaking of the opium war with China, once remarked that 'justice was on the side of the Pagan.' Never was this more true than at the I- resent time, when a Pagan government, in spite of domestic anarchy, of the paralyzing iiiHuence of official corruption, and of the perpetual menace of foreign intervention, yet nobly endeavors to exert what remains of its shattered authority on the side of virtue and the good order of the State. On the other hand, I know of nothing more ignoble than the heartless indifference with which tiie failure of these patriotic efforts is regarded by so-called civilized nations, or the immoral cynicism with which English statesmen not only excuse but justify our share in entailing the greatest of calamities on one-third of the human race. If it were possible for us to escape from the responsibility which must ever attach itself to the authors of the first Chinese War ; if we could prove that in forcing the legaliza- tion of the opium trade by the treaty of Tientsin we yielded to iron necessity; if, moreover, we could demonstrate that our duty to India compelled us to prefer the temporary exigencies of revenue to the lasting interests of morality — it would still be incumbent on us to face the fact that our position is at once shameful and humiliating. But when we know that the direct responsibility of every act that has led to the degradation and rapid decline of the Chinese Empire lies at our own door, and that the policy which has borne these evil fruits is still being, in a great measure, carried out by the concurrent action of Anglo-Indian administrators and British statesmen, the ignominy demands some fortitude for us to bear it. We, however, do bear it ; and, at the same time, lose no opportunity of ministering to our self-love by pretending that wherever English commerce extends, or English influence penetrates, both confer untold benefits upon the less favored nations of the world." — Fortnightly lieuieiu, London, September, l8Ti. "How England makes and keeps Treaties," is the title of an article in a recent number of the same highly respectable journal, from which the following is an extract: — " In the same way and at the same time, we have everywhere obtained that our goods shall be imported into all these countries at duties of either three or five per cent. We are continuing to apply to Eastern nations this double system of tariffs, and jurisdiction of goods and judges. To attain those ends, we use all sorts of means, from courteous invitation to bombardments. We prefer to employ 16 mcro oinciiiencc. Iji'caiisc it is clioap iiiul oawy ; l)iit it' tali/i, which reads as follows : — " What wonder these gentlemen indulged in heated speeches and passed con- demnatory resolutions ? 'I'hey know, that, the reciprocity treaty once passed, the days of monopoly are numbered. Congressional and especially Senatorial mills grind slowly, but with the new Democratic blood being rapidly introduced into their management, they will inevitably grind monopoly into an impalpable powder. * * * England has been emphatically assured by the Canadian i'rime Minister, the Canadian plenipotentiary, and — lastly and most strongly — by Lord Duflerin, in his speech at Chicago, that Canada will not consent to a differential arrange- ment to the prejudice of the mother country. In other xoords, what the United 19 Statvfi in pt'vmiUfd fn import ivto Canada at specific diifi/ or free of duti/, that also it will t»'. arniiiijfd innii If imjxirted fravi the United Kivrjdom rni precisely the fi'iiiie terms. Well, tluti, shall nut our iron avd lianhcare maniifaelnrrrs tjo np ami jiossrys the laml ? * * * Shoals (if Anu'ricati citizous aii^ passing over to Catiada in tlio sunimer season, aneing s))ecially in (K'nianIi- iiifrton. VVIiili' it in of coiiiHi' iin])()Ksiltli> that all ran >:ain ovcry ii-H» 7>;);{.(iH2 1», -J lit. 177 '2,'.l'Jl.C-"i.') H.'.'(VJ.;{;Vi :).-j;i(;,:)i4 Totul balance aji'iin^t United States in seven years . $r)l,s7r),(liiH" lleduced to [jlain English, this i assage — vouched for by Sir Kd- ward Thornton, Minister Plenii)olentitn y of Great l^ritain to the United States, and bv the Kon. George iJrown, Commissioner rep- ri'senting the Dominion — reads as follows: " So long as the Recip- rocity Treaty continued in existence there was a large balance in favor of the United States. So soon as the treaty passed out of existence all this changed, the balance, in every year tiiat has since elapsed having been favorable to the Dominion." IIow now stand the real facts of the case? Let us see! In the first two years of the treaty our exports to the British Colonies now constituting the Dominion amounted in round numbers to $48,000,0(^0, and our im- ports to .$2S»,000,000, leaving a favorable balance of $14,000,000; or $7,000,000 per annum. In the last three 3'ears of the treaty, ending June 30, 1866, our exports amounted to S8 1,000,000 and our imports to S128, 500,000, leaving an unfavorable balance of $47,500,000, or an average of nearly $10,000,000 per annum; and yet these commissioners stand ple(iged for the assertion that this latter state of things had followed, instead of having preceded, abolition of the sham reciprocity system ! How the present, and more profitable, system Jias operated, is found in the fact that from $25,000,000 in the last year of the treaty, our exports, as exhibited in the Commerce and Navigation Rejiorts for l87-:3, have now grown to $34,000,000; our imports meanwhile having fallen to $44,000,000, leaving an unfavorable balance of but $10,000,000, or little more than a lifth of that of the three last treaty years combined. 22 At p.'igc 1-4 of tlio " Afemor.-iiidinn" wo find numerous fi|L'ure,s exliibitiiig chaiigus in tho " a^'jircj^iitu imports jiiid exports" of scvtM'iil years immediately previous and lollowing repeal of tlio treaty, without a single word tending to sliow tliat — as in 18(57, when the diminution in our exports had been but >>"),( ton, dOO, our im|)orts meanwhile falling almost live times tl.it amount — nearly the whole loss had fallen upon the Dominion ; and, that heniH) it had been tliat its administration had so eagerly caught at the " liapi)y tliought" above referred to. The figures througho\it this document, j»repare{l for the my3tiri- cation of senatorial minds, are almost countless. W! ' thoir general value, Mr. President, may be inferred from the c' our being here assured that the Dominion, in 1871-2, took of our "ex- port traflie .S'22, 152,4(5-1: more than l''ranee and all her possessions ;" that resiilt having been arrived at by the singular process of adding to our liuniti/'Sevcn millions of real exj)orts, more than tire)ih/-J'onr millions of goods that had been si.nply alloweil, free of duty, to cross the State of Maine! By aid of a similar process the Commissioners elsewhere find themselves emibled to assure Senators that " with the exception of Germany, Canada was, in the year 1H72-H, the largest cus- tomer ol the United States outside of the British empire;" mean- time knowing well, that of the nearly twenty-seven millions of merchandise passing, duty free, from Portland to Montreal, and here ditsscd ((s hei)i;/ of our Jioine 'jiroductioa^ nearly all Inul come in the winter months, giving emjiloyment to British steamers that in the summer had traded between Liverpool and Montreal ; thus enabling the Dominion to maintain an intercourse with the outside world which otherwise could liave had no existence. Nevertheless, they, with calm assurance, assert that the profits of this transit trade had enured mainly to the United States, " without any cor- responding advantage to the provinces"! In face of these remarkable misrepresentations of the real facts of the ease, the Commissioners gravely volunteer the assurance that in tiie preparation of this "Memorandum" there has been no ^^ arriere pensee'^ — no desire at concealment or misrepresentation in regard to any matter whatsoever. Qui s'excuse^ s'accxise. Those which have been here exhibited are but types of those of this whole ''Memorandum," discreditable, as it is, to its authors, while insulting to yourself, Mr. President, and to that Senate for wliose mystification it had been prepared. It may, however, Mr. President, be asked how it had been that the Commissioners should have ventured so to play with facts and figures. To this the answer is, that this document had not been in- tended for the public eye, if indeed for the eyes of all the Senators. Marked " confidential," ^^utl sent in, as a public document, but little more tiian a fortnight previor.s to adjournment, when all were busily occupied, it remained so private that eminent members of the Senate, known to be opposed to " reciprocity," could with 28 ex- lour '. to (liniculty be persuadtMl tliat such a papor liad over boon l)rouj:,lii to senatorial iKJlice ; ami it may now, a.s I think, bo conllilontly as- sorted that it would to this hour iiavo remained unknown, and un- suspeGtetli of.Iune, per- formed an act ol" pubiio justice in favoring its readers with a very copious abstract of its contents; thus for the first time enabling our various industrial interests to obtain some idea of the destructive ciiaracter of the movement that had btjen for so many mt)nths in preparation. Secrecy and crime, Mr. President, commoidy travel in comj)any, and when these transactions shall come, as I think they may, to be fully investigated, it will be found that the case now before us [iresents no exctiption to the rule. How far it could have been justifiable in the Treasury Clerk, who api)ears from the " Memorandum" itself to have been concerned in its concoction, or in your Secretary of State, by whose order it was placed in the hand- of Senators, to endorse in any manner whatsoever a production so little creditable to those concerned in forcing upon the Union so one-sided and destructive a measure, I leave tor you, Mr. Tresident, to determine, remaining meanwhile, Verv respectfully, IIENKY C. CAREY. rurLMiEi.piiiA, November 24, 1874. LETTER SEVENTH. d with Mu. President: — Having thus exhibited the various modes in which our northern friends liave sought to prove to farmers and manufacturers, north and south of the lakes, the advantages that must result from establishing for all the future a perfect industrial dependence, I proceed now to show what, in the event of this treaty unfor- tunately becoming the law of the land, must inevitably be the result, so far as we ourselves are concerned, as follows: — The first three articles having reference to those "priceless" fisheries for which we have already so largely paid, they may for the present be laid aside. By the fourth it is provided, in schedule A, that agricultural pro- ducts generally, wool included, timber, fish, salt, ores, and raw materials of various kinds, shall, for the next three years, be ad- mitted at reduced rates of duty, and thereafter, for the term of twenty- three years, free of all duty whatsoever. That we may understand the necessary operation of this article it is needed to look for a moment at the widely-dift'ering commercial policies of the two countries. South of the lakes it has been deemed expedient to bring the producer to the side of the consumer, 24 the result of that policy, maintained now for nearly fourteen years, hiiving been that of making so large a demand for labor as to have carried immigration upwar.l until in the jiast year it had arrived at nearly half a million, with such corresponding increase in the demand for, and prices of, all those products of the field, tlio farm, and the mine, whose prices are not fixed in foreign markets, as to have made a demand on the British provinces of almost as much real value as that of all the world beside. North of the lakes, on the contrary, the policy has been that which looked to separation of the producer from the consumer, as a conse- quence of Avhich the demand for labor has been so limited that hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been compelled to seek employment within the Union; and that the total growth of Upper Canada in population, in the decade 1860-70, has but little ex- ceeded 200,000, being less than that of the single State of Min- nesota. As a further consequence, the rude products of Canada have, to a large extent, found their best market south of the border line; that, too, despite the duties payable at our custom-house, all of which, as, Mr. President, was clearly shown in my last, they feel and know to have been paid by themselves alone. What tliey I'ow ask is, that the moneys they have thus far paid into our treasury shall in the future be retained by themselves, to the end, in the words of Canadian treaty advocates, that they may '■'■Inivc all the advan- tai/es of heing a State in the American Union, and all the advantages o/mliritish cojincction ivithovt any of the disadvantages of either co^intryP This obtained, and '■'' enjoying free access to the tivo best murhels in the world, ivithonl any of their hiinlens to hear, ^v ill," as the enthusiastic writer continues, " make Canada about the best country to emigrate to on the face of the earths How far it can be to the interest of our farmers to co-operate in bringing about this result it is for them to determine. Schedule B extends the same provisions to axes, spades, shovels, ploughs, hammers, and agi'icultural imj^lements of almost every description wliatsoever. Timber is cheap in Canada and so is iron in England. What is now proposed is, that the latter .shall supply such parts of ma chines as are composed of iron, Canada doing the same with those composed of wood, the joint products passing into the American market duty free. The direct effect of this would be, that the whole of this vast manufacture W(Hild be transferred to the country beyond the lakes, depriving our farmers of the market now afforded them, while largely contributing toward opening for cultivation that great wheat country of northwestern Canada, all of whose products are to be admitted here duty free. On this head a highly intelligent resident of Canada, in a letter now before me, writes as follows: "In a few years the lied River Territory, including the Saskatche- wan Valley, will be the great competitor of the Western States in all their products. Those extensive regions are amongst the most fertile on this continent, and are now attracting attention. With the 25 of )vels, every hat is of ma those nericau lut the Duntry lYoitled on tliat roducts ell i gent bllows : ^kalebe- tates in 10 most iTilU the extension of the Canadian Pacific Railroad they will soon be settled, and will supply tlie United States with cattle, wool, and grain, to the serious injury of war-taxed American citizens of contiguous States." Schedule "C" extends the same provisions to iron of every de- scrii)tion, from the pig to the steel bar, the locomotive, the station- ary engine, and mill machinery of every kind; to various cotton- goods ; to satinets, tweeds, boots, shoes, leather, cabinet-ware, paper, and paper-making machines, printing type, stereotyping apparatus, railroad cars, and to so many other commodities that, with time, and with that annihilation of many important branches of manu- facture which must inevitably follow treaty ratification, it will be found that almost as much merchandise will pass free through Canada as will pay duty at our custom houses. IIow, it will be asked, can this possibly be ? For answer, I have to say, that nothing cinild be more simple. A few furnaces in Canada, and as many in Nova Scotia, may be made to cover hun- dreds of thousands ol' ^(iritish pigs; a dozen steel and iron mills in like manner covering hundreds of thousands of tons of rails. A very moderate number of pai)erinills may be made to cover 100,000 i-eams of paper, ^fachinery of every kind, coming out in parts ready to be put together in Canada, must be here received as being of Canadian manufticture. That this must certainly be so will readily be seen, it being clear that all such commodities, " being the growth, produce, OR manufacture of Canada or the United States," are to be admitted free of duty. That a man may become possessed of an axe he must have two jneces, one of iron and another of wood. Until they are brought together he has iio axe. The man who brings thsm tt)gether claims to be manufacturer of the axe, as the man who brings together its several parts, wood and iron, may properly claim to be manufacturer of the machinery of a cot- ton mill. By articles V. and VI. it is provided that, as a boon to us, certain canals shall be enlarged, or constructed, and that in consideration thereof we shall cause other canals to be constructed, by means of which vessels drawing twelve feet may pass from tlie St. Law- rence to the waters of the Hudson, and thence to New York. How this will operate we may now examine, leaving aside, for the pre- sent, the well-known fact, that of the various works for whose construction we are here made to ask, the major part has long since been arranged for as being required lor Canadian purposes alone. In accordance witli a convention to that efiect, the parties to this treaty maintain each one war ve.'-:sel on the lakes. I3y the treaty this is practically set aside, the whole British fleet, so far as it draws not more than twelve feet of water, being now to be brought within twelve or fifteen daysof Buli'alo, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, and every other town or city that in the long period of five and twenty years may come into existence on or near the borders of the lakes. In the event of future difficulty with 26 Britain (and great difTiculty must inevitably result from such a treaty as is now proposed), wiiat can we do, knowing that all those cities are i)ractically under tlie guns of almost the whole British fleet? Shall we have any course open to us other than that of abject submission ? It seems to me, Mr, President, that we shall not. Further, by aid of these enlargements the whole lake country will be made accessible to Britisii shiiis rciJiistered as belonging to American owners, and filled with Canadian iron and other free pro- ducts, (iV of ichichrnai/ liave co'nie from heijond the Alhtnd'c. Can this be prevented? Assuredly not! Even as it is, snuiggling is carried on at a scale that is alarming ; but to what may it not be carried when every inspector shall be required to decide if iron pigs have been the ))roduct of Nova Scotian or Lancashire furnaces — whether tweeds and cottons have been made in Canada or in the British islands? Free transit across the State of Maine having been granted, the Canadian markets will be as well supplied in the winter as the sutnnier months. British merchandise of all descriptions will, as British, be carried from Portland to Montreal, to be thence distrib- uted, as Canadian, throughout the towns and cities not only of the north and northwest, but also of the south and southwest. What then will become of the T 'w York and Boston trade? What can be the inducement to brin^. merchandise to those {)orts when British ships, instead of, as now, coming in ballast, can come to Montreal laden with foreign merchandise ; or when American railroads can bo employed in carrying such merchandise to that port to be dis- tributed throughout thei west as being of Canadian manufacture? What of that customs revenue upon which we are now so exclu- sively dependent for payment of our annual expenses, interest on the debt included? It is safe to say that what, on the one liand, with free foreign merchandise passing as Canadian ; and, on the other, diminution of the power of purchase consequent upon de- sti'uction of our industries, not one-half will be collected at our custom-houses that is now received. Fifteen years since, under a so-called strictly revenue tariff, our customs revenues were but $50,000,000 and we were comi^elled to borrow .$80,000,000 to meet our regular annual expenditure, in- cluding but little charge for interest. Under a protective tariff we have collected more than $200,000,000, and can, at any moment, have it restored to even a larger amount. Instead of this, it is now pro{)osed to give us a system that, at its best, would offer opportuni- ties for fraud almost boundless; and yet so clumsily contrived as almost to warrant the idea that it had been intended to afford oj)por- tunity for evasion in every possible shape and form. That the effect of this, upon the revenue, must prove most disastrous appears so clearly obvious that it occurs to me, Mr. President, to suggest the question as to liovv the deficiencies may be supplied. Throughout the war, perfectly fi'ee to deterniine for ourselves our course of 27 the action, we taxed for national purposes raAV materials and manufac- tured products of almost every description ; but by this treaty we in effect declare that such taxes shall never be again imposed, however great may prove the need. If coal and iron, wool and cotton, ores and petroleum, are to come from abroad free of duty, how can we tax those produced at home? llow can we collect duties on iron after having provided that iron ships may be sent to Canada in parts, and there set up to bo euiployed in our coasting or foreign trade while but nominally owned l)y American c'tizens? Must not the Federal government almost at once be driven to taxes on the land, and on its various ))roducts? Such taxes being to the last degree unpopular, must not the jffect of this treaty be that of tying our hands to such extent as to jdace ns prostrate before that nation which everywhere wai's ui)on civilization by exerting all its ener- gies for producing separation of consumers from producers, the whole to be then treated as the poor dependents we must inevi- tal)ly become? Having by the treaty of Washington ])rovided that neutral rights shall be so construed as to secure to ]>rit,ain the power, as against ourselves, to war upon the ocean, are we not now asked so to act as to secure to her in all the future the power to make war upon this North American land? The more, Mr. President, you shall reflect upon the facts that have been here presented, the sooner, as I think, you will be led to see that such must inevitably be the effect of ratification of a treaty for which, as yet, no member of your cabinet has ventured to make himself responsible to you, nor have you made yourself so to yi)ur constituents. 'J'o all the considerations adverse to ratification thus far given there is yet one to be added that, as I think, demands most serious attention, being that which will now below be given, as follows: — Our statutes at large abound in treaties providing that various natitnis of the world shall, in all cases, be put upon the lV)oting of " the most I'avored nations." Under the former treaty with Canada the question as to the effect of this {)rovision never arose, lor the reason that free admission was granted to few, if even any, articles that other nations desired to send us. Under this one all will be dif- I'erent, France, Germany, Belgium, and other numufacturing nations claiming to be put on the same precise footing with the Dominion, entitled to send us such of their products as are here enumerated, as free from customs duty as are those of Canada, or of Britain. Such demand arising, what answer could be made? Could it be that we should be enabled to avoid recognizing the right thus claimed? Assuming that it could not, as assuredly would be the case, would it not be a saving of trouble and expense to declare our custom- bouses to have been altogether closed ? Having studied the facts thus presented, you will, as I think, Mr. President, be prepared to agree with me tliat reversing, as it cer- tainly does, the whole jk^Mc}'' of the Union, tliis treaty is the most important that has ever been submitted to senatorial consideration ; 28 and tlio one wliich most demanded that nothing sliould be done excL'i)t in accordance witli the most approved forms of di])]i)matiG inteicoiirse. How I'ur such has been tlie case, and how lai', in that respect, the course pursued has V)een in accordance with the forms observed in reference to tlie infinitely less imi)ortant ti'eaty of 1871, I propose to show in ;inotlier letter, meanwhile remaining, Mr. President, Yours very respectfully, llENKY C. CAKKY. Piiii.ADi i.i'in.A, iNovember 25, 1^74 LETTER EIGHTH. Mr President: — Absolute secrecy having been the rule adopted by the conspira- tors engaged in revolutionizing our financial and navigation sys- tems, we were kept in entire ignorance of their preliminary move- ments until — as a consequence of recent communication to the British Parliament of such portions of a correspondence on the subject as seemed fit for publication — now at last enabled to see a little behind the scenes, learning thence that on the 23d of February last there occurred to Mr. Brown, and his colleague Mr. Mackenzie, the "hajipy thought" that the then present was "a most favorable opportunity for the renewal of negotiations for a reciprocity treaty between Canada and the United States of America, by which the claim for compensation as regards the fisheries might be settled without the reference provided for by Article XXII. of the Treaty of Washington." In what nianner, Mr. President, could this wonderful discovery have been made ? Had there l)een any discussion of the subject in our public press? in legislative bodies? at ])ublic meetings? in Congress? To the best of my belief there had been nothing of the kind, and if I am right in this, as I certainly think I am, the dis- covery of the fact that such " opijortunii}'" had now arrived must have resulted from a correspondence between officials, nortli and south of the lakes, that it has not yet been deemed expedient to bring before the public eye. In all time past, Mr. PresMent, our government has been remark- able for the perfect publicity of its diplomatic moveuients, the example which has thus been set having been the cause 'of change on the part of Britain, and of other European powers. Directly the reverse, however, we find ourselves com)>elIed to look to Britain for information as to what has now been done even in our midst, at Washington itself. May we not, Mr. President, lind in this some evidence that mischief wa. on foot; that sometliing known to be very wrong, if not even criminal, had been iu contemplation? 29 Litlle more tlian a month later, say on tlie 28tli of March, U'c find by their '' Memorandum" the British Commissioners to have been in communication with our Secretary of State, learning from him tiiat he had " no communication to make," and that he would wish TIIEM to "indicate the enlargements of the old treaty that would be likely to be acceptable to moth countries;" tlie whole movement being still kept so entirely secret that no suspicion whatsoever was entertained, on this side of the border, that any change in our com- mercial policy had even been suggested. l^'rom that hour the Secretary seems to have disappeared wholly from the scene until, on the i7th of Jutie, when there yet reimuned but live days of the session, we lind liim transmitting to you, Mr. Pi'esident, the " tlraught of a treaty which British plenipoten- tiaries have proposed to this government;" thereby indicating that between him and those plenipotentiaries there had been no negotia- tion v:iiatsoe.'ver ; and that, as has since been learned from the "Memo- randum" itself, he had lel't it entirely to them to determine the terms of the most important of all the treaties ever proposed between us and any foreign power; that one by means of which "Canada was to enjoy all the advantages of being a State of the Union with- out any of its disadvantages;" one whose necessary effect must, to the ruin of our shipbuilders and manufacturers, be that of throwing the whole country open to the import, free of duty, of British ship.s and merchandise; and the only one that had ever been suggested by which we were to be held bound, hand and loot, throughout a period of time equal to a whole generation, say five and twenty years ! Silence had throughout prevailed, nor, Mr. President, was it broken until, as already stated, about the middle of May the public mind was startled by a (light of literary rockets passing outward in all directions, north and south, east and west, from close neighborhood of the Treasury building; each and every of them bearer of an admo- nition to our people to the elltect, that if they would be prosperous in the future they could be so only on the condition above described, to wit, that of enabling our northern neighbors to enjoy "all the advantages of being within the Union," while freed from all the liabilities of a State; leaving wholly out of view, however, the fact, that by aid of preliminary arrangements with Britain, the ports of Canad„., and through them, necessarily, our ports on the lakes, were practically to be open to free admission of some of the most important of all the British manufactures. The publication thus made had, of course, the effect of stimu- lating desire for further information, application therefor being made to the then Assistant Secretary of State, with, however, as then was understood, no effect other than that of being enabled to learn that the matter was one in which the State Department took no part whatsoever; and that, if further information were de- sired, application must be made to its head, the Secretary himself. That this was certaiidy so we since have learned, Mr. President, from his own letter to yourself, transmitting the treaty exactly as 80 it liad l)een proposed by tlie British plcnipoteiitiarioa to your goveniiiKJiit. Curiosity stimulating to exertion, earnest search came now to be made lor the ^j/aa; in which the negotiation might be in {)ro- gress, as well as lor the vien by whom tlie work was being done. It was, and most emphatically, a pursuit ol' knowledge under dilTi- culties; but, earnestly prosecuted as it was, it resulted in bringing to light the remarkable facts, that the former had been discovereil in a somewhat obscure corner of the Treasury Department, the latter there exhibiting themselves in the persons of two gentlemen, one of whom, altliough now in our public service, was by birth a Nova Scotian, the other being a bonnie Scot; botli maintaining close re- lations with that Dominion whose rulers were now seeking to secure i'or their fellow-subjects, and for those of the British Isles, all the advantages of being within the Union wholly I'ree from the responsibilities of that peoj)lo with whom they thus demanded to become commercially allied. Before proceeding further, allow me now, Mr. President, to ask your attention to the wonderful difference in the preliminary ar- rangements for the treaties of 1871 and 1874, those provided for the former exhibiting a care and thoughtfulness, and an array of moral and material force, more remarkable than anything of the kind on record; wonderfully contrasting, too, with the absolute unimjiortance, so far as we ourselves luul been concerned, of the qucstitui as to whether decisions should be now arrived at, or post- poned, even were it \o be to the Greek kalends. Looking now to the latter, that of 187-1:, we find before us ques- tions of more importance than had ever before been even spoken of by our diplomatists, yet treated in a "hole in the corner" fashion of which the parties have been themselves so much ashamed that no single person, on our side at least, has ventured to make himself responsible ibr endorsement of a treaty which had there been dictakd by representatives of Britain; and, to all appearance, accepted lor us by nobody beyond a late subject of Queen Vic- toria who might, i>erhaps, within even the next half year, and wholly without disadvantage, rej)lace himself in the Dominion, renewing the oath of allegiance to his recent sovereign.""* The more, Mr. President, you shall reflect upon the contrast thus presented, the more must you be led to think that, were it not so sad that * Of the person here referred to as, to all appearauoe, acting in the capacity of Minister I'leiiipotentiary tor the regulation of our iiUercour.se not only with Canada and iJritaiu, but with foreign nations generally, the iViw York Tribune some two years since spoke as follows : — "The International rritatistical Congress is about to convene at St. Petersburgh, and it is not agreeable to rnalizi' that the Administration could not And citizens of the United States sufficiently enlightened to serve as delegates, but must confer the com- pliment on a foreigner who is smart enough to hold oliice and manage year after year to support his family at the public crib, although he secured the exemption of his son from military service during the late rebellion, by making oath that he was a foreigner." 81 ques- loken riici ained make there ivrance, en Vic- aiid minion, c more, isented, Lid that public aftairs should be tlius conducted, the whole thing would ap- pear ridiculous beyond all diplomatic j)re'jedent. By whom, Mr. President, had this gentleman been appointed to so responsible a position? That it was not by yourselC may be regarded as absolutely certain. "^JMiat it was not by ycmr Secretary of State is equally so, he having left the whole arrangement of this important matter to the Commissioners. Such having been the case, our very extraordinary representative on this occasion would seem to have been a mere volunteer; and yet, there was, perhaps, no single person in the public service the nature of wliose relations with the Dominion could by any possibility have been regarded as so absolutely dis([ualirying Iiim for the important duties ibr whose perrormance he thus had volunteered. The other negotiator, the lion. Mr. Brown, is editor of a public journal, an active, and by many regarded as an unscrujiulous, politician, exercising much influence in the Colonial govei'nment, and having, as is well understood in Canada, absolute control of that secret service fund which i)roved so largely useful on occasion of the negotiation and ratification of the treaty of 1854; at which time its lavish application under the direction of Mr., now Sir Francis, Ilincks, then regarded as corruptionist general, was so thoroughly understood both at Washington and at Toronto, and so bitterly de- nounced by Canadian journals of the day; most especially, too, if my memory serves me rightly, by the Toronto Globe, of whicli the honorable Commissioner has now, and may possibly then have had, the entire management.* Behind this secret service fund there are, however, interests of great importance, represented by men who well know that, because of the protection secured to our farmers, our manufacturers, and our working people generally, they themselves are compelled annually to pay into our treasury many millions; and further, that if they can succeed in breaking down that fence by whose means our in- terests are protected, those nnllions will be retained by themselves, to their own great profit. Such being the ease, need we wonder that some of the very wealthy among them should have pledged themselves, as they are understood to have done, for large sums to be, if needed, added to the corruption fund? This Treaty however, as has been shown, is a British, and not a Canadian one, and it is to Britain herself that those who are urging it on must mainly look for help. To what extent it may probably )urgU, and ,„s of the • the corn- after year ion of his he was a * "That system was introduced by Mr. Hincks. It commenced by an expenditure of some fifty tliousaud dollars. It went on growing and expanding every year, after the Treaty was iu force, for the last ten years. And half the so-calle.i>*^ inly and . If tlie not the [jlusivoly apology ^o greatly on would ucls have ARKY. Inbited by \^ we may .866, their )(.• idea in eut session in its halls carrying 1 the lakes, eferred the lauada and of selling n their real hey desired ed a treaty, fully and completely mounted, within the space of eight and forty lionrs. Nevertheless, nothing of the kind was done, more than as many days having been re(|uirod I'or bringing about a state of things by nu'ans of which an apparent public oj)inion favorable to accom- l)lislimci;t of their purposes could be cpiatiid. How that was done, between the 6th and -'Oih of May, has been already shown, and that it must have rc([uircd considerable expcnditurt,', must now, Mr. President, be; clearly obvious to all who have studietl the facts whi(!h liav(! above been given. A fortnight later (.'ame the news that a treaty was already " before the Seiiati! ;" not as yet, as wc; then were told, suV)mitted for ratifica- tion, but only with a view to obtaining the advice ol' that body in ri;ference thereto; and yet, by many senators it was, and ,nost truly so far as their information went, positively denied that any such document had been communicated to the senatorial bodv. An ab- stract thereof, however, given, as has been shown, on the 6th of June, by the New York Tribune, having furnished proof that an onslaught on our shipping and manufacturing interests was in preparation, there occurred to its ncigotiators the "happy thought" that 1)}' making a show of application I'or information as to how our various industries were likely to be allected by such a measure as tliat proposed, the whole proceeding might be made more pleasing to the puhljc eye. To that end letters were sent out, but by what authority beyond that of the treasury clerk who signed them remains as yet un- known, asking information as to whether Canadian interference was in any manner to be apprehended; suppressing altogether the fact that tiic Dominion had given to the British authorities assurance that all goods similar to those which were to be now admitted free from here would be so admitted coming direct IVoin the British isles; as also, the further fact, of greatly more importance, that, in strict acconlance with the wording of the treaty, our ports would practically be opened lor the free admission of a large proportion of the British manufactures, ships included. Intended for decep- tion of their recipients, these letters had the effect anticipated, to wit, that in their entire ignorance of the real facts many answered that they saw little objection to what had been proposed ; those answers being now, as it is understood, held ready for pro- duction by the negotiators — one a resident, the other a native, of the Dominion — as evidence, full and complete, that our manufac- turers have really nothing to fear, if not even much to hope, from ratilication of a treaty every line of which, as is shown by their own "Memorandum," had been allowed to be dictated by the Com- missioners, without, so far as can be seen, even a shadow of objec- tion on our part. Need we now wonder, Mr. President, that such letters should, upon occasion, have been accompanied by suggestions to the effect that their contents were not to be made known to editors of pro- tectionist proclivities? Certainly not! One such I myself have 86 seen. ITow mnny more there may have been T cannot pretend to miess; but am cci'liiinly of opinion that the emission of ('ven a sinck; one, "with the signature! ol' a tztnernment t>m|)ioyu, is an oflencio that shouhl not be alh)\ve(l to pass unnoticed. By tlie "Meniorainhim'' of tlie Commissioners srnt to tlie Senate on or about the oth of .June, it was proposed that "animals and their j roducts, products of the farm, the I'orcst, the mine, ami th« ocean; dyestulls, manure, and raj^s ;" sliouhl be admitted free; these jn'opotiifioiis beinj^' foUowed up hy siii/(/cfttions to the effect that ships of the Dominion shouhl be placed on an equality with our own ; that several descriptions of manufactures should, on both sides, be so admitted ; and that various arrangements relative to the St. Lawrence, to canals north and south of the line, and to lighthouses, should be incorporated into thu treaty now proposed. To wliom, Mr. President, could these pro]>oHilions, and these su(j- (ji'stions, have been made? Not, certainly, to your Secretary of State, he liaving not only declined to make any " propositions" whatsoever, but having since distinctly stated that he held himself in no manner responsible for any portion of the treaty now l)eforo us. To whom, then? Not ceitainly to your Finance Minister, he having, even in a case like this, where all his calculations were so liable to be set at naught, no authority to enter into nego- tiations with any foreign minister whatsoever. Outsj^le of these there could V)e no one to whom they could honestly be made; and yet, within a Ibrtnight we find that not only luul they all, both " propositions" and " suggestions," been accepted, but tliat tliereto had been added "lead and leather, paper and paper-making ma- chinery, printing type, stereotypes, carriages, railroad cars, steam engines, mill machinery, locomotives, tweeds, satinets," and various other commodities that had been neither proposed nor suggested when, but ten days previously, the Commissioners had felt that it might be possible so far to trespass on the credulity of our ])e()ple as to cause ultimate I'ailure of a scheme whose success thus far had obviously far transcended their expectations. By whom, then, on our side, had this work of acceptance been perpetrated? So far as can be seen, Mr. President, there has been none beyond that same treasury clerk to whom the Commissioners acknowledge their indebtedness for figures tliat, as presented in their " Memorandum," could have been arranged for no purpose other than that of mystifying such Senators as were permitted to see the document in which they subsequently were given; that one who, in the few days allowed to elapse between presentation of the '* Memorandum" and conclusion of the treaty, professed tO seek among our manufacturers for information, while concealing most important iacts ; and that one who, without authority of any kind that can be now perceived, has negotiated the most important treaty ever submitted to the Senate for consideration ; not only revolutionizing, as it does, our financial and navigation systems, but so binding ourselves to a foreign nation as to deprive our vr he been been loners n their other see the e who, of the seek (r most y kind portaiit i)t only y stems, ive our suocossors, tliroughout a whole generation, of all power for cor- rection ! The Japanese nation bound itself for ten years, but now finds itsc'f to have h)Ht all eontrol over its own aetions, having, in elVeet, bound itself forever. Let this treaty bo ratified and it will befottnU that we, in like vuinner^ s/iall lutoc bound ourselves forever. Pausing now for a moment in the history of this extrao .inary transaction, alh)\v me, Mr. President, to call your attention to the fraud involved in furnishing, for senatorial use, a document to bo accepted as giving, in their full extent, the demands made upon us with a view to prevent that " feeling of dissatisfaction" which might arise " if the largo value placed by the Canadian people on their fisheries were not reasonal)ly compensated ;" and then, with the session so near its close that but five working days yet remained, furnishing to our Secretary a document containing further demands of great importance, without, so far as can be now discovered, even a word as to the additions wliich had thus been made. On or before the 16th of Juno, within ten days of the publication by the Tribune of the contents of a confidential memorandu'ia pre- pared for the mystification of Senators, and from which had been excluded very much that stems subsequently to have been sur- reptitiously introduced, the treaty, " armed all in proof," must have been placed, Mr. President, in the hands of your Secretary of State. On the 17th, as has been shown, it was forwarded by him to you without a suggestion to the cftect that he had even sought to master its contents. On the 18th, relying upon him as your con- stitutional adviser in all such matters, it was forwarded by you to the Senate, accompanied by a message in whicli you in like manner disclaimed responsibility for it. On the 19th it was read by its title, and referred. On the 20tli, without the slightest knowledge of its contents on the part of the farmers, miners, mechanics, manufac- turers, ship-builders, and ship owners of the Unioii, it was meant by the conspirators that it should be enacted into law, Senators having been publicly notified that, in the event of their failing to perform that important duty, you, Mr. President, would compel their presence in extra session, to their great annoyance and their heavy cost. Happily, the sclieme failed in all its parts, the aspect of the Senate on that day having alarmed t' 3 conspirators ; and you, Mr. President, having refused to become party to any such attempt to force upon the country a treaty so important and so entirely un- considered. With Monday, the day assigned for adjournment, came the lifting of the veil, the Tribime having made public the whole text of a treaty whose real character had been meant to be con- cealed until ratification had been accomplished ; and until we should thus have bound ourselves for five and twenty years to the wheels of the British chariot, to be ridden over at the pleasure of those who are now, in Japan, engaged in adding a new and important chapter to the already most discreditable history of treaty-making by the British people and their government. 38 Such, Mr. President, is. as I believe, a true account of a con - sph-acy tlutt has no parallel in our history; ,f, indeed in any other Recornmendin- it to vour careful consideration, and hoping that SrcoXt of all concerned therein maybe --^^ ^%-^^-f ..^ thorough examination, I remain, with many apologies for my .e- peated trespasses on your tune and attention, 1 ^ Yours very respecttuiiy, HENRY C. CAREY. Philadbi-phia, Nov. 27, 1874. I con- other. y that irgo a ay re- KY.