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It is earnestly hoped that the inhabitants of our frontier districts will abstain from all acts of retaliation on account of the outrages committed by rebel marauders, and that the proper measures of redress will be left to the action of the public authorities. By command of Major-General Dix.

D. T. VAN BUREN, Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

Official.

WRIGHT RIVES, Aid-de-Camp.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE EAST,
New York City, December 17, 1864.

General Orders No. 100.

The President of the United States having disapproved of that portion of Department General Orders No. 97, current series, which instructs all military commanders on the frontier, in certain cases therein specified, to cross the boundary line between the United States and Canada, and directs pursuit into neutral territory, the said instruction is hereby revoked.

In case, therefore, of any future marauding expedition into our territory from Canada, military commanders on the frontiers will report to these headquarters for orders before crossing the boundary line in pursuit of the guilty parties.

By command of Major-General Dix.

Official.

D. T. VAN BUREN, Colonel and Assistant Adjutant-General.

G. VON ERIKSTEDT, Aid-de-Camp.

See Bernard's Neutrality of Gr. Brit., 185, where the above orders are noticed.

(7) EXPLORATIONS IN BARBAROUS LANDS (e. g., THE CONGO).

§ 51.

"The instructions of this Government governing your course in that conference are very brief. Without more definite knowledge of the points to be brought before that conference for discussion, and of the extent to which it may feel called upon to take cognizance of existing questions of territorial jurisdiction on the west coast of Africa, and especially at the mouth of the Congo, much must be left to your discretion. The subject is one with which you became familiar before your departure for your present post, in connection with the action of Congress and the declaration of the Executive of the United States looking to a free participation in the trade and intercourse of that newly-opened country by the vessels and citizens of the United States. You are aware that it is not our policy to intervene in the affairs of foreign nations to decide territorial questions between them. It is not, however, understood from the tenor of the German invitation that any such decisive attitude is likely to be assumed by the conference, and beyond taking cognizance of such matters of fact in relation to territorial jurisdiction in that region, as may be brought before it to aid in an intelli

gent discussion of the three points embraced in the German note of invitation, it is not seen that the conference can take upon itself any greater power of intervention or control than could properly be assumed by the individual nations represented thereat."

Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Kasson, Oct. 17, 1884; MSS. Inst.,
Germany.

"The rich and populous valley of the Congo is being opened to commerce by a society called the International African Association, of which the King of the Belgians is the president and a citizen of the United States the chief executive officer. Large tracts of territory have been ceded to the association by native chiefs, roads have been opened, steamboats placed on the river, and the nuclei of states established at twentytwo stations under one flag, which offers freedom to commerce and prohibits the slave trade. The objects of the society are philanthropic. It cloes not aim at permanent political control, but seeks the neutrality of the valley. The United States cannot be indifferent to this work, nor to the interests of their citizens involved in it. It may become advisable for us to co-operate with other commercial powers in promoting the rights of trade and residence in the Congo Valley free from the interference or political control of any one nation."

President Arthur's Third Annual Message, 1883.

"The Independent State of Congo has been organized as a Government, under the sovereignty of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, who assumes its chief magistracy in his personal character only, without making a new state dependency of Belgium. It is fortunate that a benighted region, owing all it has of quickening civilization to the benef icence and philanthropic spirit of this monarch, should have the advantage and security of his benevolent supervision.

"The action taken by this Government last year in being the first to recognize the flag of the International Association of the Congo has been followed by formal recognition of the new nationality which succeeds to its sovereign powers.

"A conference of delegates of the principal commercial nations was held at Berlin last winter to discuss methods whereby the Congo Basin might be kept open to the world's trade. Delegates attended on behalf of the United States on the understanding that their part should be merely deliberative, without imparting to the results any binding character, so far as the United States was concerned. This reserve was due to the indisposition of this Government to sbare in any disposal by an international congress of jurisdictional questions in remote foreign territories. The results of the conference were embodied in a formal act of the nature of an international convention, which laid down certain obligations purporting to be binding on the signatories, subject to rati

fication within one year. Notwithstanding the reservation under which the delegates of the United States attended, their signatures were attached to the general act in the same manner as those of the plenipotentiaries of other Governments, thus making the United States appear, without reserve or qualification, as signatories to a joint international engagement imposing on the signers the conservation of the territorial integrity of distant regions where we have no established interests or control.

"This Government does not, however, regard its reservation of liberty of action in the premises as at all impaired; and holding that an engagement to share in the obligation of enforcing neutrality in the remote valley of the Congo would be an alliance whose responsibilities we are not in a position to assume, I abstain from asking the sanction of the Senate to that general act.

"The correspondence will be laid before you, and the instructive and interesting report of the agent sent by this Government to the Congo country, and his recommendations for the establishment of commer cial agencies on the African coast, are also submitted for your consideration."

President Cleveland's First Annual Message, 1885.

"As you are aware, the Government of the United States, in authorizing the attendance of Mr. Kasson as a delegate to the conference of Berlin, and of Mr. Sandford as an associate delegate, did so under expressed reservations, among which was the understanding that those gentlemen were without plenipotentiary powers, and that this Government, in its sovereign discretion, reserved wholly the right thereafter to accede or withhold its accession to the results of that conference.

"It appears, however, that their signatures were attached to the general act in the same manner as those of the plenipotentiaries of other Governments, and that the United States are thus made to appear as signatories to a general international treaty, imposing on the signatories a common duty in respect of the conservation of the territorial integrity and neutrality of distant regions where this Government has no estab lished interests or control of any kind.

"This Government does not, however, regard its prior and entire reservation of liberty of action in the premises as at all thereby impaired. And until the United States shall, by subsequent accession and ratification of the general act of the conference of Berlin in the manner therein provided, and according to their constitutional forms, become a party to the stipulations thereof, it will be impossible to determine the due. and proper weight to be given by this Government to the declaration and claim which is thus communicated by Mr. van Eetvelde on behalf of the Independent State of the Congo. But this reservation is wholly distinct from the recognition of the sovereign status of the Independent

State of the Congo, which does not rest upon the conventional arrangements contemplated by the conference of Berlin."

Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Tree, Sept. 11, 1885; MSS. Inst., Belg.; For.
Rel., 1885.

For correspondence on this topic see For. Rel., 1885, 57 ff.

As to agency to the Congo, see Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Tisdel, Sept. 8, 1884;
MSS. Notes, Special Missions.

See discussion of the Congo question in review by M. de Martens; Revue de
Droit Int., 18-6, 113.

"The President having deemed it inexpedient to submit the general act of the Berlin [Congo] Conference to the Senate with a view to obtain the constitutional concurrence of that body, and having announced his views thereon in his annual message of the 8th of December last (of which I inclose copies for your convenient information), I am unprepared to ask, through the United States minister at Berlin, as your note suggests, that the term for the exchange of ratifications be kept open in favor of the United States. Nor am I at present prepared to make such announcement to your Government as might be construed to be a formal and final rejection of the general act by the United States."

Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. von Alvensleben, April 16, 1886; MSS. Notes,
Germany.

(8) INTERCESSION IN EXTREME CASES OF POLITICAL OFFENDERS.

§ 52.

On March 15, 1793, Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, instructed Mr. Gouverneur Morris, minister to France, to say, whenever it would be effectual, to any foreign Government by whom General La Fayette might be held in custody, "that our Government and nation, faithful in their attachments to this gentleman for the services he has rendered them, feel a lively interest in his welfare, and will view his liberation as a mark of consideration and friendship for the United States, and as a new motive for esteem and a reciprocation of kind offices towards the power to whom they shall be indebted for this act."

This application, however, was considered afterwards to be personal rather than official.

"The uniform policy of this Government has been not to interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations. This policy was wisely estab lished by President Washington, who carried it so far as to refuse to interfere officially for the release of La Fayette, his friend and companion in arms, who was incarcerated for many years in the prison at Olmütz."

Mr. Crittenden, Acting Sec. of State, to Mr. Pruyn, Oct. 8, 1851; MSS. Dom.
Let.

The Government of the United States will, through the Secretary of State, interpose its good offices for the alleviation of the punishment

of citizens of the United States convicted in a foreign country of polit ical offenses against such country.

Mr. Webster, Sec. of State, to Mr. Cushing, Aug. 27, 1842; MSS. Dom. Let.

The laws of Turkey "whereby the penalty of death is denounced against the Mussulman who embraces Christianity," however outrageous, do not justify an appeal from this Government for their repeal. Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Spence, Dec. 28, 1855; MSS. Inst., Turkey. No intercession will be offered when it involves an impeachment of the character of the Government addressed. Hence, in December 8, 1858, the Department declined to address the Papal Government in reference to certain acts of alleged cruelty permitted in Bologna.

Mr. Cass, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hart, Dec. 8, 1858; MSS. Dom. Let.

The same position was taken by Mr. Cass on Jan. 4, 1859, in declining to intervene in behalf of the "Mortara boy," alleged to have been abducted and forcibly baptized by Papal authorities.

"The capture of the Prince Maximilian in Queretaro by the republi can armies of Mexico seems probable. The reported severity practiced on the prisoners taken at Zacatecas excites apprehension that similar severity may be practiced in the case of the prince and his alien troops. Such severities would be injurious to the national cause of Mexico and to the republican system throughout the world.

"You will communicate to President Juarez promptly, and by effectual means, the desire of this Government, that in case of capture the prince and his supporters may receive the humane treatment accorded by civilized nations to prisoners of war."

Mr. Seward, Sec. of State, to Mr. Campbell, Apr. 6, 1867; MSS. Inst., Mexico. "The judgment of mankind is that in revolutionary movements which are carried on by large masses, and which appeal to popular sympathy, capital executions of individuals who fall within the power of the Government are unwise and often unjust. Such severity, when practiced upon a citizen of a foreign state, excites a new sympathy by enlisting feelings of nationality and patriotism.

"The fellow-citizens at home of the sufferer in a foreign country nat. urally incline to believe that the just and generous principle to which I have referred is violated in his case. The soundness of this principle is quite easily understood after the revolutionary movement is ended, although it is difficult to accept the truth in the midst of revolutionary terror or violence. When the President of the United States dismissed the prosecutions in the United States courts of the so-called Fenians who attempted an unlawful and forbidden invasion of Canada, and returned them to their homes at the expense of the Government, and at the same time obtained, through the wise counsels of Sir Frederick Bruce and the Governor-General of Canada, a mitigation of the capital punishments adjudged against those who were convicted in the Cana

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