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“The Apple of Discord at the Geneva Convention”

No caption.

When
Ulysses S. Grant assumed the presidency in March 1869, relations between
Great Britain and the United States were at a low point. From the
American point of view, the foremost reason for the breach was the
construction and refitting of Confederate warships by British
shipbuilders during the American Civil War (1861-1865). American politicians
argued that such behavior violated Britain's official neutrality, and
demanded that the British government make financial
restitution--collectively known as the Alabama claims after the
most successful of the Confederate ships. In 1871, both countries
agreed to have an international commission, the "Geneva
Tribunal," arbitrate a settlement. Since
the commission met in the capital of Switzerland, cartoonist Nast uses
the Swiss folktale of William Tell shooting an apple off his son's head
to illustrate this important event in British-American relations.
The before and after images celebrate both the process of international
arbitration and the resulting settlement. John Bull, the
personification of Great Britain, aims the
"peaceful arbitration" arrow at the "Alabama
claims," while members of the Geneva tribunal sit on a platform
(left-right): Charles Francis Adams of the United States; Jacques
Staempfli of Switzerland; Count Frederico Sclopis of Italy (commission
president); Sir Alexander Cockburn of Great Britain; and Baron D'Itajuba
of Brazil. Behind them, various European leaders carefully watch
the proceedings, including Franz Josef of Austria, Wilhelm I of Germany,
Alexander II of Russia, and Victor Emmanuel II of Italy (the second,
fourth, fifth, and eighth from the left, respectively). The final
scene (lower-right) is one of friendship between John Bull and Uncle
Sam, and jubilation by the crowd (background).
Negotiations
between Britain and the United States had begun during the presidential
administration of Andrew Johnson (1865-1869). After Grant's
election in November 1868, the president-elect informed Johnson's
secretary of state, William Henry Seward, that he wanted to be consulted
during the ongoing talks. Seward, however, ignored Grant and
reached a settlement with Britain, known as the Johnson-Clarendon
Convention, which only provided financial restitution to private
American citizens for specific damages, and did not cover general harm
caused by the British-built Confederate warships against the Union
military cause. Grant opposed the unpopular treaty, and the Senate
rejected it overwhelmingly, 54-1.
The treaty's failure added fuel to the fire of other problems between
the two countries, most notably, Fenian (Irish nationalist) raids from
New York into British Canada, and disputes between American and Canadian
fishermen. The most prominent anti-British voice in
American politics belonged to Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts,
the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In April 1869, Sumner delivered a speech on the Senate floor in which he
insisted that the British government owed American taxpayers $2 billion
in damages, and recommended the down payment be Britain's cession of
Canada to the United States. Grant initially shared Sumner's views
and appointed a Sumner protégé, John Lothrop Motley, as U.S. minister
to Great Britain.
However, by the end of 1869, Grant's secretary of state, Hamilton
Fish, had convinced the president that Sumner's rhetoric and position
were inappropriate. In addition, the Massachusetts senator
increasingly angered the president by blocking Grant's first nominee for
treasury secretary and several diplomatic appointments, opposing repeal
of the Tenure of Office
Act, and remaining outspoken on the Alabama
claims issue. The last straw occurred when the senator sank the
Grant administration's treaty to annex Santo Domingo (1870), after which
the president orchestrated Sumner's removal as chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee, and replaced Motley as minister to Britain.
In Britain, the administration of Prime Minister William Gladstone
(1868-1874) hoped to improve relations with the United States. By
late 1870, British officials were worried about the Franco-Prussian War
and Russia's rejection of the neutralization of the Black
Sea under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. Not wanting to see
ships of Britain's enemies built in ports of the neutral United States,
Gladstone proposed that the Alabama claims and all other
British-American disputes be arbitrated by a joint British-American
commission. On February 24, 1871, the Joint High Commission,
composed of distinguished teams of negotiators from both nations, met in
Washington, D.C., to forge an agreement. The most valuable work
was undertaken informally by the two commission leaders, Secretary Fish
for the United States and George Robinson (Lord Ripon) for
Britain.
After little over two months, representatives of Britain and the
United States signed the Treaty of Washington on May 8. Under its
terms, the Alabama claims were submitted to a five-member
international tribunal; Britain expressed official regret at the damage
done by the vessels; new guidelines were established for maritime
neutrality (later accepted as international law at the second Hague
Conference in 1907); American and Canadian fishermen were given ten-year
access to the other's territorial waters, from which they could ship
home fish duty-free; and the border dispute over the San Juan islands in
the Pacific Northwest would be decided by Emperor Wilhelm of Germany
(who ruled the next year in favor of the U.S.). Gladstone generously
agreed to waive Canadian claims against the United States for the Fenian
Raids.
The Treaty of Washington was praised by the press, including
Democratic newspapers like the New York World. The U.S.
Senate ratified the treaty 50-12 on May 24, 1871, with Senator Sumner voting in the
affirmative. Although troubles between British Canada and the
United States flared up over the next few decades, the Treaty of
Washington was a major turning point in improving British-American
relations; never again would the two nations be enemies. It also
set a precedent for settling international disputes when the Geneva
Court of Arbitration (or Tribunal) met the next year. On September 14,
1872, the Court announced that Britain would pay the United States $15.5
million for the Alabama claims (note the arrow Uncle Sam holds in
the inset picture).
Robert C. Kennedy
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