officially and publicly the royal ordnance ceding the islands to the United States. Their excellencies, Governor Birch, Vice-Governor Rothe, some other officials, our consular representatives, my colleague and myself, and a few of the influential inhabitants of the island were present.

The commissioner, Chamberlain Carstensen, read the royal ordnance ceding the islands to the United States, and requested an expression of the views of gentlemen present upon the subject, and especially as to the result of a vote of the people.

It seemed to be generally conceded by those present that the vote would be adverse to the change of sovereignty unless a declaration should be made or sufficient expression given by our Government for the inhabitants to believe that the present commercial privileges of St. Thomas would be preserved for a period of at least fifteen or twenty years.

I remarked that the passage of laws in regard to the future commerce of the island relative to a tariff of duties upon imports, etc., would be the province of our national legislature, but that I had every reason to believe and stated it as the view of the Department that the action of Congress would be in a spirit wholly friendly to the islands and that their prosperity would be carefully fostered and guarded by our Government.

The commissioner, however, has decided, and the Government here coinciding with him, that it is unsafe to risk a vote now, and proceeds to Washington in company with Mr. Hawley for the purpose of consultation with the Danish minister and our own Government, hoping to obtain some such declaration or expression from yourself as will insure a favorable vote.

His decision is, perhaps, a wise one, but I do not wholly share his fears, and should he return without accomplishing his purpose it might be more difficult to obtain a favorable vote than now. I shall remain here and at Santa Cruz during their absence, and no opportunity will be neglected by me to further the accomplishment of the object for which we were sent here.

The inhabitants of Santa Cruz are much disappointed that their island is not included in the treaty.

I have the honor to be, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

E. H. PERKINS,

United States Consul, St. Croix, W. I.

Hon. William H. Seward,

Secretary of State, Washington.

(INCLOSURE)

ROYAL PROCLAMATION TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS OF ST. THOMAS AND ST. JOHN. OCTOBER 25, 1867

We, Christian the Ninth, by the grace of God King of Denmark, the Vandals, and the Goths, duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsh, Laurenburg, and Oldenburg, send to our beloved and faithful subjects in the islands of St. Thomas and St. John our royal greeting:

We have resolved to cede our islands of St. Thomas and St. John to the United States of America, and we have to that end, with the reservation of the constitutional consent of our Reichstag, concluded a convention with the President of the United States. We have, by embodying in that convention explicit and precise provisions, done our utmost to secure you protection in your liberty, your religion, your property, and private rights, and you shall be free to remain where you now reside or to remove at any time, retaining the property which you possess in the said islands, or disposing thereof and removing the proceeds wherever you please, without you being subjected on this account to any contribution, tax, or charge whatever.

Those who shall prefer to remain in the said islands may either retain the title and the rights of their natural allegiance or acquire those of citizens of the United States, but they shall make their choice within two years from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the said convention, and those who shall remain in the islands after the expiration of that term without having declared their intention to retain their natural allegiance shall be considered to have chosen to become citizens of the United States.

As we, however, will not exercise any constraint over our faithful subjects, we will give you the opportunity of freely and extensively expressing your wishes in regard to this cession, and we have to that effect given the necessary instructions to our commissioner extraordinary.

With sincere sorrow do we look forward to the severment of those ties which for many years have united you to us and the mother country, and never forgetting those many demonstrations of loyalty and affection we have received from you, we trust that nothing has been neglected from our side to secure the future welfare of our beloved and faithful subjects, and that a mighty impulse, both moral and material, will be given to the happy development of the islands under the new sovereignty. Commending you to God. Given at our palace of Amalienborg, the 25th of October, 1867, under our royal hand and seal.

(L.S.)

CHRISTIAN, R.

Address of Merchants of St. Thomas to the Danish Commissioner

1

To His Excellency Chamberlain Carstensen, Knight of Dannebrog and Dannebrogsman, royal commissioner extraordinary for preparing the cession of the islands of St. Thomas and St. John to the United States of America.

YOUR EXCELLENCY: It was with feelings of the most profound pain and sorrow, mingled with disquietude and disappointment, that the undersigned have read His Majesty's proclamation dated the 25th October, 1867, relating to his royal resolution to cede the islands of St. Thomas and St. John to the United States of America: with pain and sorrow because the severance of this island from the Danish nationality, and from those mild and benign laws under which the island has existed and prospered for so long a series of years, can not otherwise but be acutely felt; disquietude and disappointment because, although it has pleased His Majesty the King most graciously to proclaim to us that he, by distinct and definite stipulations, entered into the convention of the cession, has secured to us the free exercise of our liberty, religion, rights of property, and other private rights, still we do not find that any conditions have been made to secure to us that on which depend our existence and welfare as a community nay, that without which those very rights which are secured to us, as aforesaid, will be lessened — namely, the unshackled freedom, as heretofore, of this port and of its commerce.

Your excellency will know that this island is devoid of all internal resources, having neither agriculture nor manufacture, nor is it by nature fitted to produce those things which contribute to human life and happiness. It has but its free commerce to depend upon. Deprive it of that freedom, and the whole scene, as it now exhibits itself, will be changed. Fortunes will fall, properties will be depreciated in their value, merchants will fail, and homesteads ruined, because all will find the usual employment suddenly arrested.

The question of the continuance of the freedom of this port and of its commerce under a change of government is therefore of paramount importance to us. It addresses itself to the two most powerful passions of the human heart, interest and fear. It applies itself to the strongest principles of human action, profit and loss. It is therefore of the greatest significance and moment for us that a concession in this respect be obtained from the United States Government.

Your excellency, it is said, is on the eve of departure for Washington, wherefore the undersigned now respectfully pray and solicit of your excellency there at the seat of the government of the United States of America to 1 U. S. Sen. Doc. No. 231, pt. 8, 56th Cong., 2d sess., p. 215.

espouse and advocate our cause, our existence, and welfare, and that your excellency will endeavor and strive to obtain for us, if not perpetually, yet for as many years as possible, those immunities and privileges of this port and its commerce which we have hitherto possessed and enjoyed under the Danish Government.

With sentiments of the highest esteem, the undersigned have the honor to be your excellency's most obedient and respectful servants.

(Here follow names of some one hundred and thirty merchants and proprietors.)

Proposed Additional Articles to the Convention between Denmark and the United States of America made at Copenhagen on October 4, 1867 1

ARTICLE I

Considering that the island of St. Thomas has from olden times been a free port, and considering that the welfare of the merchants and of the inhabitants of the island depends upon the continuance thereof, so that no sudden changes in the present state of things be made, particularly as regards the low rates of custom and ship dues, and of port charges, it is agreed that the enactments contained in the law of 16th April, 1862, relating to trade and navigation in St. Thomas, now in force in the said island, shall continue to be in force, as hitherto, for the period of twenty years after the cession of the islands, unless it should be found necessary and requisite to make alterations in any of the minor clauses or enactments of the aforesaid law, in which case the contracting parties reserve the matter for further agreement.

It is, however, understood that the enactments in section 4, III 2, c and d, of the aforesaid law, may be abolished without such mutual agreement as aforesaid.

ARTICLE II

In the same manner as Article III of the convention has already secured to the inhabitants of the ceded islands protection in their liberty, their religion, their property and private rights, so also is it understood, as a matter of course, that the Danish common and statute law now in force in the islands, with the modifications hitherto enacted therein, shall remain in force in the islands until alterations be made by new legislative enactments after previous deliberation in the council existing at the time in the islands for the treatment of legislative and other like matters.

1 U. S. Sen. Doc. No. 231, pt. 8, 56th Cong., 2d sess., p. 215.

ARTICLE III

Concessions or grants given from time to time by the Danish Government for conducting or carrying on certain establishments or industrial occupations shall remain in force until they either expire or be withdrawn or recalled from the same circumstances that would have justified such withdrawal or recall had the islands continued to be subject to Denmark; and this shall also be the case with those rights or privileges which have been granted or bestowed by the Danish Government to certain communities or establishments in the islands.

Letter from Mr. Seward to Mr. Hawley1

Department of State, Washington, December 16, 1867.

SIR: I have carefully read the copy which you have placed in my hands of a communication which was made on the 4th of December instant, by his excellency W. Birch, governor-general of the Danish West India Islands, to Chamberlain E. J. A. Carstensen, Danish royal commissioner extraordinary to the islands of St. Thomas and St. John.

That communication consists of a draft of two additional articles proposed to be incorporated in the convention between Denmark and the United States. of America, which was made at Copenhagen the 24th of October, 1867, and of an argument made by Governor Birch in support of the proposition, together with a memorial which has been addressed to the royal commissioners by citizens, merchants of St. Thomas and St. John.

The President has promptly given attention to the subject presented by these papers, and I am now to communicate to you the result.

You will inform the royal commissioner extraordinary that in so great a transaction as the cession of territory and dominion by one sovereign to another it is difficult, if not impossible, to adjust minute arrangements in detail concerning the future government of the ceded territory. All reservations and conditions made by the ceding sovereign necessarily impair the sovereignty of the receiving power, and equally tend to embarrass its legislation and to lay the foundation of ultimate difference and controversy between the contracting

powers.

Second. The Constitution of the United States reserves to the Senate the power to ratify, and to refuse to ratify, the treaty made by the President, and the constitution of Denmark equally reserves to the legislature of Denmark the same absolute control over the subject. While the respective chief magistrates concluding the treaty might well suppose that they possess sufficient ability to adjust such details by contract, the assumption that they could so 1 U. S. Sen. Doc. No. 231, pt. 8, 56th Cong., 2d sess., p. 215.