Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/314

 GREAT BRITAIN, 1822. 307 Mr. Middleton is requested to consider this o inion ‘ Emperor by the two Powers. p as the award required of the He will doubtless recollect that he, as well as the Plenipoteutiary of His Britannia Majesty, in all his memorials, has principally insisted ou the grammatical sense of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, and that, even in his note of the 4th (16th) November, 18*21, he has formally ileclared that it was on the eignijication of the words in pie tigztotpf the article aa it now is that the decision of His Imperial Majesty should be oun. The same declaration being made in the note of the British Pleni o n. 8th (20th) October, 1821, the Emperor had only to conform to the wis¥hefi8eyf;>Li·le}s;s(e;<:ltlig the gwo parties, by devoting all his attention to the examination of the grammatical ques ion. The above-mentioned opinion will show the manner in which His Imperial Majesty judges of this question ; and in order that the Cabinet of Washington may also know the motives upon which the Emperor’s jndgmentis founded, the undersigned has hereto snbjoined an extract of some observations upon the literal sense of the iirst article of the treaty of Ghent. In this respect the Emperor has confined himself to following the rules of the language employed in drawing up the act, by which the two powers have required his arbitration, and defined the object of their difference. His Imperial Majesty has thought it his duty, exclusively, to obey the authority of ipese rtples, and his opinion could not but be the rigorous and necessary consequence ereo. ` The undersigned eagerly embraces this occasion to renew to Mr. Middleton the assurances of his most distinguished consideration. NESSELRODE. Sr. Pntxnsnunc, 22d April, 1822. A,. HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTTS AWARD. Invited by the United States of America and by Great Britain to give an opinion, as Award 0 f t he Arbitrator, in the differences which have arisen between these two Powers, on the Empcrorof Russia. subject of the interpgetation of the Bret article of the treaty which they concluded at Ghent, ou the 24th ecember, 1814, the Emperor has taken coguizance of all the acts, memorials, and notes in which the respective Plenipotentiaries have set forth to his administration of foreign wlfairs the arguments upon which each of the litigant parties depends in support of the interpretation given by it to the said article. After having matnrely weighed the observations exhibited on both sides: Considering that the American Plenipotentinry and the Plenipotentiary of Britain have desired that the discussion should be closed; Considering that the former, in his note of the 4th (16th) November, 1821, and the latter, in his note of the 8th (20th) October, of the same year, have declared that it is upon the construction of the text of the article as it stands, that the Arbitrator’s decision should be founded, and that both have appealed, only as subsidiary means, to the general principles of the law of nations and of maritime law; The Emperor is of opinion " that the question can only be decided according to the literal and grammatical sense of the first article of the treaty of Ghent.” As to the literal and grammatical sense of the first article of the treaty of Ghent: Considering that the period upon the signiiication of which doubts have arisen, is expressed as follows: "All territory, places, and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction or carryi away any of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the aaidforta z? places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ralijieations of this treaty, or any slaves, or other private property; and all archives, record, deeds, and papers, either of a public nature, or belonging to private persons, which, in the course of the war, may have fallen into the hands of the oiilcers of either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable, forthwith restored and delivered to the proper authorities and persons to whom they respectively belong." Considering that. in this period, the words originally captured, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratificationa, form an incidental phrase, which can have respect, grammatically, only to the substantives or subjects which precede ; That the first article of the treaty of Ghent thus prohibits the contracting parties from carrying away from the places of which it stipulates the restitution, only the public property which might have been originally captured there, and which should remain therein upon the exchange of the ratificatimuz, but that it prohibits the carrying away from these same places any private property whatever; g That, on the other hand, these two prohibitions are solely applicable to the places of which the article stipulates the restitution ; The Emperor is of opinion: "That the United States of America are entitled to n. just indemnification, from