Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 8.djvu/304

 gpg TREATY WITII GREAT BRITAIN. 1822. A /. ,*9,,,22, ,822 HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY’S AWARD. ____- Invrrsn by the United States of America and by Great Britain to give an opinion, as arbitrator in the differences which have arisen between these two powers, on the subject of the interpretation of the first article of the Treaty which they concluded at Ghent, on the 24th December, 1814, the Emperor has taken cognizance of all the acts, memorials, and notes, in which the respective plenipotentiaries have set forth to his administration of foreign affairs the arguments upon which each of the litigant parties depends in support of the interpretation given by it to the said article. _ _ _ After having maturely weighed the observations exhibited on both sides; Considering that the American plenipotentiary and the plenipoten— tiary 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 Sth (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 signification 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 carrying away any of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifcations of this treaty, or any slaves, or other private property; and all archives, records, 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 officers 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 ratyications, 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 ezchange of the ratifcations, but that it prohibits the carrying away from these same places, any private properly whatever; 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 a just indemnifi·