Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 8.djvu/306

 294 TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 1822. cation, from Great Britain, for all private property carried away by the British forces; and as the question regards slaves more especially, for all such slaves as were carried away by the British forces, from the places and territories of which the restitution was stipulated by the treaty, in quitting the said places and territories. · · " That the United States are entitled to consider as having been so carried away, all such slaves as may have been transported from the above mentioned territories on board of the British vessels within the waters of the said territories, and who, for this reason, have not been restored. " But that, if there should be any American slaves who were carried away from territories, of which the first article of the treaty of Ghent has not stipulated the restitution to the United States, the United States are not to claim an indemnification for the said slaves." The Emperor declares, besides, that he is ready to exercise the office of mediator, which has been conferred on him beforehand by the two states, in the negotiations which must ensue between them in consequence of the award which they have demanded. Done at St. Petersburg, 22d April, [822. B. April 22, 1822. Count Nesselrode to Mr. Middlrtmz. The undersigned Secretary of State, directing the Imperial administration of foreign affairs, has, without delay, laid before the Emperor, his master, the explanations into which the Ambassador of His Britannic Majesty has entered with the Imperial Ministry, in consequence of the preceding confidential communication which was made to Mr. Middleton, as well as to Sir Charles Bagot, of the opinion expressed by the Emperor upon the true sense of the lst Article of the Treaty of Ghent. Sir Charles Bagot understands, that, in virtue of the decision of His Imperial Majesty, "His Britannic Majesty is not bound to indemnify the United States for any slaves, who, coming from places which have never been occupied by his troops, voluntarily joined the British forces, either in consequence of the encouragement which His Majesty’s officers had offered them, or to free themselves from the power of their master—these slaves not having been carried away from places or territories captured by His Britannic Majesty during the war, and, consequently, not having been carried away from places of which the article stipulates the restitution." In answer to this observation, the undersigned is charged by His Imperial Majesty to communicate what follows to the Minister of the United States of America. The Emperor having, by the mutual consent of the two Plenipotentiaries, given an opinion, founded solely upon the sense which results from the texiof I/te article in dispute, does not think himself called upon to decide here any question relative to what the laws of war permit or fbrbid to the belligerents; but, always faithful to the grammatical interpretation of the lst Article of the Treaty of Ghent, His Imperial Majesty declares, a second time, that it appears to him according to this interpretation; " That, in quitting the places and territories of which the Treaty of Ghent stipulates the restitution to the United States, his Britannic Majesty’s forces had no right to carry away from these same places and territories, absolutely, any slave, by whatever means he had fallen or come into their power.