The Medallic History of the United States of America Part 25

_Treaty of Amity and Commerce between their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America, to wit: New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Concluded October 8, 1782; ratified January 22, 1783._

Their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America, to wit: New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, desiring to ascertain, in a permanent and equitable manner, the rules to be observed relative to the commerce and correspondence which they intend to establish between their respective States, countries and inhabitants, have judged that the said end cannot be better obtained than by establis.h.i.+ng the most perfect equality and reciprocity for the basis of their agreement, and by avoiding all those burdensome preferences which are usually the sources of debate, embarra.s.sment, and discontent; by leaving also each party at liberty to make, respecting commerce and navigation, such ulterior regulations as it shall find most convenient to itself; and by founding the advantages of commerce solely upon reciprocal utility and the just rules of free intercourse; reserving withal to each party the liberty of admitting at its pleasure other nations to a partic.i.p.ation of the same advantages.

On these principles their said High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands have named for their Plenipotentiaries, from the midst of their a.s.sembly, Messieurs their Deputies for the Foreign Affairs; and the said United States of America, on their part, have furnished with full powers Mr. John Adams, late Commissioner of the United States of America at the Court of Versailles, heretofore Delegate in Congress from the State of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, and Chief Justice of the said State, who have agreed and concluded as follows, to wit:

ARTICLE I.

There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace and sincere friends.h.i.+p between their High Mightinesses, the Lords, the States-General of the United Netherlands, and the United States of America, and between the subjects and inhabitants of the said parties, and between the countries, islands, cities, and places situated under the jurisdiction of the said United Netherlands and the said United States of America, their subjects and inhabitants, of every degree, without exception of persons or places.

ARTICLE II.

The subjects of the said States-General of the United Netherlands shall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, islands, cities, or places of the United States of America, or any of them, no other nor greater duties or imposts, of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those which the nations the (p. 076) most favoured are or shall be obliged to pay; and they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges immunities, and exemptions in trade, navigation, and commerce which the said nations do or shall enjoy, whether in pa.s.sing from one port to another in the said States, or in going from any of those ports to any foreign port of the world, or from any foreign port of the world to any of those ports.

ARTICLE III.

The subjects and inhabitants of the said United States of America shall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, islands, cities or places of the said United Netherlands, or any of them, no other nor greater duties or imposts, of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those which the nations the most favoured are or shall be obliged to pay; and they shall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and exemptions in trade, navigation and commerce, which the said nations do or shall enjoy, whether in pa.s.sing from one port to another in the said States, or from any one toward any one of those ports from or to any foreign port of the world. And the United States of America, with their subjects and inhabitants, shall leave to those of their High Mightinesses the peaceable enjoyment of their rights in the countries, islands and seas in the East and West Indies, without any hindrance or molestation.

ARTICLE IV.

There shall be an entire and perfect liberty of conscience allowed to the subjects and inhabitants of each party, and to their families; and no one shall be molested in regard to his wors.h.i.+p, provided he submits, as to the public demonstration of it, to the laws of the country: There shall be given, moreover, liberty, when any subjects or inhabitants of either party shall die in the territory of the other, to bury them in the usual burying-places, or in decent and convenient grounds to be appointed for that purpose, as occasion shall require; and the dead bodies of those who are buried shall not in any wise be molested. And the two contracting parties shall provide, each one in his jurisdiction, that their respective subjects and inhabitants may henceforward obtain the requisite certificates in cases of deaths in which they shall be interested.

ARTICLE V.

Their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America shall endeavour, by all the means in their power, to defend and protect all vessels and other effects, belonging to their subjects and inhabitants, respectively, or to any of them, in their ports, roads, havens, internal seas, pa.s.ses, rivers, and as far as their jurisdiction extends at sea, and to recover, and cause to be restored to the true proprietors, their agents, or attorneys, all such vessels and effects, which shall be taken under their jurisdiction: And their vessels of war and convoys, in cases when they may have a common enemy, shall take under their protection all the vessels belonging to the subjects and inhabitants of either party, which shall not be laden with contraband goods, according to the description which shall be made of them hereafter, for places with which one of the parties is in peace and the other at (p. 077) war, nor destined for any place blockaded, and which shall hold the same course or follow the same route; and they shall defend such vessels as long as they shall hold the same course or follow the same route, against all attacks, force and violence of the common enemy, in the same manner as they ought to protect and defend the vessels belonging to their own respective subjects.

ARTICLE VI.

The subjects of the contracting parties may, on one side and on the other, in the respective countries and States, dispose of their effects by testament, donation or otherwise; and their heirs, subjects of one of the parties, and residing in the country of the other, or elsewhere, shall receive such successions, even _ab intestato_, whether in person or by their attorney or subst.i.tute, even although they shall not have obtained letters of naturalization, without having the effects of such commission tested under pretext of any rights or prerogatives of any province, city or private person. And if the heirs to whom such successions may have fallen shall be minors, the tutors or curators established by the judge domiciliary of the minors may govern, direct, administer, sell and alienate the effects fallen to the said minors by inheritance, and, in general, in relation to the said successions and effects, use all the rights and fulfill all the functions which belong, by the disposition of the laws, to guardians, tutors and curators: provided, nevertheless, that this disposition cannot take place but in cases where the testator shall not have named guardians, tutors or curators by testament, codicil or other legal instrument.

ARTICLE VII.

It shall be lawful and free for the subjects of each party to employ such advocates, attorneys, notaries, solicitors or factors as they shall judge proper.

ARTICLE VIII.

Merchants, masters and owners of s.h.i.+ps, mariners, men of all kinds, s.h.i.+ps and vessels, and all merchandizes and goods in general, and effects of one of the confederates, or of the subjects thereof, shall not be seized or detained in any of the countries, lands, islands, cities, places, ports, sh.o.r.es, or dominions whatsoever of the other confederate, for any military expedition, publick or private use of any one, by arrests, violence, or any colour thereof; much less shall it be permitted to the subjects of either party to take or extort by force anything from the subjects of the other party, without the consent of the owner; which, however, is not to be understood of seizures, detentions, and arrests which shall be made by the command and authority of justice, and by the ordinary methods, on account of debts or crimes, in respect whereof the proceedings must be by way of law, according to the forms of justice.

ARTICLE IX.

It is further agreed and concluded that it shall be wholly free for all merchants, commanders of s.h.i.+ps, and other subjects and inhabitants of the contracting parties, in every place (p. 078) subjected to the jurisdiction of the two powers respectively, to manage themselves their own business; and moreover as to the use of interpreters or brokers, as also in relation to the loading or unloading of their vessels, and everything which has relation thereto, they shall be, on one side, and on the other, considered and treated upon the footing of natural subjects, or, at least, upon an equality with the most favoured nation.

ARTICLE X.

The merchant s.h.i.+ps of either of the parties, coming from the port of an enemy, or from their own, or a neutral port, may navigate freely towards any port of an enemy of the other ally: they shall be, nevertheless, held, whenever it shall be required, to exhibit, as well upon the high seas as in the ports, their sea-letters and other doc.u.ments described in the twenty-fifth article, stating expressly that their effects are not of the number of those which are prohibited as contraband; and not having any contraband goods for an enemy's port, they may freely, and without hindrance, pursue their voyage towards the port of an enemy. Nevertheless, it shall not be required to examine the papers of vessels convoyed by vessels of war, but credence shall be given to the word of the officer who shall conduct the convoy.

ARTICLE XI.

If, by exhibiting the sea-letters and other doc.u.ments described more particularly in the twenty-fifth article of this treaty, the other party shall discover there are any of those sorts of goods which are declared prohibited and contraband, and that they are consigned for a port under the obedience of his enemy, it shall not be lawful to break up the hatches of such s.h.i.+p, nor to open any chests, coffers, packs, casks, or other vessels found therein, or to remove the smallest parcels of her goods, whether the said vessel belongs to the subjects of their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands or to the subjects or inhabitants of the said United States of America, unless the lading be brought on sh.o.r.e, in presence of the officers of the Court of Admiralty, and an inventory thereof made; but there shall be no allowance to sell, exchange or alienate the same until after that due and lawful process shall have been had against such prohibited goods of contraband, and the Court of Admiralty, by a sentence p.r.o.nounced, shall have confiscated the same, saving always as well the s.h.i.+p itself as any other goods found therein, which are to be esteemed free, and may not be detained on pretence of their being infected by the prohibited goods, much less shall they be confiscated as lawful prize: But, on the contrary, when, by the visitation at land, it shall be found that there are no contraband goods in the vessel, and it shall not appear by the papers that he who has taken and carried in the vessel has been able to discover any there, he ought to be condemned in all the charges, damages and interests of them, which he shall have caused, both to the owners of vessels and to the owners and freighters of cargoes with which they shall be loaded, by his temerity in taking and carrying them in; declaring most expressly the free vessels shall a.s.sure the liberty of the effects with which they shall be loaded, and that this liberty shall extend itself equally to the persons who shall be found in a free vessel, who may not be taken out of her, unless they are military men actually in the service of an enemy.

ARTICLE XII. (p. 079)

On the contrary, it is agreed that whatever shall be found to be taken by the subjects and inhabitants of either party, or any s.h.i.+p belonging to the enemies of the other, or to their subjects, although it be not comprehended under the sort of prohibited goods, the whole may be confiscated in the same manner as if it belonged to the enemy; except, nevertheless, such effects and merchandizes as were put on board such vessel before the declaration of war, or in the s.p.a.ce of six months after it, which effects shall not be, in any manner, subject to confiscation, but shall be faithfully and without delay restored in nature to the owners who shall claim them, or cause them to be claimed, before the confiscation and sale, as also their proceeds, if the claim could not be made, but in the s.p.a.ce of eight months after the sale, which ought to be publick: Provided, nevertheless, that if the said merchandizes are contraband, it shall by no means be lawful to transport them afterwards to any port belonging to enemies.

ARTICLE XIII.

And that more effectual care may be taken for the security of subjects and people of either party, that they do not suffer molestation from the vessels of war or privateers of the other party, it shall be forbidden to all commanders of vessels of war and other armed vessels of the said States-General of the United Netherlands and the said United States of America, as well as to all their officers, subjects and people, to give any offence or do any damage to those of the other party; and if they act to the contrary they shall be, upon the first complaint which shall be made of it, being found guilty after a just examination, punished by their proper judges, and, moreover, obliged to make satisfaction for all damages and interests thereof, by reparation, under pain and obligation of their persons and goods.

ARTICLE XIV.

For further determining of what has been said, all captains of privateers or fitters-out of vessels armed for war, under commission and on account of private persons, shall be held, before their departure, to give sufficient caution, before competent judges, either to be entirely responsible for the malversations which they may commit in their cruizes or voyages, as well as for the contraventions of their captains and officers against the present treaty, and against the ordinances and edicts which shall be published in consequence of and conformity to it, under pain of forfeiture and nullity of the said commissions.

ARTICLE XV.

All vessels and merchandizes, of whatsoever nature, which shall be rescued out of the hands of any pirates or robbers, navigating the high seas without requisite commissions, shall be brought into some port of one of the two States, and deposited in the hands of the officers of that port, in order to be restored entire to the true proprietor as soon as due and sufficient proofs shall be made concerning the property thereof.

ARTICLE XVI.

If any s.h.i.+ps or vessels belonging to either of the parties, their subjects, or people, shall, within the coasts or dominions of the other, stick upon the sands, or be wrecked, or suffer any (p. 080) other sea damage, all friendly a.s.sistance and relief shall be given to the persons s.h.i.+pwrecked, or such as shall be in danger thereof; and the vessels, effects and merchandizes, or the part of them which shall have been saved or the proceeds of them, if, being perishable, they shall have been sold, being claimed within a year and a day by the masters or owners, or their agents or attorneys, shall be restored, paying only the reasonable charges, and that which must be paid, in the same case, for the salvage, by the proper subjects of the country: there shall also be delivered them safe conducts or pa.s.sports for their free and safe pa.s.sage from thence, and to return, each one to his own country.

ARTICLE XVII.

In case the subjects or people of either party, with their s.h.i.+pping, whether publick and of war, or private and of merchants, be forced, through stress of weather, pursuit of pirates or enemies, or any other urgent necessity for seeking of shelter and harbor, to retract and enter into any of the rivers, creeks, bays, ports, roads or sh.o.r.es belonging to the other party, they shall be received with all humanity and kindness, and enjoy all friendly protection and help, and they shall be permitted to refresh and provide themselves, at reasonable rates, with victuals, and all things needful for the sustenance of their persons or reparation of their s.h.i.+ps; and they shall no ways be detained or hindered from returning out of the said ports or roads, but may remove and depart when and whither they please, without any let or hindrance.

ARTICLE XVIII.

For the better promoting of commerce on both sides, it is agreed that, if a war should break out between their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America, there shall always be granted to the subjects on each side the term of nine months after the date of the rupture, or the proclamation of war, to the end that they may retire, with their effects, and transport them where they please, which it shall be lawful for them to do, as well as to sell or transport their effects and goods, in all freedom and without any hindrance, and without being able to proceed, during the said term of nine months, to any arrests of their effects, much less of their persons; on the contrary, there shall be given them, for their vessels and their effects, which they could carry away, pa.s.sports and safe conducts for the nearest ports of their respective countries, and for the time necessary for the voyage.

And no prize made at sea shall be adjudged lawful, at least if the declaration of war was not or could not be known in the last port which the vessel taken has quitted; but for whatever may have been taken from the subjects and inhabitants of either party, and for the offences which may have been given them, in the interval of the said terms, a complete satisfaction shall be given them.

ARTICLE XIX.