though at her own expense, a mission to China, where an American Plenipotentiary Commissioner had already gone. Mr. Wheaton drew up, in August, 1843, from the materials accessible to him, a paper in relation to the recent military and diplomatic transactions of Great Britain in that quarter, and the measures being adopted in Europe to secure the Chinese trade, and which Mr. Upshur directed to be transcribed and forwarded to Mr. Cushing.'

He also prepared about the same time, and transmitted to the Department of State, an argument in support of the claim of the representatives of Commodore Paul Jones, against Denmark, on account of prizes sent into Norway, and delivered up by the Danish government to the English, during our revolutionary war. In this paper, after premising that the case was not included in the Treaty of March 28, 1830, and which was confined, in terms, to claims growing out of the last maritime war of Denmark, he examines the relations which the United States held, during the period in question, towards other governments which had not recognized their independence, and shows that, in the case of a revolution in a sovereign Empire, by a province or colony shaking off the dominion of the mother country, and whilst the civil war continues, if a foreign power does not acknowledge the independence of the new State, and form treaties of amity and commerce with it, though still remaining neutral, as it may do, or join in an alliance with one party against the other, thus rendering that other its enemy, it must, while continuing passive, allow to both the contending parties all the rights, which public war gives to independent sovereigns. That, in 1779, our case was not that of an ordinary revolt in the bosom of a State, but a civil war entitling both parties to the rights of war, was acknowledged by the parent State itself, in the solemn exchange of prisoners by regular cartels, in the respect shown to conventions of capitula

1 Mr. Upshur to Mr. Wheaton, November 10, 1843.

tion concluded by British generals, and in the exercise of the other commercia belli, usually recognized between civilized States. In the absence of any treaty with England, to exclude the prizes of her enemy, and of any previous prohibition to the United States, by either of which means their prizes might have been refused admission without any violation of neutrality, they had the right to presume the assent of Denmark to send them into her ports; the more especially had they such a right, when based, as in the actual case, on necessity, from stress of weather. When once arrived in the port, the neutral government of Denmark was bound to respect the military right of possession, lawfully acquired through war, by capture on the high seas, and continued in the port to which the prize was brought. He added, that there was no ground for the application of the jus postliminii, which could only take place between subjects of the same State or of allies in the war, a neutral State having only a right to interfere to deprive the captor of his possession, when the capture has been made in violation of neutral sovereignty, within the limits of the neutral State, or by a vessel equipped there.1

In further accordance with the course, which Mr. Wheaton had adopted, of communicating whatever intelligence he supposed might advance the interests or promote the prosperity of his country, he addressed, at the close of 1845, an elaborate despatch to the Secretary of State, on the importance of reopening the ancient water communication between Europe and the East Indies, by Egypt and the Red Sea and of opening a new route from the United States and Europe to the East Indies, by a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pacific, across the Isthmus connecting North and South America; thus avoiding the immense détours, by which the continents of Africa and America are terminated in the southern hemisphere. With the former enterprise he proposed to connect a line of steam

1 Mr. Wheaton to the Secretary of State, August 23, 1843. See note on this subject, from Dr. Franklin to Count Bernstoff, December 22, 1779, Sparks's Diplomatic Corr. vol. iii. p. 121.

ers, not only as mail packets, and for passengers, but for the conveyance of the finer fabrics and of valuable merchandise from the United States to the British Channel and German Sea, touching at Cowes or Havre, and proceeding to Bremen or Hamburg, from whence an intercourse was already established towards the East Indies by hydraulic works, parallel with the railroad route between the Adriatic and the German Sea, and forming a continuous communication between the waters falling into the German Ocean and those that emptied into the Black Sea. The obstacles to the navigation of the Danube had been removed, by the Treaty of 1840, between Austria and Russia, the advantages of which were accorded to all nations that had the right to navigate the Black Sea; while the common use of the rivers of Germany had been previously stipulated for by the Treaty of Vienna, of 1815. It may be remarked that the views above expressed, with regard to the patronage of the government to postal steamers, preceded any action of Congress on the subject; the first appropriation for that object, which was for the Bremen line, having been made June 19, 1846.1

The suggestions with reference to the communication by the Isthmus of Panama, besides our author's having the benefit of all the learning on the subject then attainable in Europe, were made on consultation with the venerable Humboldt, who, on all matters connected with this Interoceanic Canal, has, since his travels in Mexico and South America, in the early part of the century, been deemed the highest authority. Mr. Wheaton incorporated, in his despatch, the last views of the great traveller, on the practical accomplishment of a work, the value of which to the United States, at its date, was principally estimated by the saving of 10,000 miles, in the voyage, by Cape Horn and the North-west coast of America, to China; attention being then particularly attracted to the trade of that country, -an increased intercourse with which it was supposed would be effected by the treaty, recently concluded by Mr.

Cushing, with the Celestial Empire. The immense accessions subsequently made to our commercial facilities in the Indian Ocean, with the prospect of opening, through our means, to the trade of the world the Empire of Japan, have added greatly to the contemplated benefits of the proposed route, which, as well as the one through the Isthmus of Suez, it was suggested to put under the common guarantee of all the maritime powers, as part of the great thoroughfare of nations. But though only

1The mission entrusted to Commodore Perry, who was also the commander of the United States naval forces in the East India Seas, resulted in the conclusion of a treaty with Japan on 31st of March, 1854, establishing commercial relations with that empire. By it, after declaring that there should be a perfect, permanent and universal peace between the two nations, it was stipulated that Simoda and Hakodadi should be ports for the reception of American ships, where they could be supplied with wood, water, provisions, and coals and other articles that their necessities might require, as far as the Japanese had them; that whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, that Japanese vessels would assist them and carry their crews to Simoda or Hakodadi, and hand them over to their countrymen appointed to receive them, with whatever articles they may have preserved, without the refunding of expenses for the rescue and support of Japanese and Americans thrown on the shores of either country; that those shipwrecked persons and other citizens of the United States shall be free as in other countries, and not subject to confinement, but amenable to just laws — that shipwrecked men and other citizens of the United States shall not be subject to such restrictions and confinement as the Dutch and Chinese are at Nangasaki, but shall be free at Simoda and Hakodadi to go where they please within certain defined limits that if there be any goods wanted or business requiring to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties-that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin and articles of goods for other articles of goods under regulations to be established by the Japanese government, and to carry away what they are unwilling to exchange - wood, water, provisions, coals, and goods required, are only to be procured through Japanese officers - that if the government of Japan should grant to any other nation or nations privileges and advantages not granted by the treaty to the United States or the citizens thereof, the same privileges and advantages shall be granted likewise to the United States and their citizens, without any consultation or delay that ships of the United States shall not be permitted to resort to any other ports of Japan than Simoda or Hakodadi, and that agents or consuls shall be appointed by the United States to reside at Simoda, if either of the two governments deem the arrangement necessary, at any time after the expiration of eighteen months. A compact was also made, July 11, 1854, with Lew Chew, for supplies to vessels, and as to pilotm*

some nine years have elapsed since Mr. Wheaton wrote, our title to Oregon had not then been admitted; the war with Mexico had not yet commenced; much less had California been ceded to us, and the foundations laid of a State on the Pacific, which already rivals, in wealth and commerce, the most flourishing of the Atlantic Commonwealths. The prosperity of these newly acquired regions has justly diverted the attention of the American people from a communication through foreign territory, with guarantees depending on the good faith of maritime and commercial rivals, and the very attempt to form which has occasioned serious diplomatic embarrassments, to direct routes across the continent, wherever convenience may dictate, wholly within our own sovereignty, and binding together, with bolts of iron, the confederated States, extending over the immense tract separating the two oceans.1

The close scrutiny, which the long pending negotiations with the Zollverein rendered necessary, into the economical policy of the German States, induced the Minister to acquaint himself with all the conventional arrangements of that nature, which Prussia and her associate States were contracting with other powers, in and out of Germany. We have thus the objections of Prussia to any member of the Confederation entering into a commercial union with a State foreign to Germany, while in

age, wrecks, and a burying ground; and Americans are to have liberty to go over the island, subject to being, for bad conduct, arrested and reported to the captains of the ships for punishment. Cong. Doc. 33d Cong. 2 Sess., Senate Ex. Doc. 34, p. 153. The treaty of 1844 with China had been preceded by treaties with Siam and Muscat in 1833 and was followed by a treaty, in 1850, with Borneo. It had also been the intention of Commodore Perry to have entered into negotiations for a treaty with Cochin China.

! See the Clayton Bulwer Treaty of 19th of April, 1850, referred to in Part I., c. 2, § 14, page 55, note, and Part III., c. 2, § 5, page 328, note. Also the treaty of December 30, 1853, with Mexico, ceding territory through which, it is understood, a road may be constructed within the United States to California, and providing for the use by citizens of both countries, of the road that may be constructed across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as authorized by the Mexican government, 5th of February, 1853. U. S. Treaties, 1853–4, p. 124.