The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IV Part 16

Copenhagen, July 8th, 1783.

Sir,

It was with the greatest alacrity, that I laid before his Majesty the letter you did me the honor to write to me, as also the project of a treaty of amity and commerce that accompanied it. The King observed, with the greatest satisfaction, the a.s.surances contained in that letter, of the good disposition of Congress to form connexions of amity and commerce with his kingdoms, such connexions being equally conformable to the interests of the two States, and to his Majesty's sincere desire to cement, by every possible means, that harmony, union, and confidence, which he wishes to establish forever between his Crown and the United States.

The enclosed _Counter Project_ differs in nothing essential from the project sent by you, being drawn up entirely conformable to the same principles, which you will be certainly convinced of, Sir, by the note explaining the reasons for adding some articles, and only giving a different turn to others, so that I flatter myself, that I shall soon hear that you are perfectly satisfied with them, having observed the most perfect reciprocity carefully established throughout.

As to the object mentioned in the letter with which you have honored me, you already know, Sir, his Majesty's generous intentions towards the individuals in question, and his Majesty is the more induced to avail himself of the first opportunity to manifest these intentions, as he thinks he may reasonably hope that Congress will also consider them as a distinguished proof of his friendship and esteem for that respectable body.

There remains nothing further for me to add, but that the King will adopt with great pleasure the most proper means to accelerate the conclusion of the treaty, which we have begun. For myself, it will be the most agreeable part of my office, Sir, to a.s.sist in perfecting such happy connexions with a minister of such universal reputation as yourself; and it is with sentiments of the most distinguished regard, that I have the honor to be &c.

ROSENCRONE.

_Counter Project of a Treaty with Denmark._

Translation.

Counter Project of a Treaty of Amity and Commerce between his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, and the United States of America.

His Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, and the United States of America, wishing to fix in an equitable and permanent manner the regulations necessary in the commerce, which they are desirous to establish between their respective countries, conceive that they cannot accomplish this object better, than by taking as the basis for their conventions, the most perfect equality and reciprocity, leaving to each party the liberty of making such interior regulations, with respect to commerce and navigation, as shall appear suitable, and founding the advantages of commerce on reciprocal utility, and the just laws of free compet.i.tion. It is in consequence of these principles, and of mature deliberation, that the contracting parties have agreed upon the following articles.

ARTICLE I.

There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true and sincere friendship, between his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, his heirs and successors, on the one part, and the United States of America on the other, and between the citizens and subjects of the said powers, and likewise between the countries, islands, cities, and places situated within their respective jurisdictions, and the people and inhabitants thereof, of whatever rank or condition they may be, without exception of persons or places.

ARTICLE II.

The subjects of his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, may frequent the countries and lat.i.tudes of the United States, reside and traffic there in all kinds of merchandise and effects, the importation or exportation whereof is not, or shall not be prohibited, and in all places where the navigation or commerce are not, or shall not be reserved solely for the citizens and inhabitants of the United States; and they shall not pay in the ports, harbors, roads, countries, islands, cities, and places of the United States, other or greater duties or imposts of any kind or denomination whatever, than such as the most favored nations pay, or shall pay. They shall, moreover, enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, and exemptions, with respect to trade, navigation, and commerce, which the most favored nations do or shall enjoy, and they shall also conform to the laws and ordinances, which the said nations are, or shall be bound to observe, whether in pa.s.sing from one port to another of the dominions of the said States, or in returning from any part, or to any part of the world whatever.

ARTICLE III.

In like manner, the citizens and inhabitants of the United States of America may frequent the States of his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, reside and traffic there in all kinds of merchandise and effects, the importation or exportation whereof is not, or shall not be prohibited, and in all places where the navigation and commerce are not, or shall not be reserved solely to his Danish Majesty's subjects, and they shall not pay in the ports, harbors, roads, countries, islands, cities, and places belonging to his said Majesty, other or greater duties and imposts of any kind or denomination whatever, than such as the most favored nations do, or shall pay. They shall, moreover, enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, and exemptions, which the most favored nations do, or shall enjoy, and they shall also conform to the laws and ordinances which the said nations are, or shall be bound to observe, whether in pa.s.sing from one port to another of his Danish Majesty's dominions, or in going to, or returning from any part of the world whatever. And the United States of America, with their subjects and inhabitants, shall allow his Danish Majesty's subjects peaceably to enjoy their rights in the countries, islands, establishments, and seas, in the East and West Indies, without molestation or opposition.

ARTICLE IV.

His Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, shall use every means in his power to protect and defend all the vessels and effects belonging to the citizens or inhabitants of the said United States of America, as shall be in his ports, harbors, or roads, or in the vicinity of his territories, countries, islands, cities, and places, as far as his jurisdiction extends, as to the sea, and shall use his efforts to recover and cause to be restored to the lawful proprietors, the vessels and effects which shall be taken from them within the extent of his said jurisdiction, and his ships of war, or any other convoys whatever, sailing under his authority, shall, on all occasions where there may be a common enemy, take under their protection all the vessels belonging to the citizens or inhabitants of the United States, or any of them which may be holding the same course, or going the same route, and they shall defend the said ships as long as they shall hold the same course, or follow the same route, against every attack, force, or violence of the common enemy, in the same manner as they are bound to defend and protect the vessels belonging to his said Majesty's subjects.

ARTICLE V.

In like manner, the said United States and their ships of war, sailing under their authority, shall protect and defend, in conformity with the preceding article, all the vessels and effects belonging to the subjects of his Danish Majesty, and shall use all their efforts to recover and cause to be restored the said vessels and effects, which shall have been taken within the extent of the jurisdiction of the said States, and each of them.

ARTICLE VI.

It is agreed and determined that every merchant, captains of merchant vessels, or others, his Danish Majesty's subjects, shall have entire liberty in all places within the dominions and jurisdiction of the United States of America, to manage themselves, their own affairs, and to employ whomsoever they please to manage them, and they shall not be obliged to make use of any interpreter or broker, nor to pay them any fee, unless they make use of them; and with respect to the time and manner of loading or unloading their ships and whatever belongs to them, they shall always be considered and treated as the most favored nations, and shall pay no fee or salary, which the said nations are not bound to pay in similar cases. The citizens, inhabitants, and subjects of the United States of America shall reciprocally have and enjoy the same privileges and liberties in all the places belonging to his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway.

ARTICLE VII.

Whenever one of the contracting parties shall be at war with other powers, the communication and free commerce of the subjects of the other party with the States of the said powers, shall not on that account be interrupted. On the contrary, in this case it is agreed and stipulated, that every ship and vessel of the neutral party may freely navigate from port to port, and on the coasts of the States at enmity with the other party, and that the vessels and ships being free, shall likewise secure the liberty of merchandise; so that everything shall be judged free which shall be found on board of the vessels belonging to the subjects of one of the contracting parties, although the loading, or part of it, should belong to the enemies of one of them; it being, nevertheless, well understood, that contraband goods shall be always excepted; and it is also agreed, that this same liberty shall extend to the persons of such as shall be found on board of the free vessel, even though they should be enemies of one of the two contracting parties, and they shall not be taken from on board the said vessels, unless they are military characters, and actually in the service of the enemy.

ARTICLE VIII.

The merchant vessels of one of the two contracting parties, coming either from a port belonging to the enemy, or from their own, or a neutral port, and navigating towards a port of an enemy of the other, shall be bound every time they shall be required, to exhibit, as well on the high seas as in port, their pa.s.sports, or sea letters, and other public doc.u.ments, which shall expressly prove that their loading is not of that kind, which is prohibited as contraband; it being well understood, nevertheless, that in all cases, where such merchant vessels shall be escorted by one or more vessels of war, the simple declaration of the officer commanding the convoy, that these vessels do not carry any contraband goods, shall be considered as fully sufficient, and they shall not require to examine the papers of the escorted vessels.

ARTICLE IX.

It shall no sooner be found by the sea letters, pa.s.sports, or other public doc.u.ments, or by the verbal declaration of the commanding officer of the convoy, that the merchant vessels are not laden with contraband goods, than they shall be at liberty to continue their voyage without any hinderance; but if, on the contrary, the exhibition of the said pa.s.sports or other doc.u.ments, in case the vessels are not escorted, tends to discover that the said vessels carry merchandise reputed contraband, consigned to an enemy's port, it shall not, however, be permitted to break open the hatches of the said vessels, nor to open any chest, case, trunk, bale, package, or cask, which shall be found on board, or to displace or overturn the least part of the merchandise, whether the vessel belongs to his Danish Majesty's subjects, or to the citizens or inhabitants of the United States, until the cargo has been landed in presence of the officers of the Courts of Admiralty, and that the inventory has been made of it. And it shall not be permitted to sell, exchange, or alienate the merchandise reputed contraband, in any manner whatever, before trial has been held and legally finished, to declare them contraband, and that the Courts of Admiralty shall have p.r.o.nounced them confiscated, without any prejudice, nevertheless, to the vessels or to the merchandise, which by virtue of the treaty shall be considered free.

It shall not be permitted to retain these merchandises under pretence, that they have been intermixed with the contraband merchandise, and still less confiscate them as legal prizes. In case where a part only, and not the whole of the loading, shall consist of contraband merchandises, and that the commander of the vessel consents to deliver them up to the privateer, which shall have discovered them, then the captain, who shall have made the prize, after having received the merchandise, must immediately release the vessel, and shall not in any wise prevent the continuation of his voyage; but in case the contraband merchandise cannot all be taken on board the captor, then the captain of the said vessel shall be at liberty, notwithstanding the offer to deliver the contraband goods, to conduct the master to the nearest port, in conformity to what is prescribed above.

ARTICLE X.

In order to obviate entirely every disorder and violence, it is stipulated, that whenever the merchant vessels and ships of the subjects and inhabitants of one of the two parties, navigating alone, shall be met by any vessel of war, privateer, or armed vessel of the other party, the said vessels of war, privateers, or armed vessels, shall remain on their part constantly out of cannonshot, and shall not send above two or three men in their boats on board the merchant vessels or ships, to examine the pa.s.sports or other doc.u.ments, which shall prove the property and cargoes of the said vessels or ships.

Such of the vessels of war, privateers, or armed vessels of the one party, as shall molest or damage in any manner whatever the ships or vessels of the other, shall be obliged to answer for it in their persons and property, and consequently, to render satisfaction for all damage and interest over and above the reparation due for the insult shown the flag.

ARTICLE XI.

It is agreed that everything that is found laden by the respective subjects or inhabitants on board of vessels belonging to the enemies of the other party, or to their subjects, shall be confiscated without distinction of prohibited merchandise, in like manner as though it belonged to the enemy, excepting always such effects and merchandise as shall have been put on board of said vessels, before the declaration of war, or even after said declaration, if, at the time of lading, it was unknown, so that the merchandises of the subjects of the two contracting parties, whether they are of the number termed contraband or otherwise, which, as has just been said, shall have been laden on board of a vessel belonging to the enemy before the war, or even after the declaration, when it was not known, shall in no wise be subject to confiscation, but shall be faithfully and _bona fide_ returned without delay to their proprietors who shall claim them, it being well understood, nevertheless, that it shall not be permitted to carry into the enemy's ports merchandise of a contraband nature. And in order that every dissension may be avoided, it is agreed, that after the term of six months being elapsed from the declaration of war, the respective subjects, from whatever part of the world they may come, shall not allege the ignorance mentioned in the present article.

ARTICLE XII.

All vessels and merchandise of whatever nature soever, whenever they shall have been recovered from the hands of pirates on the high seas, shall be brought into some port of one of the two States, and shall be delivered to the care of the officers of the said port, in order to be restored entire to their true proprietor, as soon as he shall have duly and sufficiently proved his property.

ARTICLE XIII.

The ships of war belonging to the two parties, as also those of their subjects which are armed, shall conduct at full liberty wheresoever they please, the prizes they shall have made from their enemies, without being obliged to pay any other duties than such as the most favored nations; the said vessels or the said prizes, on entering into the ports of his Danish Majesty, or of the said United States, shall not be subject to be stopped or seized, nor shall the officers of the places have any power to take cognizance of the validity of the said prizes, which shall go out, and be freely conducted in full liberty, to the places mentioned in the commissions, which the captains of the said vessels shall be obliged to produce.

ARTICLE XIV.

In order to favor as much as possible the commerce on both sides, it is agreed, that if a war should happen between his Majesty, the King of Denmark and Norway, and the United States of America, (which G.o.d forbid) nine months after the declaration of war shall be granted to the subjects on both sides to collect, sell, and transport freely, the merchandise and effects belonging to them, and to withdraw themselves; and if anything is taken from them, or if any injury is done to them during the above prescribed time, by one of the two parties, full and entire satisfaction shall be given them in this respect.

ARTICLE XV.