The Treaty of Washington was a treaty signed and ratified by the United Kingdom and the United States in 1871 during the first premiership of William Gladstone and the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. It settled various disputes between the countries, including the Alabama Claims for damages to American shipping caused by British-built warships, as well as illegal fishing in Canadian waters and British civilian losses in the American Civil War. It inaugurated permanent peaceful relations between the United States and Canada, and also with the United Kingdom. After the arbitrators endorsed the American position in 1872, Britain settled the matter by paying the United States $15.5 million (approximately $ million in ), ending the dispute and leading to a treaty that restored friendly relations between Britain and the United States. That international arbitration established a precedent, and the case aroused interest in codifying public international law.

Background

250px|thumb|The British high commissioners to the Treaty of Washington of 1871. Standing: L. to R.: [[Charles Abbott, 3rd Baron Tenterden|Lord Tenterden, Sir John A. Macdonald, Mountague Bernard. Seated: L. to R.: Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl de Grey & Ripon, Sir Edward Thornton.]]

thumb |right |250px |The American High Commissioners to the Treaty of Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish was chairman. Standing: L. to R.: [[Ebenezer R. Hoar, George Henry Williams, Bancroft Davis. Seated: L. to R.: Robert C. Schenck, Sec. Hamilton Fish, Samuel Nelson. Photo by Brady, 1871]]In early 1871, the British government sent Sir John Rose to the United States to ascertain whether negotiations to settle the Northwestern boundary dispute would be acceptable to President Ulysses S. Grant. The U.S. government through Grant's Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, cordially received his advances and, on January 26, Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister at Washington formally proposed the appointment of a joint high commission to meet in Washington to resolve the dispute. The issue in dispute concerning the San Juan Islands traced to ambiguous wording of a previous 1846 treaty. William I issued his finding on October 21, 1872, holding that the entire San Juan archipelago belong to the United States.

The lack of compensation from Canada greatly irritated Macdonald, but he nonetheless signed the treaty under the argument that he was a junior member of the British delegation. The treaty was published in the Canadian press to widespread condemnation, but Macdonald remained silent on the issue. When it came time to debate the treaty in the House of Commons of Canada, he revealed that he had been secretly negotiating for a better deal and had obtained a cash payment from the Americans for the use of Canadian fishing grounds, and in lieu of any claim against the United States over the Fenians. Furthermore, the British had agreed to a guaranteed loan of £3,600,000 for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This masterstroke of diplomacy and statecraft allowed an otherwise deeply unpopular treaty to be ratified by the Parliament of Canada.

thumb|left|John Bull (United Kingdom) is dwarfed by a gigantic inflated American "Alabama Claim" cartoon in Punch--or the London Charivari 22 Jan 1872.

Impact on international law

The scholar of international law John Bassett Moore called this treaty "the greatest treaty of actual and immediate arbitration the world has ever seen." These included so-called rules of Washington agreed upon by the contracting parties for the guidance of the tribunal in the interpretation of certain terms used in the treaty and of certain principles of international law governing the obligations of neutrals:

  1. That due diligence "ought to be exercised by neutral governments in exact proportion to the risks to which either of the belligerents may be exposed, from a failure to fulfill the obligations of neutrality on their part."
  2. "The effects of a violation of neutrality committed by means of the construction, equipment, and armament of a vessel are not done away with by any commission which the government of the belligerent power benefited by the violation of neutrality may afterward have granted to that vessel; and the ultimate step by which the offense is completed cannot be admissible as a ground for the absolution of the, nor can the consummation of his fraud become the means of establishing his innocence."
  3. "The principle of extraterritoriality has been admitted into the laws of nations, not as an absolute right, but solely as a proceeding founded on the principle of courtesy and mutual deference between different nations, and therefore can never be appealed to for the protection of acts done in violation of neutrality."

References

Further reading

  • Libby, Justin. "Hamilton Fish and the Origins of Anglo-American Solidarity," Mid America, 1994, Vol. 76 Issue 3, pp 205–226
  • Messamore, Barbara J. "Diplomacy or Duplicity? Lord Lisgar, John A. Macdonald, and the Treaty of Washington, 1871," Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, May 2004, Vol. 32 Issue 2, pp 29–53, argues Lord Lisgar did the best he could for Canada.
  • Nevins, Allan. Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration (2nd ed. 1957) vol 2, ch 20–23, the fullest account; online free to borrow
  • Treaty text