For another year things drifted, and the views of the two Governments seemed to be getting wider apart, when President Grant wrote in his Message of December 5th, 1870:
"I regret to say that no conclusion has been reached for the adjustment of the claims against Great Britain growing out of the course adopted by that Government during the Rebellion. The Cabinet of London, so far as its views have been expressed, does not appear to be willing to concede that Her Majesty's Government was guilty of any negligence, or did or permitted any act during the War by which the United States has just cause of complaint. Our firm and unalterable convictions are directly the reverse. I therefore recommend to Congress to authorize the appointment of a commission to take proof of the amount and the ownership of these several claims, on notice to the representative of Her Majesty at Washington, and that authority be given for the settlement of these claims by the United States, so that the Government shall have the ownership of the private claims, as well as the responsible control of all the demands against Great Britain. It cannot be necessary to add that whenever Her Majesty's Government shall entertain a desire for a full and friendly adjustment of these claims the United States will enter upon their consideration with an earnest desire for a conclusion consistent with the honor and dignity of both nations."
This was what is now called "a twist of the lion's tail." It was something of a twist, although it was accompanied with the offer of the olive branch, instead of the sword. It was effective, even more effective for the conciliatory tone of the final paragraph. Moreover, with the German armies encamped around Paris and throughout France, the affairs of Continental Europe were too unsettled and precarious for Great Britain to run the risk of any serious complications with the United States.
Accepting the President's message as an invitation to renew negotiations, the British Government, at the beginning of the next year
Sir John Rose's
mission to the
United States.
The Joint High
Commission.
The first eleven articles of this agreement relate to the claims for damages arising from the incidents of the Civil War, known as the
The Treaty of
Washington.