Mr. Fish to Mr. Rublee.
Sir: I transmit to you herewith the draught of a note,* which you will present to the government of the Swiss Confederation, requesting that [Page 879] the President of that confederation will be pleased to appoint an arbitrator to form, with the arbitrators to be named by the President of the United States, by Her Britannic Majesty, and by the Emperor of Brazil, the tribunal of arbitration to which, in pursuance of the first article of the treaty signed at Washington on the 8th of May, of which a copy is sent to you herewith, the United States and Her Britannic Majesty have agreed that all the claims growing out of the acts committed by the several vessels which have given rise to the claims generically known as the “Alabama claims” shall be referred. You will arrange with your British colleague for the simultaneous presentation of your respective notes on this subject. You will not fail to draw the attention of the Swiss minister for foreign affairs unofficially to the last clause of the first article as to the period within which it is hoped that an arbitrator may be named.
I am, &c.,
- For inclosure see page 451.↩