No. 61.

Mr. Fish to Mr. Perez

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your note of yesterday, stating that you had received instructions to solicit the issue of such orders as may be thought necessary, to the end that Colombian vessels may be treated in the ports of the United States to which they may convey merchandise, when the latter does not proceed from any other port of the United States in the same ocean, in the same manner as American vessels employed in the same trade. Your note further adverts to the fact that the privilege desired was secured by the treaty between the United States and Hew Granada of the 12th of December, 1846.

In reply I have to state that, as your request seems to imply an opinion on the part of your government that the treaty adverted to has been definitively terminated, it is deemed advisable to hold the application under consideration until no doubt shall remain upon that point. The 35th article of the treaty stipulates that it shall last for twenty years from the exchange of ratifications, which took place on the 10th of June, 1848. The same article further provides, “notwithstanding the foregoing, if neither party notifies to the other its intention of reforming any of or all the articles of this treaty, twelve months before the expiration of the twenty years stipulated above, the said treaty shall continue binding on both parties, beyond the said twenty years, until twelve months from the time that one of the parties notifies its intention of proceeding to a reform.”

It appears that under date the 23d of January, 1867, General Salazar, then accredited to this Government as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of Colombia, addressed to this Department a note from New York, in which he stated that he had been instructed to set on foot a negotiation for the purpose of renewing the treaty prior to the termination fixed in the 35th article.

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The receipt of this note was acknowledged in one from the Department of the 29th of January.

With another note of the 23d of April, 1867, General Salazar transmitted a copy of the changes which his government desired in the treaty, and offered to discuss the subject at such time as might be appointed for that purpose.

It does not appear that any reply was made to the last-mentioned note, or that the discussion proposed by General Salazar took place. There is also nothing on record or on file here to show that the notes of General Salazar referred to were regarded and received as such a termination of the treaty as that for which the instrument itself provides.

Nor does it appear that the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States has been informed that the treaty is at an end, and, therefore, that the privileges previously enjoyed under it by Colombia in the ports of the United States must be discontinued. Indeed, so far as this Department is aware, those privileges, including the one requested by Mr. Perez, are still enjoyed by Colombian vessels and their cargoes. In any event, before a definitive answer can be given to your application, or your request can be complied with, it will be necessary for you to state that, from your own knowledge, a similar privilege is enjoyed by vessels of the United States and their cargoes in the ports of Colombia.

I avail, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.