The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-15 00:00:00

SOUND DUES

In pursuance of the authority conferred by a resolution
(3.1
jmnmiteerdce,
taaniseds,
of the Senate of the United States, passed on the .rd of
e
March last, notice was given to Denmark, on the 14th
day of Anil!, of the intentiqn of thin governm nt to avail
itself of the stipulation of the subsisting convention of
navigation between that king-
whereby either party might
after ten year's, terminate the same at the expiration of
dom and friendship,t o
h
one year from the date of notice for that purpose.
The considerations which led me to call the attention of
Congress to that convention, and induced the Senate to
adopt the resolution referred to, still continue in full
force. The 'convention contains an article, which,
although it does not directly engage the United States to
submit to the imposition of tolls on the vessels and car-
goes of Americans passing into, or from, the Baltic Sea,
during the continuance of the treaty, yet may, by possi-
bility,The construed as implying such submission. The
exaction of those tolls not being justified by any prineiplo
of international law, it became the right and the duty of
the United States to relt6re themselves from the implica-
tion of engagement on the subject, so as to be perfectly
nee to act in the premises in such way as their public
interests and honour shall demand,
I remain of the opinion that the United States ought
not to submit to the payment of the Sound Dues, not so
much because of their amount, which is a secondary mat-
ter, but because it is in effect the recognition of the right
of Denmark to treat one of the great maritime highways
of nations as a close sea, and the navigation of it as a
privilege for which tribute may be imposed upon those
who have occasion to use it.
This government. en a former occasion not unlike the
present, signalized its determination to maintain the free-
dom of the seas, and of the great natural channels of navi-
gation. The Barbary States had, for a !prig time, exacted
the payment or tribute from all nations whose ships
frequented the Mediterranean. To the 'last demand of
such payment made by them, the United States, althongh
suffering less by their depredations than many other
artions, returned the explicit answer, that we. preferred
war to tribute, and thus opened the way to the relief
of the commerce of the world from an ignominious tax,
so long submitted to by the more powerful nations of
Europe.
If the manner of payment of the Sound Does differ from
that of the tribute formerly conceded in the Barbary
States, still their exaction by Denmark has no better
foundation in right. Each was. in its origin, nothing
hut a tax on a common natural right, extorted by thop,
who were at that time able to obstruct the free and
secure enjoyment of it, but who no longer possess that
power.
Denmark, while resisting our assertion of the freedom of
the B dtic Sound and Brits, has indicated a readiness
to make some new arrangement on the subject, and has
invited the governments intereSted, including the United
States, to be represented in a convention to assemble for
the purpose of receiving and considering a propesition,
which she intends to sub nit. for the capitalisation of the
Sound Dues, and the distrihntion of the sum to be paid as
commutation among the governments, according to the
respective proportions of their maritime Ccilero9 ir4 aid

The interposition of this Government has been invoked by
many of its citizens, on account of injuries done to their
persons and property, for which the Mexican Government is
responsible. The unhappy situation of that country, for some
time past, has not allowed its Government to give due con-
sideration to claims of private reparation, and has appeared to
call for and justify some forbearance, in such matters, on the
part of this Government. But, if the revolutionary movements
which have lately occurred in that republic, end in the
organisation of a stable government, urgent appeals to its
justice will then be made, and, it may be hoped, with success,
for the redress of all complaints of our citizens.