The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-07 00:00:00

THE ALABAMA CLAIMS.

But the most important subject to this country must be
that of the Alabama claims. On that subject Mr. Grant
observed : Towards the close of the last Administration
a Convention was signed at London for a settlement of all
outstanding claims between Great Britain and the United
States, which Convention failed to be ratified by the
Senate. The time and circumstances attending
the negotiation of that treaty were unfavourable
to its acceptance by the people of the United
States, and its provisions were wholly inadequate to a
settlement of the great wrongs that had been sustained by
the Government as well as by its citizens. The injuries
resulting to the United States by reason of the course
adopted by Great Britain during our war—in the increased
rates of insurance, the diminution of exports and im-
ports, and other obstructions to domestic industry;
and the effects upon the foreign commerce of the coun-
try, in the decrease and transfer to Great Britain
of our commercial marine, in the prolongation of the
war, and in the increased cost, both in treasure and lives,
of its suppression—could not be adjusted and satisfied in
`the same manner as ordinary commercial claims con.
tinually arising between nations, and yet the Convention
treated them as such claims, from which they differ more
widely in the gravity of their character than in
amount, great even as is that difference. Not a word
was to be found in the treaty, and not an inference
could be drawn from it, to remove the sense of the
unfriendliness of the course of Great Britain in
our struggle for existence which had an deeply and univer •
sally impressed iteelf upon the people of this country.
Believing that a Convention thus misconceived in its
scope and inadequate in its provisions would not have
produced a hearty and cordial settlement of pending ques-
ticns, which alone would have been consistent with the
relations which the President desired to have esta-
blished between the United States and Great Britain, he
regarded the action of the Senate in rejecting the treaty
to have been wisely taken in the interest of peace, and as
a necessary stop in the direction of a perfect and cordial
friendship between the two countries. A sensitive people
conscious of their power, are more at ease under a great
wrong wholly unatoned for than under the restraint of a
settlement that satisfied neither their idea of justice nor thei3
grave sense of the grievance they had sustained. The rejeo-
tion of the treaty was followed by a state of public feeling
on both sides of the ocean, which the President thought
was unfavourable to an immediate attempt at renewed
negotiations. The Minister of the United States to Eng
land was accordingly instructed to communicate to he;
Majesty's Minister the President's views in this respect
The President hopes that the time will soon arrive when
the two Governments can approach a solution of this
momentous question with an appreciation of what is
due to the rights, dignity, and honour of each country,andt
with a determination not only to remove all causes of.
ccrn:Jaint from the past, but to lay the foundation of
broad principles of public law, which would prevent future
differences and convert into firm, continuous peace, and
friendship this the only grave question which the United
States now have with any foreign nation.