The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-05-19
ARE OLD TREATIES
AGREEMENT MADE BETWEEN THE
ATHENlANS AND THE CHAlCIDiANS.

The First Treaty Made by the United States
Forty-five treaties With Great Britain
and Twenty-Five With France-The Re
cent Chinese Treaty.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, May 14.-In an uppel
room of the library section Of the depart.
ment of state, inclosed in a flat box Of the
toughest kind of wood, is curious plaster
slab which to the unlearned eye looks
much like a piece Of artificial Tagging
across which a flock Of turkies had walked
Just before 1t hardened. 1t is a copy
of a slab of Pentelic marble which was
found in the southern wall of the Acropo-
lis at Athens on June %, 1876. The
marble slab under the general law OF
Greece became the property of the Royal
Archaeological society of that nation, and
this copy in plaster was taken by General
j. Meredith Read, the United States min
lister at Athens, and was by him presented
to the department of state. The Greek in
scription has been many times translated,
but according to the scholars of the state
department the best rendering is that OF
DR.. Alfred EInmerson, and it is therefore
approved as the official copy
The slab was carved and placed conspic-
uously in the wall of the Acropolis in AS
3. c., and the inscription is the treaty
made that year between the Athenians
and the Chalcidians. 1t is long stretch
of time from this the oldest treaty in the
archives of the department to the lately
concluded treaties with China and Russia.
And yet the differences are far less to be
wondered at than the resemblances, for the
latter show that through all the mutations
of 2, 339 years many of the general phrases
OF such treaties have survived, and as both
are treaties of amity, commerce and i'm
migration it is indeed curious to note that
two peoples of Substantially the same race
and as near neighbors as different counties
in one OF our states were at that time max
ing the same kind of formal arrangements
with each other that we are now making
with PARKWAY, alien and semiciviliZed
China.
Translation of an Ancient Treaty.
The old treaty is set forth in various
scientific publications, but it is well to
give here a popular paraphrase of the
translation. The preamble sets forth that
it was passed by the council and the as
sembly, Prytany Of the tribe Antiochus
Drakontides presiding:
81 Resolution carried by Diognetus-
Diognetus brought in the resolution-that
the council and the judges of the Atheni-
ans should take the oath each as follows:
will not drive the Chalcidians from
Chalcis, nor will / lay waste the city, nor
will / take from any one his rights of citi-
Henship, nor will l Danish nor arrest nor
kill any one within the protection of Chal-
els. This will guarantee to the Calcidi-
ans so long as they remain in fidelity to
the Athenian people. And let the generals
BEE to it that all take the oath
1t is next set forth that the Chalcidians
shall not revolt against the Athenians,
and that all adult Chalcidians must take
the oath. After some sentences of e1plana-
ton implying that amendments were nee
essary there follows:
80. Resolution carried by Articles -
Articles brought in the resolution. With
the good fortune of the Athenians: Let
the Athenians and the Chalcidians take
the oath, as the Athcnian people decreed
Should be done in the case of the Eretrians
And let the generals see to it that it be
done as quickly as may be. Five Athenians
go to Chalcis to administer the oaths. De
cree to be inscribed on a stone slab and in
serted in the Acropolis, ard may Olympian
Zeus be the arbiter of faith"
A Supplement-.
1t appears, however, that before the in
scription was completed another question
was to be settled, and SO a supplement
drawn by Articles and carried in the as
sembly by Archestratus was added This
provides that citizens of each state have
rights of trial in the other. but for SEN
fences involving death, exile or loss OF civil
rights the final appeal shall be to the
highest court at Athens. Such is the in
scription, and VIC know from history that
it was considered at the time piece of re-
markable Hberality on the part of the
Athenians At that time they Were striv-
ing, in an awkward and primitive way,
it is true, to build up a real Greek nation
ality. II hogan with the confederacy of
Delos, in which Athens was TO be the lead /
er of IA united Greece against the Persians |
When, however, the Athenians sought to
make this confederacy permanent, and to !
encourage travel and free trade among the |
Greek states enacted that all the citizens !
of other Greek cities should have right of |
residence and trial In their courts the same /
as their own citizens, IT excited general as
tonishment. The jealousy of Sparta was /
aroused, she and her allies declared against (
any such union and began that long war
which destroyed the supremacy of Athens I
And all this occurred in a congeries of in |
dependent nations whose united territory /
was only one-third that of Ohio
1t is a pleasure TO turn to the COPY of /
the first treaty made by the United States /
namely, the treaty Of amity and com
,mercc with France, signed at Paris Feb !
., l11S. 1t Is written on the finest pa-ch- /
ment on pages 10 by II inches in size, each
page divided into two columns, the right
one in French and the left one in English. i
The seal, attached by beautiful silken
cord, is heavy disk of wax nearly 3 inches .
wide and inclosed in a circular box of sill /
yer. The signatures are those of c. A (
Gerard and b. Franklin. 1t is counter
signed by Grayier de Ncrgennes, and then
come the interesting words, Par lie Roi.
Louis. His signature has almost faded (
out, but still the dim tracery of the clear
round letters awakeS strange thoughts of .
events which Were so soon TO follow and /
the tragic fate of our royal friend Of France 4
and his family. y later copy of the treaty,
and the one officially ratified by our con-
Eress, contains the names of other Amer
lean commissioners.
Treaty With Napoleon.
The gem Of the whole collection. how
ever, is the treaty with Napoleon for the
acquisition Of Louisiana Ii is bound in
the finest of velvet and written ON ,bo g.