on the awards which it admits, while principal and interest ought, by the terms of the convention, to have been paid more than five years ago. Various investigations have been had in Congress in respect to the validity of any awards made under the convention in question, and as to the propriety of a negotiation by the Executive of a new convention in relation to the same. The President of the United States, on the 3d day of March, 1883, approved the following resolution of Congress: JOINT RESOLUTION providing for a new Mixed Commission in accordance with the treaty of Apri twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, with the United States of Venezuela. Whereas, since the dissolution of the Mixed Commission, appointed under the treaty of April twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, with the United States of Venezuela, serious charges, impeaching the validity and integrity of its proceedings, have been made by the Government of the United States of Venezuela, and also charges of a like character by divers citizens of the United States of America who presented claims for adjudication before that tribunal; and Whereas, the evidence to be found in the record of the proceedings of said Commis sion, and in the testimony taken before committees of the House of Representatives in the matter, tends to show that such charges are not without foundation; and Whereas, it is desirable that the matter be finally disposed of in a manner that shall satisfy any just complaints against the validity and integrity of the first Commission, and provide a tribunal under said treaty constructed and conducted so as not to give cause for just supicion; and Whereas, all evidence before said late Commission was presented in writing and is now in the archives of the State Department; and Whereas, the President of the United States has, in a recent communication to Congress, solicited its advisory action in this matter: Therefore Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be, and he hereby is, requested to open diplo matic correspondence with the Government of the United States of Venezuela, with a view to the revival of the general stipulations of the treaty of April twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, with said Government, and the appointment thereunder of a new Commission, to sit in the city of Washington, which Commission shall be authorized to consider all the evidence presented before the former Commission in respect to claims brought before it, together with such other and further evidence as the claimants may offer; and from the awards that may be made to claimants, any moneys heretofore paid by the Department of State, upon certificates issued to them, respectively, upon awards made by the former Commission, shall be deducted, and such certificates deemed cancelled; and the moneys now in the Department of State, received from the Government of Vene zuela on account of said awards, and all moneys that may hereafter be paid under said treaty, shall be distributed pro rat a in payment of such awards as may be made by the Commission to be appointed in accordance with this resolution. The proposal contemplated and authorized by the foregoing joint resolution of Congress having been made by the Government of the United States of America to the Government of Venezuela, and practically declined by the latter, through its diplomatic representative in Washington, in the opinion of the Department of State, the legal status of the claimants and their relations to the Executive are now governed solely by the convention of 1866, and the action of the Commission under it. In the opinion, however, of the Secretary of State the honor of the United States calls for an investigation of the charges formulated by Venezuela against the seven awards to which exception has been taken. On the other hand, duty to our own citizens, whose rights of property are questioned, demands that the inquiry should be limited to the point which Venezuelah has a just right to assail. The holders of the certificates which represent the awards in the sev enteen cases to which no exception has been taken should be paid, as such certificates must, under any circumstances, be recognized as abso lutely valid. In order, therefore, that this prolonged discussion be defi. nitely terminated and that a proper and just proportionate distribution of the sum on hand be made between the holders of the certificates issued in the seventeen undisputed cases and the holders of any certificates issued in the seven disputed awards that may be found valid, the Secretary of State recommends the passage of an act which shall direct the Court of Claims, upon the documentary evidence now in the Department of State or printed in Congressional documents, and upon such other proof as may be submitted under rules made or to be made by the court, to hear and determine with or without counsel, as the court may decide, whether any, and if so, which, of the seven awards objected to by Venezuela was obtained by fraud, giving to the case the earliest attention consistent with a proper examination of the papers. In view of the fact that some of these certificates may be in the hands of innocent holders, such an act might further empower the Court of Claims, in case it shall decide that any of the said awards were obtained by fraud or corruption, to summon before it, by advertisement, all holders of certificates of such awards, and hear and determine on the evidence of the parties themselves, and on such other proof as may be offered under the rules of the court, whether the fraud or corruption was known or might have been known to the holder of the certificates with the exercise of ordinary and reasonable care and diligence, and the actual cash price paid by the holder for the certificate, and to report the judgment to the Secretary of State, and that all such certificates not so proven before the Court of Claims shall be invalid. It is not thought that the Executive, unaided by judicial examination into the merits of this disputed case, should assume the responsibility of deciding adversely to citizens of the United States a question upon which different Congresses and different members of committees in the same Congress have reached such widely different conclusions. Nor is it thought that the Executive, unaided by judicial examination into the merit of the disputed awards and the rights of innocent holders thereof, should assume the responsibility of distributing proportionately the sum now on hand. Under the circumstances it is believed that a resort to a judicial tribunal for the purposes indicated becomes necessary. The action of the State Department under the joint resolution of March 3, 1883, is shown in the accompanying documents. Respectfully submitted. FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN. STATE DEPARTMENT, January 27, 1885. INCLOSURES. 1. Mr. Camacho to Mr. Frelinghuysen, March 26, 1883. 9. Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Soteldo, June 11, 1884, with draft of convention. 11. Mr. Soteldo to Mr. Frelinghuysen, July 17, 1884. 12. Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Soteldo, August 7, 1884. No. 1. Mr. Camacho to Mr. Frelinghuysen. LEGACION DE VENEZUELA, WASHINGTON, D. C., Monday, March 26, 1883. MY DEAR MR. FRELINGHUYSEN: Dr. Hyatt, who has been attending me, orders me to give up work and go home for some time to recruit my strength. I intend to do so as soon as the matter of the Venezuelan claims is terminated, and beg you to appoint at your earliest convenience a day in which we may give practical form to the public resolution of Congress. Believe me, my dear sir, yours very truly, and most obedient servant, SIMON CAMACHO. No. 2. Mr. Frelinghuysen to Señor Camacho. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 17, 1883. SIR: I have the honor to invite your attention to a recent step taken by your Government in connection with the awards of the late Mixed Commission. The United States minister at Caracas informs me that he has been officially notified by the minister of foreign relations that it is the inten tion of the Government of Venezuela to suspend the payments of the monthly quota due to the United States on account of the awards under the treaty of 1866, pending the negotiations of an arrangement between the two countries for the revival of the general stipulations of that treaty, and a re-examination of the disputed awards. I am surprised that such a step has been taken without consultation with this Government. Inasmuch as the existing compacts between the two countries remain effective until set aside by new conventional arrangements having like force and validity with the treaty of 1866, this Government must regard any action on the part of Venezuela to set aside its obligations thereunder as premature, and as a violation of treaty engagements. You are aware that many claimants whose awards have been recog nized as just by your Government have for years been deprived of what was justly due to them, by the action of your Government in impugning the good faith of certain other awards. You are also aware that the payments of Venezuela to the United States have thus far fallen short of even the moderate rate of interest stipulated in the treaty. It is of course impossible that any new arrangement which might now be entered into in virtue of the joint resolution of Congress, of March 3, 1883, authorizing the President to propose to Venezuela the revival of the treaty of 1866, could be effected without recognizing the right of the claimants to receive both principal and interest on the awards here. after found to be just, from the date of the original awards. Any other arrangement would involve a hardship and wrong toward legitimate claimants to which this Government cannot be a party. : This Government has not yet proposed to that of Venezuela the negotiation authorized by the joint resolution. That resolution has not been officially communicated to your Government-it remains until such time as the President shall direct action thereunder, a purely domestic act, and formulates merely the result of a consultation between the executive and legislative powers of this Government. I cannot consent, therefore, that the Government of Venezuela should attempt to anticipate the results of a negotiation not yet opened. It will facilitate the action of the President, contemplated by the resolution of March 3, 1883, if your Government resumes, from the point where they have been broken off, the monthly payments by Venezuela to the United States. Accept, sir, &c., FRED'K T. FRELINGHUYSEN. No. 3. Señor Comacho to Mr. Frelinghuysen. (Translation.) LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA, NEW YORK, April 20, 1883. MOST EXCELLENT SIR: I had the honor day before yesterday, at half past five p. m., to receive your excellency's polite note of the 17th instant, relative to the suspension, which has been ordered by Venezuela, of the monthly payment. Being confined to my bed by a severe illness, which prevents me from writing and even from reading, I shall have to wait until I get relief before I shall be able to give due attention to what your excellency has been pleased to communicate to me. This, I hope, will be soon. I am sorry to say, moreover, that the steamer for Venezuela sailed on the morning of the 18th without my having been able to transmit your excellency's note to my Government. I shall do so however by the next mail, which will leave this port on the 5th proximo. Meanwhile I beg your excellency again to accept the assurances of my high consideration. SIMON CAMACHO. No. 4. Mr. Camacho to Mr. Frelinghuysen. [Translation.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF VENEZUELA, NEW YORK, April 22, 1883. SIR: I avail myself of the first moment of freedom from the excessive pains which afflict me to do myself the honor of informing your excellency that I have resolved to leave per steamer of 7th of May, prox. imo, for Caracas, for the purpose of aiding in the removal on our part of any difficulties to the immediate execution of the public resolution passed by Congress and approved by the President of the United States, by which the manner of bringing to an end the claims of American cit izens against the Government of Venezuela has been fixed. That very noble resolution, so worthy of this great nation and its enlightened Government, is the sole guide by which we all must be ruled, and its execution seems to be more than simple. Now that I have had the happiness in part to bring it about, it is my ardent desire to see it accomplished, and will spare no efforts to establish the most adequate means for maintaining cordial relations between the two countries To this end, I respectfully beg your excellency to please designate the earliest day that may be convenient for me to call at the Department of State, and after the explanations, which I flatter myself I can give to your excellency, see if the effects of the before-mentioned reso lution can be made practical. But I deem it my duty at once to give your excellency one of the explanations, thus corresponding to your esteemed note of the 17th instant, and it is (beginning by the most material part of the business) that a grave error is made when it is affirmed that Venezuela has not paid so much as the interest of its debt; an error, because as yet the amount of that unliquidated debt is unknown, inasmuch as Congress and the Executive have ordered it revised; a greater error, inasmuch as Venezuela has paid 15 per cent. of the total of all the awards to claimants of every kind, besides which the Department of State has in its hands $534,285.83, which amount, believe me, your excellency, will more than suffice to meet the just claims. This, if we consider as in force what was done by the Mixed Commission of Caracas; but things are to-day on a very different footing. gress has ordered and the President has approved that the principal clauses of the treaty of 1866 be revived. For three years have I had the honor of laboring incessantly in the name of Venezuela for this purpose, and when Congress passed that sovereign resolution I made haste to manifest, as I had so many times before, to your excellency the decided adhesion of my Government to so just a course. Consequently the will of both parties was in fact effectually expressed, and if it be necessary I now reiterate it to your excellency, and I have even had the honor of presenting to you a draft of the protocol which, subject to a better opinion than mine, should be adopted in order to make the aforementioned public resolution effective. Sanctioned as it has been by Congress, approved by the Executive, and accepted without any variation by Venezuela, that resolution constitutes itself and by itself alone the basis of a situation which only lacks being put into writing and signed. And this situation, agreed upon by both sides who have decided to revive the treaty of 1866, is the same as where we stood on the day of the celebration of that treaty, that is to say there is no Mixed Commission, no awards, no certificates, no recognized debt, nor any that can be collected, no monthly payments to make, so long as there shall not be revived or in some other manner fixed in some of the articles of the revived convention the dates of payment. Your excellency calls the resolution of Congress approved by the President a domestic act, which has not been officially notified to my Government; but as the act of Congress and its approval have been accepted by Venezuela, an official notification is superfluous since the 28th day of March last, on which your excellency had the goodness to |