No. 90.
Mr. Fish to General Schenck.
We cannot agree to the suggestion in your telegram of this date. This Government deals with the British Government, and not with opposition members of Parliament. If that Government adopts the unworthy suspicions and fears referred to in your telegram, and advances them as reasons for modifying the proposed Article, or suggests that this Government will not in good faith act upon the agreement contained therein, all further negotiations must cease at once.
If it does not adopt or entertain those suspicions, there is no reason for proposing to alter the language which was proposed by itself, has been accepted by us, and which is sufficiently explicit.
You may say that this Government regards the new rule contained in the proposed Article as the consideration, and will accept it as a final settlement of the three classes of the indirect claims put forth in our Case, to which they objected.
It is useless to expect that any change can be made in the Article as agreed to by the Senate. A treaty in the words which the Senate had agreed upon could be ratified by that body without debate and in a few minutes. Any change, however immaterial, would involve discussion and debate, and in the crowded state of their business would inevitably lead to the defeat of the Treaty.
[Page 558]We think, also, that this Government has made a large concession for the sake of maintaining the important principles involved in the Treaty. It can make no more.