his own
country, he would thereby be protected from trial and punishment under
the jurisdiction of our State laws which he had violated. It is true, as
has been stated, that the German States, acting upon a principle
springing from the doctrine of perpetual allegiance, still assert the
jurisdiction of trying and punishing their subjects for crimes committed
in the United States or any other portion of the world. It must,
however, be manifest that individuals throughout our extended country
would rarely, if ever, follow criminals to Germany with the necessary
testimony for the purpose of prosecuting them to conviction before
German courts for crimes committed in the United States.

On the other hand, the Constitution and laws of the United States, as
well as of the several States, would render it impossible that crimes
committed by our citizens in Germany could be tried and punished in any
portion of this Union.

But if no other reason existed for withholding my ratification from this
treaty, the great change which has recently occurred in the organization
of the Government of the German States would be sufficient. By the last
advices we learn that the German Parliament, at Frankfort, have already
established a federal provisional Executive for all the States of
Germany, and have elected the Archduke John of Austria to be
"Administrator of the Empire." One of the attributes of this Executive
is "to represent the Confederation in its relations with foreign nations
and to appoint diplomatic agents, ministers, and consuls." Indeed, our
minister at Berlin has already suggested the propriety of his transfer
to Frankfort. In case this convention with nineteen of the thirty-nine
German States should be ratified, this could amount to nothing more than
a proposition on the part of the Senate and President to these nineteen
States who were originally parties to the convention to negotiate anew
on the subject of extradition. In the meantime a central German
Government has been provisionally established, which extinguishes the
right of these separate parties to enter into negotiations with foreign
Governments on subjects of several interest to the whole.

Admitting such a treaty as that which has been ratified by the Senate to
be desirable, the obvious course would now be to negotiate with the
General Government of Germany. A treaty concluded with it would embrace
all the thirty-nine States of Germany, and its authority, being
c