idential correspondence having been maintained by cable, between
the State Department and the American Legation in London, on every
phase of the treaty.

Mr. Seward had earned approbation so hearty and general by his
diplomatic correspondence with Great Britain during the war and in the
years immediately succeeding, that no one was prepared for the
disappointment and chagrin experienced in the United States when the
Johnson-Clarendon treaty was made public. It gave almost personal
offense to the mass of people in the loyal States. It overlooked, and
yet by cunning phrase condoned, every unfriendly act of England during
our civil war. It affected to class the injuries inflicted upon the
Nation as mere private claims, to be offset by private claims of
British subjects,--the whole to be referred to a joint commission,
after the ordinary and constantly recurring method of adjusting claims
of private individuals that may have become matters of diplomatic
importance.

The preamble to the treaty established its character and proved its
utter inadequacy to meet the demands of the United States. It was in
these words: "Whereas claims have at various times since the exchange
of the ratifications of the convention between Great Britain and the
United States of America, signed at London on the 8th of February,
1853, been made upon the Government of her Britannic Majesty on the
part of citizens of the United States, and upon the Government of the
United States on the part of subjects of her Britannic Majesty; and
whereas _some of such claims are still pending and remain unsettled_,
her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, and the President of the United States of America, being of
opinion that a speedy and equitable settlement of all such claims will
contribute much to the maintenance of the friendly feelings which
subsist between the two countries, have resolved to make arrangements
for that purpose by means of a convention."

Among the first provisions of the treaty was a declaration that the
result of the proceedings of the commission thus to be provided for,
should be considered as "a full and final settlement of every claim
upon either government arising out of any transaction of a date prior
to the exchange of ratifications;" and all claims thereafter were to
be "considered and treated as finally settled and barred, and
thenceforth inadmissible." For eight years the Government of the
U