Great Britain, in disregard of the rights
of the owners of the same; therefore, Resolved by the Senate of the
United States, That the President is hereby requested to send to the
Senate, if not, in his opinion incompatible with the public interests,
all information in possession of the State Department relating to the
said alleged seizure and detention, and also to inform the Senate what
steps have been taken in requesting the restoration of property taken
and detained as aforesaid."[26]

[Footnote 26: 56 Cong., 1 Sess., Jan. 17, 1900, Record, Vol. 33, Pt. 1,
pp. 895, 900.]

The final clause of the resolution as at first introduced was stricken
out after a discussion as to whether the Secretary of State should be
"_directed_" or the President be "_requested_" to furnish the desired
information. It was realized that the language of the expunged clause,
"and whether or not the Department has informed the proper British
authorities that, if said detention is persisted in, such act will be
considered as without warrant and offensive to the Government and people
of the United States," was neither diplomatic in its tone nor warranted
by the circumstances. Amicable negotiations were still in progress, and
those negotiations were concerned with a discussion of the very question
which would thus have been decided in the affirmative by the Senate,
namely, that the seizures had been contrary to the principles of
international law. Consequently the resolution only declared that it was
"alleged" that Great Britain had departed from the strict principles of
international law, and it was not intimated that her persistence in such
acts would probably require a resort to more forcible measures than mere
protest on the part of the United States.

A motion had been made that the resolution be referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations, where it was hoped by certain members of the
Senate that it would die a natural death, an end which would have been
deserved under the circumstances, since the event to which the
resolution referred was then in the course of diplomatic consideration
and nothing had indicated that the State Department would not be able to
secure protection for the interests of all citizens of the United States
as neutrals during a recognized belligerent contest. An unsettled
question of international law was at issue between Great Britain and the
United States, and was being dealt with as fast as official information