President Ulysses S. Grant Calls the Senate Into Special Session

To Ratify a War Claims Treaty With Great Britain.

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To the Senators of the United States

When Ulysses S. Grant assumed the presidency in March 1869, relations between Great Britain and the United States were at a low ebb.  From the American point of view, the foremost reason for the breach was the construction and refitting of Confederate warships by British...

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President Ulysses S. Grant Calls the Senate Into Special Session

To Ratify a War Claims Treaty With Great Britain.

To the Senators of the United States

When Ulysses S. Grant assumed the presidency in March 1869, relations between Great Britain and the United States were at a low ebb.  From the American point of view, the foremost reason for the breach was the construction and refitting of Confederate warships by British shipbuilders during the Civil War.  American politicians argued that such behavior violated Britain’s official neutrality, and demanded that the British government make financial restitution–these were collectively known as the Alabama claims, after the most successful of the Confederate ships. Negotiations between Britain and the United States to resolve these disputes began during the presidential administration of Andrew Johnson.  After Grant’s election in November 1868, the president-elect informed Johnson’s secretary of state, William H. Seward, that he wanted to be consulted during the ongoing talks. Seward, however, ignored Grant and reached a settlement with Britain, known as the Johnson-Clarendon Convention, which only provided financial restitution to private American citizens for specific damages, and did not cover general harm caused by the British-built Confederate warships against the Union military. Grant opposed the unpopular treaty for this reason.

A month after his inauguration, the treaty was ready to be submitted to the Senate for ratification. The Senate was not, however, in session, so he ordered it to convene in a special session. Document Signed as President, Washington, April 8, 1869, “To the Senators of the United States respectively,” calling the Senate into official session. “Objects interesting to the United States requiring that the Senate should be in session on the 12th instant, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to it on the part of the Executive, your attendance in the Senate Chamber in this City, on that day, at 12 o’clock noon, is accordingly requested.” There were then 62 U.S. Senators and likely each was sent a copy. This one was received by Senator John Scott of Pennsylvania. A search of auction records for the past 35 years discloses no other copies having reached the marketplace, nor do we recall ever having seen another one. In fact, this is our first Grant document of any kind calling the Senate into session.

The Special Senate Session lasted from April 12-22, 1869, and the proposed treaty was denounced in the debate. Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, insisted on the floor that the British government owed American taxpayers $2 billion in damages, and recommended the down payment be Britain’s cession of Canada to the United States. In the end, the Senate agreed with President Grant and rejected the treaty overwhelmingly, 54-1. It would be a few years more before this issue could be resolved in a form satisfactory to both sides.

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