Whereas it was therein further provided that when such amount should have been received the President of the United States would proceed to distribute the same among the parties entitled thereto, in the form and manner which he may judge most equitable; and

Whereas such amount has been duly paid at Madrid and the proceeds thereof are now in possession of the Government of the United States:

Now, therefore, pursuant to the provisions of article 3 of said convention, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby direct that such amount so received shall be distributed among the parties entitled thereto in the following amounts and proportions and pursuant to the following rules:

I. The amounts allowed are determined with a general reference to the rates of wages of officers and crew. All of the ship's company (constituting the crew) are to be regarded and considered as American seamen; but inasmuch as the British Government has demanded and received from Spain certain indemnity and promises of further conditional indemnity for and on account of certain of the crew as being British subjects, those of the crew or passengers who were British subjects, or who have been claimed as such by the British Government, and for whom the British Government demanded or received indemnity from Spain, are to be excluded from the distribution to be made of the indemnity above referred to.

II. Distribution will be made on account of those who were executed as follows:

For each one (being thirteen in number) of the ship's company rated or serving as fireman, mariner, cook, cabin boy, or otherwise than as one of the officers or petty officers hereafter mentioned, who was executed, and excluding those referred to above, and also to each passenger who was executed, being at the time an American citizen, the sum of $2,500.

For each assistant engineer, second, third, fourth engineer or third mate, 40 per cent in addition to the above sum; that is to say, $3,500 each.

For the first mate and first engineer, 80 per cent in addition to the said above-mentioned sum; that is to say, $4,500 each.

For the captain, 150 per cent in addition to the said above-mentioned sum; that is to say, $6,250.

III. The several amounts allowed as above are to be paid to the widow, children, parents, or brothers and sisters of the deceased, as follows:

(1) To the widow of the deceased.

(2) If no widow, to the children of the deceased in equal shares.

Where such children shall be minors, the same shall be paid to a legally appointed guardian.

(3) If no children, then to the father; if no father, to the mother.

(4) If no father or mother, then to the brothers and sisters in equal shares.

(5) If the deceased shall have left no widow, child, parent, brother, or sister, no amount is to be paid on his account.

There shall be allowed to each of the ship's company and to such of the passengers as were citizens of the United States who were detained and suffered loss, to be paid on the conditions hereinafter provided, as follows:

To each of the ship's crew who was under the age of 21 years at the time of the capture, or who was reported at the time as under that age, and to each passenger who was an American citizen, the sum of $250.

To each of the ship's crew who was over the age of 21 years, and who was rated as being a fireman, mariner, cook, cabin boy, or otherwise than as one of the officers or petty officers hereafter mentioned, 40 per cent in addition to the above-allowed sum; that is to say, $350 each.

To any engineer, second or other assistant engineer, mate, purser, assistant purser, or surgeon, 86 per cent in addition to the above-allowed sum; that is to say, $450 to each.

In case any of such persons so entitled to payment shall have died, such amount shall be paid to the family of the deceased as provided in Article III.

IV. The proofs as to all the necessary facts in each case, including identity, relationship, and citizenship, shall be made to the satisfaction of the Department of State as a condition of payment, and a naturalized citizen, where proof of citizenship is necessary, shall produce his certificate of naturalization and furnish satisfactory proof, if required, as to residence and his right, to such certificate.

V. Payments will be made to the parties entitled thereto through the Department of State, or in checks to their order, and will not be made to attorneys.

VI. Prior to any payment being made the party entitled thereto shall sign and duly acknowledge before some competent officer a receipt and release, stating that the sum so paid is received in full satisfaction of any claim or reclamations of any sort which may exist or which might be advanced against the Spanish Government by reason of the capture of the Virginius or the acts of the Spanish authorities connected therewith.

VII. Should any further order or direction be required, the same will hereafter be made as an addition hereto.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at the city of Washington, this 21st day of July, A.D. 1875, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U.S. GRANT.



[From Letters and Messages of Rutherford B. Hayes, pp. 19-22.]

WASHINGTON, April 2, 1877.

The Honorables CHARLES B. LAWRENCE, JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, JOHN M. HARLAN, JOHN C. BROWN, AND WAYNE MACVEAGH, Commissioners.

GENTLEMEN: I am instructed by the President to lay before you some observations upon the occasion and objects which have led him to invite you as members of the commission about to visit the State of Louisiana to undertake this public service.

Upon assuming his office the President finds the situation of affairs in Louisiana such as to justly demand his prompt and solicitous attention, for this situation presents as one of its features the apparent intervention of the military power of the United States in the domestic controversies which unhappily divide the opinions and disturb the harmony of the people of that State. This intervention, arising during the term and by the authority of his predecessor, throws no present duty upon the President except to examine and determine the real extent and form and effect to which such intervention actually exists, and to decide as to the time, manner, and conditions which should be observed in putting an end to it. It is in aid of his intelligent and prompt discharge of this duty that the President has sought the service of this commission to supply by means of its examination, conducted in the State of Louisiana, some information that may be pertinent to the circumspection and security of any measure he may resolve upon.

It will be readily understood that the service desired of and intrusted to this commission does not include any examination into or report upon the facts of the recent State election or of the canvass of the votes cast at such election. So far as attention to these subjects may be necessary the President can not but feel that the reports of the committees of the two Houses of Congress and other public information at hand will dispense with and should preclude any original exploration by the commission of that field of inquiry.

But it is most pertinent and important in coming to a decision upon the precise question of Executive duty before him that the President should know what are the real impediments to regular, legal, and peaceful procedures under the laws and constitution of the State of Louisiana by which the anomalies in government there presented may be put in course of settlement without involving the element of military power as either an agent or a makeweight in such solution. The successful ascertainment of these impediments the President would confidently expect would indicate to the people of that State the wisdom and the mode of their removal. The unusual circumstances which attended and followed the State election and canvass, from its relation to the excited feelings and interests of the Presidential election, may have retarded within the State of Louisiana the persuasive influences by which the great social and material interests common to the whole people of a State, and the pride of the American character as a law-abiding nation, ameliorate the disappointments and dissolve the resentments of close and zealous political contests. But the President both hopes and believes that the great body of the people of Louisiana are now prepared to treat the unsettled results of their State election with a calm and conciliatory spirit. If it be too much to expect a complete concurrence in a single government for that State, at least the President may anticipate a submission to the peaceful resources of the laws and the constitution of the State of all their discussions, at once relieving themselves from the reproach and their fellow-citizens of the United States from the anxieties which must ever attend a prolonged dispute as to the title and the administration of the government of one of the States of the Union.

The President therefore desires that you should devote your first and principal attention to a removal of the obstacles to an acknowledgment of one government for the purpose of an exercise of authority within the State and a representation of the State in its relations to the General Government under section 4 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States, leaving, if necessary, to judicial or other constitutional arbitrament within the State the question of ultimate right. If these obstacles should prove insuperable, from whatever reason, and the hope of a single government in all its departments be disappointed, it should be your next endeavor to accomplish the recognition of a single legislature as the depositary of the representative will of the people of Louisiana. This great department of government rescued from dispute, the rest of the problem could gradually be worked out by the prevalent authority which the legislative power, when undisputed, is quite competent to exert in composing conflict in the coordinate branches of the government.

An attentive consideration of the conditions under which the Federal Constitution and the acts of Congress provide or permit military intervention by the President in protection of a State against domestic violence has satisfied the President that the use of this authority in determining or influencing disputed elections in a State is most carefully to be avoided. Undoubtedly, as was held by the Supreme Court in the case of Luther vs. Borden, the appeal from a State may involve such an inquiry as to the lawfulness of the authority which invokes the interference of the President in supposed pursuance of the Constitution; but it is equally true that neither the constitutional provision nor the acts of Congress were framed with any such design. Both obviously treated the case of domestic violence within a State as of outbreak against law and the authority of established government which the State was unable to suppress by its own strength. A case wherein every department of the State government has a disputed representation, and a State therefore furnishes to the Federal Government no internal political recognition of authority upon which the Federal Executive can rely, will present a case of so much difficulty that it is of pressing importance to all interests in Louisiana that it should be avoided. A single legislature would greatly relieve this difficulty, for that department of the State government is named by the Constitution as the necessary applicant, when it can be convened, for military intervention by the United States.

If, therefore, the disputing interests can concur in or be reduced to a single legislature for the State of Louisiana, it would be a great step in composing this unhappy strife.

The President leaves entirely to the commission the conciliatory influences which, in their judgment formed on the spot, may seem to conduce to the proposed end. His own determination that only public considerations should inspire and attend this effort to give the ascendency in Louisiana to the things that belong to peace is evinced by his selection of commissioners who offer to the country in their own character every guaranty of the public motives and methods of the transactions which they have undertaken. Your report of the result of this endeavor will satisfy the President, he does not doubt, of the wisdom of his selection of and of his plenary trust in the commission.

A second and less important subject of attention during your visit to New Orleans will be the collection of accurate and trustworthy information from the public officers and prominent citizens of all political connections as to the state of public feeling and opinion in the community at large upon the general questions which affect the peaceful and safe exercise within the State of Louisiana of all legal and political rights and the protection of all legal and political privileges conferred by the Constitution of the United States upon all citizens. The maintenance and protection of these rights and privileges by all constitutional means and by every just, moral, and social influence are the settled purpose of the President in his administration of the Government. He will hope to learn from your investigations that this purpose will be aided and not resisted by the substantial and effective public opinion of the great body of the people of Louisiana.

The President does not wish to impose any limit upon your stay in Louisiana that would tend to defeat the full objects of your visit. He is, however, extremely desirous to find it in his power at the earliest day compatible with a safe exercise of that authority to put an end to even the appearance of military intervention in the domestic affairs of Louisiana, and he awaits your return with a confident hope that your report will enable him promptly to execute a purpose he has so much at heart.

The President desires me to add that the publication of the results of your visit he shall hope to make immediately after their communication to him.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

WM. M. EVARTS.



[From Letters and Messages of Rutherford B. Hayes, p. 25.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 20, 1877.

Hon. GEO. W. McCRARY, Secretary of War.

SIR: Prior to my entering upon the duties of the Presidency there had been stationed, by order of my predecessor, in the immediate vicinity of the building used as a statehouse in New Orleans, La., and known as Mechanics' Institute, a detachment of United States infantry. Finding them in that place, I have thought proper to delay a decision of the question of their removal until I could determine whether the condition of affairs is now such as to either require or justify continued military intervention of the National Government in the affairs of the State.

In my opinion there does not now exist in Louisiana such domestic violence as is contemplated by the Constitution as the ground upon which the military power of the National Government may be invoked for the defense of the State. The disputes which exist as to the right of certain claimants to the chief executive office of that State are to be settled and determined, not by the Executive of the United States, but by such orderly and peaceable methods as may be provided by the constitution and the laws of the State.

Having the assurance that no resort to violence is contemplated, but, on the contrary, the disputes in question are to be settled by peaceful methods under and in accordance with law, I deem it proper to take action in accordance with the principles announced when I entered upon the duties of the Presidency.

You are therefore directed to see that the proper orders are issued for the removal of said troops at an early date from their present position to such regular barracks in the vicinity as may be selected for their occupation.

R.B. HAYES.



EXPLANATORY NOTES TO SPECIAL MESSAGES, VOLUMES I AND II.

Message of February 8, 1792, Vol. I, p. 116: Transmitting an account of John B. Cutting for expenditures incurred in liberating seamen of the United States in British ports during the impressments by the British Government in 1790.

Message of February 7, 1794, Vol. I, p. 151: Extraordinary commission of Guadaloupe apply to Congress for aid in men, provisions, and ammunition.

Message of March 18, 1794, Vol. I, p. 152: Transmitting an application by the minister of France for an advance of $1,000,000 on account of the debt due by the United States, correspondence between the Secretary of State and the minister of France relative thereto, etc.

Message of February 4, 1795, Vol. I, p. 175: Transmitting letters from the Secretaries of State and the Treasury concerning the negotiation of a loan in Holland.

Message of January 5, 1798, Vol. I, p. 260: Transmitting a report of the Secretary of War stating that the five clerks in his office were insufficient to transact the business and asking a larger appropriation to enable him to increase the number.

Message of March 5, 1798, Vol. I, pp. 263-264: Transmitting a message of the Executive Directory of France to the Council of Five Hundred and decree of that council of January 11, 1798, declaring neutral vessels laden with English merchandise lawful prize.

Message of January 28, 1799, Vol. I, pp. 281-282: Edict declaring that "every individual, native of friendly countries allied to the French Republic, or neutral, bearing a commission granted by the enemies of France or making part of the crews of ships of war, and others, enemies, shall be by this single fact declared a pirate and treated as such without being permitted in any case to allege that he had been forced into such service by violence, threats, or otherwise."

Message of January 13, 1800, Vol. I, p. 301: Relating to the Military Academy and the reorganization of the Army.

Message of January 14, 1800, Vol. I, pp. 301-302: Letter from John Randolph, jr., demanding that certain officers of the Army or Navy be punished for grossly and publicly insulting him for advocating in the House of Representatives a reduction of the military establishment.

Message of April 20, 1802, Vol. I, p. 341: Relating to spoliations committed on the commerce of the United States under Spanish authority and to the imprisonment of the American consul at St. Jago de Cuba.

Message of December 22, 1802, Vol. I, p. 346: Transmitting letters from the governors of the Mississippi Territory and of Kentucky, etc., relative to the prohibition by authorities of Spain to land American cargoes at New Orleans, in violation of treaty rights.

Message of December 31, 1804, Vol. I, p. 375: Relating to the bombardment of Tripoli, vessels engaged, number of men, etc.

Message of December 30, 1808, Vol. I, p. 458: Resolutions of the legislature of Pennsylvania expressing confidence in the General Government in its attitude toward foreign powers, indorsing the embargo as a wise measure, etc.

Message of June 4, 1809, Vol. I, p. 471: Transmitting resolutions of the Pennsylvania assembly protesting against the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Gideon Olmstead.

Message of December 16, 1809, Vol. I, p. 478: Transmitting documents connected with the arrangement between D.M. Erskine, minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain, and the Secretary of State of the United States, making reparation for the attack on the Chesapeake and providing for the suspension of the embargo and nonintercourse laws and the withdrawal of the orders in council, etc.

Message of January 31, 1811, Vol. I, p. 489: Transmitting documents relative to negotiations with France for the repeal of decrees violating the neutral commerce of the United States, etc.

Message of December 27, 1811, Vol. I, p. 497: Transmitting resolutions of the legislature of Pennsylvania expressing confidence in the wisdom, patriotism, and firmness of the President and Congress relative to affairs with Great Britain and pledging support in case of an appeal to arms.

Message of September 26, 1814, Vol. I, p. 551: Transmitting correspondence relative to an order of the British admiral, Alex. Cochrane, "to destroy and lay waste such towns and districts upon the coast as may be found assailable," in retaliation for acts of the United States Army in Upper Canada.

Message of February 5, 1821, Vol. II, p. 83: Transmitting correspondence with Great Britain relative to the commercial relations between the United States and the British colonies in the West Indies and in North America, etc.

Message of February 3, 1823, Vol. II, p. 200: Transmitting a memorial of the legislative council of Florida relative to the expediency and necessity for further legislative provision for the government and improvement of Florida.

Message of February 17, 1825, Vol. II, p. 284: Transmitting correspondence with France relative to the interpretation of the eighth article of the treaty for the cession of Louisiana.

THE END