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His majesty's government would consider it as a betrayal of the ancient rights of the Danish crown, and of the interests of the country over which it is its first and most imperative duty to watch, if it did not, to the utmost of its power, seek to avert or even to resist any demand requiring those rights and interests to be sacrificed.

The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the honorable Secretary of State the assurance of his high consideration. TORBEN BILLE.

Hon. W. L. MARCY,

Secretary of State of the United States.

Mr. Marcy to Mr. Bedinger.

[No. 9.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 12, 1855.

SIR: In communicating to you a copy of a resolution of the Senate, of the 3d instant, adopted in executive session, authorising the President to give to the government of Denmark the notice required by the eleventh article of the general convention of April 26, 1826, between the United States and that government, for the termination of the same, I am directed by the President to express his regret at the necessity which has led to this proceeding. He had hoped that the government of Denmark would have favorably considered the appeal to its justice, which you had been instructed to make on the part of your government, for the abolition of the oppressive duties, or tolls which have been levied for so long a period by that power upon vessels of the United States and their cargoes in the Baltic Sea, in violation of the right which all nations possess to the unrestricted navigation of open seas. The right of the Danish government to exact these burdensome tolls has been steadily denied by the government of the United States, and they have been submitted to thus far only because of its unwillingness hitherto to hazard the interruption of friendly intercourse between the two countries by peremptorily refusing any longer to suffer so unwarrantable an imposition upon its commerce. As a preliminary step to such refusal on the part of this government, an announcement of its intention to terminate the existing convention between the two countries has been deemed advisable, on account of the 5th article of that convention having been construed into a concession on the part of the United States of the right of Denmark to levy the "sound dues;" and the President has accordingly been vested with authority to give such notice. He has not abandoned all hope, however, that the Danish government may yet show such a disposition in reference to this subject as may render unneccessary the communication of the notice for the termination of a convention which has been so mutually advantageous. You are therefore instructed, unless in your judgment there should be no prospect of such a step being attended with success to make another and final appeal to the government of Denmark to relieve our commerce from the burden of the sound dues. Should you, however, determine to make no further

attempt to attain that object by negotiation, or should your effort, if made, prove unsuccessful, you will then immediately communicate to the government of Denmark the notice for the termination of the convention, requesting an acknowledgment thereof, a copy of which you will transmit hither with the least practicable delay.

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[No. 15.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Copenhagen, April 20, 1855.

SIR: Your dispatch of the 12th ultimo was received by me on the 6th instant. It had been detained several days by the obstruction to the navigation, occasioned by the ice. In consequence of passion week, immediately succeeding its reception, I could not act upon the instructions which it contained until the 12th instant. On that day I made another and final appeal" to the government of Denmark, through his excellency M. Scheel, minister of foreign affairs, upon the subject of the "sound dues."

I told you in one of my dispatches that M. Bluhme, the former minister of foreign affairs, had expressed the opinion very unequivocally, that Denmark would never consent to abandon those tolls, without receiving from us some equivalent for them, and that, in my own opinion, all negotiation and verbal communications upon the subject would prove utterly fruitless. But, as I had been induced to believe that arrangements were being made between yourself and the Danish chargé d'affaires in America, which might possibly result in some final settlement of the question, and as I received no reply to my dispatch of the 28th July last, in which I said, "since the date of my dispatch of the 1st of April, 1854, I have received nothing further from your department upon the subject of the sound dues,' I am left to infer, therefore, that it is determined not to press that matter further at present, and shall wait till I hear again from you on the subject." I, of course, did not move again in the matter until the arrival of your last dispatch and instructions. Having received them, I called on the minister of foreign affairs on the 12th instant. In the conversation which I had with him, I reiterated, as well as I could, all the forcible reasons and unanswerable arguments which you have so clearly set forth in the first instructions given me upon that subject, and I urged them upon his excellency with what power I could. I was listened to with attention and courtesy, and the result was, that his excellency told me in the most emphatic, unequivocal, and positive terms, that Denmark would never consent to abandon her right to collect the "sound dues" from the vessels of the United States,

without some equivalent, granted by our government, in lieu thereof. He went on to say, that all the other powers that objected to the payment of the "dues," England, Prussia, Sweden, &c., would, as he believed, consent to pay Denmark an equivalent (not clearly defined by him) for the remission of those dues, and that he would be glad to treat with the United States as with the others, &c., &c. I could only reply that my instructions were positive upon that point, and forbade me to offer any bribe for that which was clearly our right, and his answer satisfied me that it was vain to talk any longer upon the subject. I then told his excellency that I was authorized to give the notice to terminate the treaty of 1826, &c. He said, in effect, you can give that notice whenever it shall suit your convenience; whilst we shall regret such a step, upon the part of the United States, you will please understand that the answer which I have given you to-day, in relation to the "sound dues," will not be changed or modified, &c. All this, the substance only of which I venture to give you, though uttered with great courtesy, and with many protestations of friendship for the United States, was said, nevertheless, with the utmost positiveness. So that I saw, at once, my duty to be to give the notice directed in your last dispatch, and accordingly I did so, on the 14th instant, in the following words:

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Copenhagen, April 14, 1855.

SIR I have the honor to inform you that I am directed by the President of the United States respectfully to notify your excellency, and through your excellency the government of his majesty the king of Denmark, that, after the expiration of one year from the date of this communication, the United States will regard the general convention of "friendship, commerce, and navigation," agreed upon by Denmark and themselves on the 26th of April, 1826, as finally abrogated, and that after that period its provisions will not be binding upon our government.

This notice is now given in consequence of the recent conversation which I had with your excellency upon the subject of the "sound dues." The very decided and positive manner in which your excellency was pleased to express the opinion that Denmark would never consent to remit those taxes upon the commerce of the United States. without some equivalent granted by them in lieu thereof, has left me no other course to pursue. But, in taking this step, I am especially instructed by the President to express to your excellency his sincere regret at the necessity which has compelled him to give notice of the termination of a convention which has been so mutually advantageous.

Your excellency will allow me to express the hope that, before the end of the approaching year, Denmark will see the justice and propriety of permitting the free vessels of the United States to pursue their commercial ends, upon the open seas, undisturbed by the tributes or arrestations of any power. I shall continue to cherish this hope to the last hour limited for the termination of the convention, and even longer. I beg that your excellency will acknowledge the

receipt of this note at the earliest convenient hour; and I seize the occasion to repeat to your excellency the assurance of my sincere regard and esteem.

His Excellency M. SCHEEL, &c., &c., &c.

HENRY BEDINGER.

On the 18th instant I received an answer to the above note, the original, and also a translation of which, I herewith enclose. It might be inferred, from the concluding portion of this reply, and from the implied threat which it conveys, that this government is further than ever from yielding to our just demands in this matter. But the disposition to resist the payment of the "sound dues" is becoming general among commercial nations, and is increasing every day. I believe the steps resolved upon by the President will be, secretly if not openly, applauded by all those subjected to the payment of those duties; and, although there is in this country, just now, some irritation upon the subject, yet I think that even here the result will prove beneficial to us, and I am not entirely without hope that Denmark will ultimately be induced to abandon the ground she has so long maintained without compelling us to actual resistance.

Several articles have appeared, within the last day or two, in the Danish papers upon the subject. Some of these are being translated; and, if they shall prove of sufficient importance, will be sent you.

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SIR: Conformably to the desire which you expressed to me on the 14th instant, I have the honor to inform you that I received, the same day, 14th April of this year, your communication containing the announcement that the President of the United States has declared the cessation of the treaty of amity, of commerce, and of navigation, concluded the 26th April, 1826, between Denmark and the United States, for the term of ten years, and twelve months additional after the denunciation.

No one can more sincerely than myself, sir, participate your regrets to see thus expire a treaty which has served so long the interests of the citizens of the United States, as well as those of the subjects of the king my august sovereign.

But I am directed to call your attention to the fact that my government cannot understand the connexion which the government of the

United States establishes between the abolition of the sound dues and the above mentioned treaty; which, it is true, regulates the rate at which the tolls should be imposed upon American vessels, but of which the existence and the title to the right itself are, however, equally independent. Nevertheless, as the government of the United States has taken the initiative in the denunciation of the treaty, the government of the king my august sovereign believes itself entitled to hope that propositions will be made to it tending to open the way for the conclusion of a new treaty, calculated, at the same time, to preserve intact the relations of commerce which have, until now, subsisted so happily between the two nations, and to prevent the consequence, equally disagreeable and necessary, of the definitive termination of the existing treaty, namely, that the vessels of the United States would, in their passage through the sound and the belts, be placed upon the same footing with those of the nations to whom no favor is shown, (des nations non favorisées.)

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SIR: Accompanying this dispatch you will find a document in relation to the sound dues, received by me on the 5th instant, from his excellency the minister of foreign affairs for this kingdom.

In the brief note which came with it, his excellency states that the same document is designed to be presented to each of the powers. interested in the affairs of the sound. I send you herewith the original document, and also a translation. You will perceive that the time and place proposed by Denmark for holding the "Congress" which she recommends, are the month of November next and the city of Copenhagen.

After reading the document, I called at once upon the minister and told him that, so far as concerned the United States, I feared he had appointed much too early a day, as it would be almost impossible to transmit his proposition to my government, and to receive instructions relative thereto so early as the month of November, &c. He replied, that he himself would have preferred a later date, but that he had been strenuously urged by several of the powers most interested in the matter, to appoint as early a day as possible. Among those powers, he particularly mentioned England and Prussia, and, I think, Russia and Sweden also, but the two former more emphatically. He added, however, that the United States would have abundant time to act in the matter, as the conference would, doubtless, be continued

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