Mr. Marcy, Sec. of State, to Mr. Parker, Oct. 5, 1855, MS. Inst. China, "Anticipating that an attempt may possibly be made by the Canadian authorities in the coming season to repeat their unneighborly acts toward our fishermen, I recommend you to confer upon the Executive the power to suspend, by proclamation, the operation of the laws authorizing the transit of goods, wares, and merchandise in bond across the territory of the United States to Canada; and further, should such an extreme measure become necessary, to suspend the operation of any laws whereby the vessels of the Dominion of Canada are permitted to enter the waters of the United States." President Grant, annual message, Dec. 5, 1870, For. Rel. 1870, 11. 3. DISPLAY OF FORCE. $ 1091. "The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keeping a respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the maritime war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the neutral navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and depredation. A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag, but without real authority from the Greek or any other Government. The heroic struggles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest sympathies as freemen and Christians have been engaged, have continued to be maintained with vicissitudes of success adver-e and favorable. Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force on the coasts of Peru and Chile, on the Pacific. The irregular and convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to the conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept up for years with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of the American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been under the control of their own Governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any acknowledged principles of international law, have been proclaimed by officers in command, and though disavowed by the supreme authorities, the protection of our own commerce against them has been made cause of complaint and erroneous imputations against some of the most gallant officers of our Navy. Complaints equally groundless have been made by the commanders of the Spanish royal forces in those seas; but the most effective protection to our commerce has been the flag and the firmness of our own commanding officers. The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party and all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled coast of many degrees of latitude forming a part of our own territory and a flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the islands of the Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power of the Union should be displayed under its flag as well the ocean as upon the land." upon President J. Q. Adams, annual message, Dec. 6, 1825, Richardson's Messages, II. 308. When, in 1852, the Japanese authorities refused to protect citizens of the United States visiting or cast ashore in Japan, it was held proper (there being then no treaty protection) to display at Japan an imposing naval force, and to inform the Japanese Government that the Government of the United States will insist upon the protection and hospitality asked for being given. Mr. Conrad, Act. Sec. of State, to Mr. Kennedy, Nov. 5, 1852, MS. Notes, Several citizens of the United States, having been massacred at Jaffa, in January, 1858, and the Turkish Government having taken no efficient measures to bring the assassins to justice, the Secretary of State requested the Secretary of the Navy "that orders may be given to the commanding officer of our squadron in the Mediterranean to put himself in communication with the minister of the United States at Constantinople, and after receiving from him such information as he may require, to repair to Jaffa and to take such measures as may be in his power to induce the Turkish authorities to inflict upon the criminals referred to the punishment which they so richly deserve." Mr. Cass, Sec. of State, to Mr. Toucey, Sec. of Navy, Aug. 10, 1858, 49 MS. Writing to Mr. Beach, American consul-general at Guayaquil, May 1, 1885, with reference to the case of Julio R. Santos, a naturalized citizen of the United States of Ecuadorean origin, who was imprisoned in Ecuador on account of alleged participation in a political uprising, Mr. Bayard said: "This instruction will be handed to you by Commander Mahan, of the U. S. S. Wachusett, who revisits the waters of Ecuador by direction of the Secretary of the Navy for that purpose. Commander Mahan will be instructed to remain within reach pending the prompt disposal of Mr. Santos's case, and, in the probable event of his release, he will be afforded an opportunity to return to the United States on the Wachusett, by way of Panama, should he so desire." Writing on June 17, 1885, on the same subject, Mr. Bayard said: "You will understand that the mission of the Wachusett is one of peace and good will, to the end of exerting the moral influence of our flag toward a discreet and mutually honorable solution, and in the event of Mr. Santos being released, to afford him the means of returning to the country of his allegiance and domicil. The purpose of her presence is not to be deemed minatory; and resort to force is not competently within the scope of her commander's agency. If all form of redress, thus temperately but earnestly solicited, be unhappily denied, it is the constitutional prerogative of Congress to decide and declare what further action shall be taken." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Beach, No. 30, May 1, 1885, For. Rel. 1886, 251, 253; same to same, No. 42, June 17, 1885, id. 262, 266. "It is always expected that the agents of this Department abroad will exercise extreme caution in summoning national war vessels to their aid at critical junctures, especially if there be no practical purpose to be subserved by their presence." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Neill, chargé, No. 168, Nov. 16, 1887, This instruction related to a correspondence between the legation and See, also, Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Sec. of Navy, July 2, 1888, 169 4. USE OF FORCE. (1) WITH SPECIAL AUTHORITY. $ 1092. In 1853 the Government of the United States sent out a naval vessel called the Water Witch to survey the tributaries of the Rio de la Plata and report on the commercial condition of the countries bordering on its waters. Permission was obtained from the Argentine and Brazilian Governments to explore such of the waters as were within their jurisdiction, and the surveys of the Plate, the Paraguay, and the Parana had been in progress about a year and a half when, on January 31, 1855, Lieut. T. J. Page, who was in command of the expedition and who was about to ascend the river Salado, sent Lieut. William N. Jeffers with the Water Witch to ascend the Parana as far as her draft would allow. Lieutenant Jeffers left Corrientes on the 1st of February, and had proceeded only a few miles above the point where the Parana forms the common boundary between Paraguay and the Argentine province of Corrientes when he was hailed and afterwards fired into by the Paraguayan fort of Itapiru. The firing of two blank cartridges by the fort was followed by a shot which carried away the wheel of the Water Witch, cut the ropes, and mortally wounded the helmsman. The Water Witch returned the fire, and the action continued for some minutes. It was admitted that the Paraguayan Government had forbidden foreign men-of-war to enter the waters within its jurisdiction, but it was claimed on the part of the Water Witch that, at the point in the Parana where she was fired on, the channel on the Paraguayan side of the river was the main and only navigable channel; that, as the river at that point formed a common boundary between the Argentine Confederation and Paraguay, the navigation of the channel belonged equally to both countries; and that the Water Witch therefore had a right to navigate it under the license from the Argentine Government, without regard to the Paraguayan prohibition. The other matter was that of the claim of the United States and Paraguay Navigation Company, which, although it had not been presented by the Government of the United States to that of Paraguay, had, it seems, been pressed upon the latter Government by Edward A. Hopkins, a citizen of the United States, with whom the claim originated, and had been adduced by the Paraguayan Government as an obstacle to the exchange of the ratifications of a treaty of amity and commerce which was concluded on March 4, 1853, with a representative of the United States. In his annual message to Congress of December 8, 1857, President Buchanan referred to the case of the Water Witch, and also to the injuries which citizens of the United States were alleged to have suffered by the seizure of their property and otherwise in Paraguay, and stated that a demand for redress would be made in a firm but conciliatory spirit. He also recommended that the Executive be authorized to use "other means in the event of a refusal." By the joint resolution of June 2, 1858, he was authorized to use such measures and such force as might be necessary and advisable in the event of a refusal of the Paraguayan Government to grant redress "in connection with the attack on the U. S. S. Water Witch, and with other matters referred to in the annual message." By the act of June 12, 1858, the sum of $10,000 was appropriated for the expenses of a commissioner to Paraguay in execution of the joint resolution. On September 9, 1858, Mr. James B. Bowlin, of Missouri, was appointed special commissioner to Paraguay. In his annual message of December 6, 1858, President Buchanan announced to Congress that Mr. Bowlin had proceeded to Paraguay, and that, in view of the contingency that his efforts to obtain just satisfaction might be unsuccessful, the Secretary of the Navy had fitted out and dispatched a naval force to rendezvous near Buenos Ayres. The frigate Sabine, under Commodore Shubrick, to whom the command of the expedition was entrusted, left New York with Mr. Bowlin on October 17, 1858, and arrived in the river Plate on the 18th of December, finding mot of the vessels comprising the expedition already there. On the 30th of the same month Mr. Bowlin and Commodore Shubrick left Montevideo with the steamers Fulton and Water Witch, and on January 25, 1859, arrived at Ascuncion. On February 10 Mr. Bowlin took leave of the President of Paraguay, and a week later set out for the United States. In his annual message to Congress of December 19, 1859, President Buchanan announced that "all our difficulties" with Paraguay had been "satisfactorily adjusted." At the same time he stated that the entire cost of the expedition had been defrayed out of the ordinary appropriations for the naval service, except the sum of $289,000 applied to the purchase of seven steamers, which were believed to be worth more than their cost, and which were then actively employed in the naval service, and that the appear.... ance of so large a force in the distant waters of the Plate and the admirable conduct of the officers and men employed in it had had “ a happy effect in favor of our country throughout all that remote portion of the world." In the case of the Water Witch Mr. Bowlin obtained ample apologies" and the payment of $10,000 for the family of the seaman who was killed at the wheel. He also concluded, on February 4, 1859, a treaty of amity and commerce, which included a stipulation for the free navigation of the river Paraguay. For the settlement of the claims of the United States and Paraguay Navigation Company he signed a treaty of arbitration. The commission organized under this treaty decided that the claims of the company were unfounded. Moore, Int. Arbitrations, II. 1485, chap 32; annual messages of President |