Reverdy Johnson to William H. Seward, October 17, 1868

Mr. Johnson to Mr. Seward

Sir: I am glad to tell you that I have this day signed with Lord Stanley a protocol for the settlement, by arbitration, of the northwest boundary controversy. By the first article the arbiter is “to determine what is the line which,” according to the terms of the treaty of the 15th of June, 1846, “runs southerly through the middle of the channel which separates the continent from Vancouver’s island and of Fuca’s straits to the Pacific ocean.”

By the second, if the arbiter shall be unable to determine what is such line, he is then to decide “upon some line which,” in his opinion, “will furnish an equitable solution of the difficulty, and be the nearest approximation that can be made to an accurate construction of the words of the treaty.”

By the fourth, the decision of the arbiter, whatever it may be under the authority conferred upon him, is agreed to be final and conclusive upon both governments.

By the third, in the discharge of his duty the arbiter is given the right to consult all correspondence which has been had between the two governments on the subject, and all the evidence or other matters which were before the commissioners heretofore appointed to run the line, and all evidence that either government may produce.

By the first, the arbiter, who is to be some friendly sovereign or state, is to be selected by the two governments within three months after the ratification of the convention.

Not being authorized to make this arrangement at once operative because of the restrictions contained in your modified instructions in your dispatch No. 20, of the 23d of September, it is provided that the convention is not to be final until the naturalization question is conclusively settled by treaty or act of Parliament, or both, unless the two governments in the interval shall otherwise agree. The subject-matters of the submission, you will see, are those contained in Lord Lyons’s dispatch to Secretary Cass, of the 10th of December, 1860, and which, as I understand by your original instructions to me in dispatch No. 2, of the 20th of July, 1868, I was authorized to consent to.

The protocol accompanies this dispatch, and I hope that it will receive the sanction of the President and yourself.

This matter having been disposed of, I am to have an interview with Lord Stanley on Tuesday next, to commence negotiating as to what is known as the Alabama claims question, and I believe that I shall be able at an early day to communicate to you a satisfactory adjustment of it.

I have the honor to remain, with high regard, your obedient servant,