Paper presented by Belva A. Lockwood

PAPER

PRESENTED BY

BELVA A. LOCKWOOD,

OF ce D.C.

ae Tne

CONGRESS OF LAW REFORM

+> AND THE <~—

aril: FIFTH Garr

International Peace Congress,

Held under the auspices of the

World's Columbian Congress Auriliary,

inl CHICAGO: 1s,

AUGUST 7 AND 14, 1893.

Pe males AS (~~


















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The following proposition was accepted by the Organ-
izing Committee for the Convention on Law Reform, and
by the International Peace Bureau at Berne, for discus-
sion at the Fifth International Congress :

AN INTERNATIONAL
ARBITRATION COURT

AND A

CONGRESS OF NATIONS,

0





WHEREAS, Governments are instituted among men for the
protection of life and property ; and

WHEREAS, The greatest loss of life and property occurs dur-
wg a war, either foreign or civil; and

WHEREAS, Such wars have always left the question at issue
unsettled, to be arbitrated and disposed of later, so that war
virtually settles nothing ; and

WHEREAS, The whole trend of the Constitution of the United
States is eminently that of peace and neutrality, and virtually
forbids a war for conquest—a sentiment adopted in the Pan-
American Congress by all the American States except Chilt ; and

Wuereas, The Government of the United States has hereto-
fore settled 300 distinet difficulties with the various nations of
the world that might have led to war, by arbitration, without
recourse to war, thus showing conclusively that all difficulties
between nations may be arbitrated, or settled judicially ; and

WHEREAS, The judicial method is eminently the civilized and
Christian method—saving human Ife, and avoiding those
intense national hatreds that often extend through many gen-
erations ; and


2

~Wuereas, The United States Government has always been
foremost, heretofore, in arbitrations, and in a position to make
overtures to the governments of the world, without impairing
her national dignity ; therefore,

BE 1t RESOLVED BY THIS INTERNATIONAL ConGREss, That
we earnestly request the Congress of the United States, who alone
have the power to declare war, that they empower the President
of the United States to make overtures to the governments of the
world, with whom they are in treaty relations, for the purpose
of establishing a permanent International Arbitration Court,
wn which all difficulties that may hereafter arise between such
nations may be settled judicially, without recourse to war ; and
Further, that the President of the United States be empowered
to call, as soon as practicable, a Congress of Nations for this
purpose.



O



Shall we have this International Arbitration Court ?

This question is not new to our peace friends, either in
America or in Hurope, the problem having been under discus-
sion by our societies in this country for at least twenty years;
and expressions of opinion upon it, with ways and means for its
accomplishment, have been exchanged with our Kuropean peace
friends for at least as many years last past.

The efforts of the friends of peace on both sides of the Atlan-
_ tie for the suppression of the African slave trade away back in
the fifties, in which Wendell Phillips, Wm. Lloyd Garrison,
Parker Pillsbury, Lucretia Mott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and
other brave spirits, figured with such eminent distinction; and
their coadjutors in Great Britain and France, followed by our
treaties with Great Britain for this purpose of June 7, 1862,
the Annex of April 7, 1862, the Additional Treaty of July 1,
1863, proclaimed March 5, 1864, the second Additional Treaty
of June 8, 1870, with the Annex, containing instructions to
seize and search any American or British vessel engaged in, or
suspected of being engaged in, the African slave trade, together

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3

with the final treaty or general act between the United States
of America, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark,
Spain, the Independent States of the Congo, the French Re-
public, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Persia, Portugal,
Russia, Sweden and Norway, the Ottoman Empire and Zan-
zibar, including 41 nationalities, banded together for this pur-
pose; and the restriction of the importation into and sale of,
within a certain defined zone of the African Continent, of fire-
arms, ammunition and spirituous liquors, a question agitated
so extensively by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union,
and which was finally ratified at Washington by Benjamin
Harrison, April 2, 1892, with Jas. G. Blaine as Secretary ;

~The Treaty of Washington, relative to Claims, Fisheries,
Navigation of the St. Lawrence, &c., American lumber on the
river St. John and boundaries; referred to a High Joint Com-
mission to settle the difficulties between the United States and
Great Britain after our late civil war, resulting finally in what
was known as The Alabama Claims Commission, the merits of
which were determined by that memorable conference at
Geneva, in which our friend and colleague Alfred H. Love
played so important a part, by first suggesting the Commission
to settle the difficulties, and then with other members of the
Peace Society, when the settlement had been agreed upon,
sending to the Commission in commemoration of that occasion
that notable Peace Plow, which still graces that immortal
chamber where this Commission held its sessions in the ancient
Hotel de Ville, concluded May 8, 1871, and proclaimed July
4, 1871;

The Convention at Brussels, of the United States with 40
other American and European States, July 5, 1890, for the
formation of an International Union, for the publication of cus-
toms tariffs, including in its deliberations 41 nationalities who

were able to agree upon these questions; proclaimed December

17, (L390 ; |
The Convention between the United States and Belgium,


oe

Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Servia, Spain and the Swiss Confedera-
tion, for the international exchange of Official Documents, Sci-
entific and Literary Publications, concluded at Brussels March
15, 1886, and proclaimed January 15, 1889, by Grover Cleve-
land, with T. F. Bayard, Secretary of State, show conclusively
that aggregations of nations, or of their representatives, may be
joined together for mutual benefit, or for the repression of
mutual ills, antagonistic to the best interests of humanity, as
was especially shown by the recent Convention in Brussels for
the suppression of the cholera, and the promise of a prompt
signal to each government of any sign of the dread disease
within its borders ; as well as the results finally attained by the
persistent efforts of the friends of any important reform.

The Sherman resolution of June 5, 1888, not fully enacted
into law, on account of a technicality, until February 14, 1890,
was the outcome of an agitation begun in the first instance by
the Universal Peace Union and the National Arbitration League,
and was, in 1887, drafted by the author of this paper, and
introduced into the Senate of the United States April 9, 1888,
read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations,
as follows:

Be vt enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States in Congress assembled, That the President of
the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized and directed
to institute negotiations with the Governments of Great Britain
and France for the purpose of creating a permanent tribunal |
for international arbitration, whereby all difficulties, differences
and disputes between the United States and these nations may
be promptly, peaceably and amicably settled.

Sec. 2. That the sum of $50,000, or so much thereof as may
be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the
treasury not otherwise appropriated, to defray the necessary
expenses of such negotiations.

This bill had for its backing a memorial from the Society
Friends, from Richmond, Ind., led by Augustine Jones, Wm.

G. Hubbard and Hannah W. Blackburn, and was presented by
Barnabas Hobbs and Dr. J. C. Thomas, who were granted a
5

hearing before the Senate Committee, and later by memorials
from all the yearly meetings of Friends in this country and
Kurope; of the ministers of the Congregational Church of Bos-
ton, led by the Rev. Henry J. Patrick and Willis D. Leland;
a communication from W. R. Cremer, M. P., of London, con-
taining the opinions of many English peers and bishops upon the
question of International Arbitration, together with an English
Committee, headed by Sir Wm. Jones, Cremer and others,
bearing a petition signed by 232 members of the British Parlia-
ment; petitions from the citizens of Massachusetts, led by Oliver
Ames and others; petitions from the citizens of Maine, New
Hampshire, New York, California and Kansas; together with
resolutions from the General Court of Massachusetts. To this
was added by the writer of this paper, a memorial sent from
France, containing the names of 112 members of the Chamber
of Deputies, headed by Fredric Passy, Yves Guyot, M. Barodet,
&c., and 16 members of the French Senate, with the resolutions
of five French Societies of Peace. There was also a petition
with the names of Alfred Love, Amanda Deyo, Levi K. Joslin,
Daniel Hill, David Dudley Field, Belva A. Lockwood, Elias
Underhill, Andrew Carnegie, Abram 8. Hewitt, Charles A.
Peabody, Dorman B. Haton, and Morris K. Jessup; and the
‘latter named personages had a hearing on this question before
the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

I have thus particularized about this bill because it was an
educational campaign by these three great nations—the United
States, Great Britain and France for a higher civilization than
the rule of brute force that had so largely heretofore governed
the nations of the world—and it culminated in what has since
been known as the Sherman resolution, which reads thus:

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
February 14, 1890.

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives con-
curring) That the President be, and is hereby requested to
invite, from time to time, as fit occasion may arise, negotiations
with any government with which the United States has, or may


6

have, diplomatic relations, to the end that any difference or
disputes arising between the two governments which cannot be
adjusted by diplomatic agency, may be referred to arbitration,

and be peaceably adjusted by such means.
Anson G. McCook,
Attest : Secretary.

This joint resolution, secured with so much effort, and com-
prehending such vast possibilities, remained for a time compara-
tively inert on the statute book, President Harrison declaring
that the resolution conferred no new powers on the President,

until succeeding legislation, ‘which also had its origin in the

efforts of the Universal Peace Union, and the National Arbi-
tration League, galvanized it into life.

This was the assembling of the ever immortal Pan-American
Congress, called in the first instance by James G. Blaine, during
the Garfield administration; the invitations being recalled by
his successor, Secretary Freelinghuysen, after Garfield’s death,
and revived later and enacted into law by the bill of Jas. B.
McCreary, of Kentucky, then Chairman of the Committee on
Foreign Relations for the House. This also was the outcome
of the efforts of the National Arbitration League, of Washing-
ton, in which Jacob M. Troth, Isaac Gibson, Frederick Stanton,

Dr. T. M. Bland, and other noted peace men worked, together:

with the writer of this paper, and who first proposed what then
seemed to be chimerical, but now eminently practical, a conven-
tion of the nations of the world. The compromise for the Con-
vention of the American Nations was finally reluctantly accepted,
and this Congress was held in the winter of 1889 and 1890.
The resolutions of this memorable Congress, which will always
form a page in history, and which continued in session for six
months, is familiar to you all; and especially so is that grand
enunciation which marked the close of their deliberations, run-
ning thus: “Hereafter it shall be a feature of American Public
Law, that all differences between American States shall be set-
_ tled by arbitration.” The denial of the right of conquest; and
finally the invitation to the civilized world to join with them

en a i a a a ata


v

in a permanent treaty of arbitration. This treaty was promptly
signed by all of the contracting parties except Chili, and was
promptly ratified by eleven of the South American States.

This Congress closed its sessions April 18, 1890, but the in-
vitations to the European nations were not sent out until 1892.

This invitation was promptly accepted by Switzerland, be-
tween whom and the United States there had long existed an
accepted, but unratified treaty. This treaty of permanent arbi-
tration with the United States was ratified by the Danish Par-
liament on ths 21st of last November, through the efforts of our
indefatigable peace friend, and President of the International
Peace Bureau, Fredric Bajer. It has been tacitly accepted by
the English House of Commons through the indomitable efforts
of our Parliamentary friend W. R. Cremer, who backed his reso-
lution of acceptance, with a petition with the names of nearly
100,000 Englishmen, and was gratified not only with the approval
of a majority of the House of Commons, but of Mr. Gladstone
as well. Our little unpleasantness with Great Britain about
the seals in Bearing Sea, may retard for a time the ratification
of this treaty, but it is sure to come.

The earnest efforts of our dear dead friend, Chas. Lemonnier in
Paris, and my own efforts in Washington to secure a permanent
treaty of arbitration between the United States and France, in
1888, 1889 and 1890, (may not be known to many of you,) in
which each nation waited in its dignity for the party of the
other part to make the overtures, while the technicality in the
Sherman resolution made it inoperative, but the record of
that effort is in the archives of the State Department at Wash-
ington, and in Paris.

It was during these negotiations that Chas Lemonnier pre-
pared an elaborate treatise on an International Arbitration
Court; the greatest ambition of his long and useful life, and
also a draft of the proposed treaty. During those negotiations
the Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, preferred the form of the
21st Article of our Treaty with Mexico, known in history as

he Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, while Mr. Lemonnier and


8

the French people preferred the form adopted between the
United States and Switzerland. But the Pan-American Con-

gress formulated a new treaty which has thus far been adopted —

by the contracting powers, and it was to have been hoped that
ere this, through the earnestness and eloquence of M. Trarieux
of the French Senate, that this treaty would have been ratified.
But France has been busy with the Panama affair, and we hope
for this ratification later on.

All of the members of the Parliamentary conference at Berne,
‘on the 31st of August, 1892, pledged themselves that when they
returned to their homes, and to their respective parliaments,
that they would introduce resolutions asking their governments
to accept this invitation, and adopt the treaty. Pursuant to
this pledge, it has been called up and discussed in the Italian
Parliament by our earnest friend Marquis Pandolphi; in the
Spanish Senate by our long time friend Arturo de Marcoartu ;
in the Lowlands by M. Rahusen, &c.

These are some of the preparations for the International
Arbitration Court. Our Spanish friend St. Charles de Arm-
strong, in an elaborate treatise formulated a plan for this court
in 1890, Fredric Passy in 1891, the Marquis Pandolphi in 1892,
and Hodgson Pratt, who has made this question almost a life
study, during the same year, also our Italian friend, 8. Angelo
Mazzoleni and more recently Sir Edmond Hornby. The first
work however of this sort to which our attention was brought,
was that of Leoni Levy, of Switzerland, in 1887-8. The ques-
tion of an International Arbitration Court, by which all difh-
culties between nations may be settled juridically, without
recourse to arms, has absorbed the attention of the most learned
jurists of our time.

Tue USES OF THIS CoURT.

1. It will save thousands of human lives.
2. It will save money and property ; the destruction of records
that can not be replaced.

SES




p

3. It will save the sacking of towns, the murder of innocent
women and children, the burning of valuable libraries, churches,
and schools.

4. It will save national and international hates and animosi-
ties that last through generations, and which often survive the
remembrance of their cause.

5. It will lead to the disbandment of armies that are now
eating up the bread and sustenance of the common people, and
will restore them to wealth, happiness and thrift.

6. It will do away with judicial murders that have for so
many centuries deluged the countries of the world in blood, to
gratify the whim or caprice of perhaps a few arrogant rulers,
while civilization, christianity, and humanity turn backward to
gather up again the raveled threads of the progress of the past.

Not prepared yet for peace, do you say? ‘The law has been
elaborated, the framework built, and already has our own Gov-
ernment of the United States entered into three hundred dis-
tinct treaties of arbitration, running through all of the various
difficulties that may arise between nations, without resort to
war. Already has the wisdom of our rulers avoided three hun-
dred wars by arbitration. The numbers amount to more than
an exception. It has become a rule. ~The times, civilization,
christianity, humanity, demand it. The times are ripe for it.

The permanent International Arbitration Court will be as
great an improvement on the temporary arbitration court, which
is every now and then being established to meet individual cases,
as the circuit or district court in our country is above the
common justice’s court. It will be the product of thought, of
experience, of elaboration. It will be composed of broad minded,
cultured men, well read in international law, and above the
petty intrigues, passions, or national bias, and in the interest of
the largest justice and humanity; and one in which the rights
of the smallest nation whose interests are considered will be as
secure as those of the largest and most powerful. The element
of brute force will be done away with as a motive power, and




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every foreigner in every country will feel the protecting influence
of this court. |

What more opportune time than this, at the gathering of this
great congress, represented by the finest legal minds of the
world, to pass this resolution, and to set in motion the wheels
of a movement that shall revolutionize all that has hitherto
been considered as constituting the grandeur of a nation, viz:
her ability to make conquests; and to establish the principle
that hereafter peace arid arbitration shall rule the destinies of
the world. |

It will be the reform of all reforms; the highest law and the
highest court in the universe, evolved, and elaborated during
the continuance of this great exposition, controlled and directed
as it is by such men as Bonney, Davis and Peabody ; and such
women as Mrs. Bertha M. Palmer, Myra Bradwell and others;
and in which is displayed all of the God-like propensities of
man, viz: that which constitutes his thought, life, his skill,
his mechanism, his science, his art, his humanity. :

Tt will be a crowning outcome for this international gather-
ing, that will make it memorable for centuries to come, and
the whole universe will be the better for our having lived in it.

Wasuineton, D.C., August 1, 1892.