TREATIES AND OTHER
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1776-1949
Compiled under the direction of
CHARLES I. BEVANS, LL.B.
Assistant Legal Adviser, Department of State
Volume 11
PHILIPPINES
UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC
SPAIN
FRIENDSHIP, LIMITS, AND NAVIGATION
Treaty signed at San Lorenzo el Real October 27, 1795
Senate advice and consent to ratification March 3,1796
Ratified by the President of the United States March 7,1796
Ratified by Spain April 25,1796
Ratifications exchanged at Aranjuez April 25,1796
Entered into force April 25,1796
Proclaimed by the President of the United States August 2,1796
Articles II, III, IV, and XXI and second clause of article XXII invalidated by
treaty February 22,1819
Terminated April 14,1903, by treaty of July 3,1902
8 Stat. 138; Treaty Series 325
His Catholic Majesty and the United States of America desiring to consolidate on
a permanent basis the Friendship and good correspondence which happily prevails
between the two parties, have determined to establish by a convention several
points, the settlement whereof will be productive of general advantage and
reciprocal utility to both Nations.
With this intention his Catholic Majesty has appointed the most Excellent Lord,
Don Manuel de Godoy, and Alvarez de Faria, Rios, Sanchez Zarzosa, Prince de la
Paz, Duke de la Alcudia, Lord of the Soto de Roma and of the State of Albala,
Grandee of Spain of the first class, perpetual Regidor of the City of Santiago,
Knight of the illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece, and Great Cross of the
Royal and distinguished Spanish order of Charles the III. Commander of Valencia
del Ventoso, Rivera, and Aceuchal in that of Santiago; Knight and Great Cross of
the religious order of St. John; Counsellor of State; First Secretary of State
and Despacho; Secretary to the Queen; Superintendant General of the Posts and
High Ways; Protector of the Royal Academy of the Noble Arts, and of the Royal
Societies of natural history, Botany, Chemistry, and Astronomy: Gentleman of the
King's Chamber in employement: Captain General of his Armies: Inspector and
Major of the Royal Corps of Body Guards &.a &.a &.a and the President of the
United States, -with the advice and consent of their Senate, has appointed
Thomas Pinckney a Citizen of the United States, and their Envoy Extraordinary to
his Catholic Majesty. And the said Plenipotentiaries have agreed upon and
concluded the following Articles.
ART. I
There shall be a firm and inviolable Peace and sincere Friendship between His
Catholic Majesty his successors and subjects, and the United States and their
Citizens without exception of persons or places.
ART. II
To prevent all disputes on the subject of the boundaries which separate the
territories of the two High contracting Parties, it is hereby declared and
agreed as follows: to wit: The Southern boundary of the United States which
divides their territory from the Spanish Colonies of East and West Florida,
shall be designated by a line beginning on the River Mississippi at the
Northermost[sic] part of the thirty first degree of latitude North of the
Equator, which from thence shall be drawn due East to the middle of the River
Apalachicola or Catahouche, thence along the middle thereof to its junction with
the Flint, thence straight to the head of St. Mary's River, and thence down the
middle thereof to the Atlantic Ocean. And it is agreed that if there should be
any troops, Garrisons or settlements of either Party in the territory of the
other according to the above mentioned boundaries, they shall be withdrawn from
the said territory within the term of six months after the ratification of this
treaty or sooner if it be possible and that they shall be permitted to take with
them all the goods and effects which they possess.
ART. III
In order to carry the preceding Article into effect one Commissioner and one
Surveyor shall be appointed by each of the contracting Parties who shall meet at
the Natchez on the left side of the River Mississippi before the expiration of
six months from the ratification of this convention, and they shall proceed to
run and mark this boundary according to the stipulations of the said Article.
They shall make Plats and keep journals of their proceedings which shall be
considered as part of this convention, and shall have the same force as if they
were inserted therein. And if on any account it should be found necessary that
the said Commissioners and Surveyors should be accompanied by Guards, they shall
be furnished in equal proportions by the Commanding Officer of his Majesty's
troops in the two Floridas, and the Commanding Officer of the troops of the
United States in their Southwestern territory, who shall act by common consent
and amicably, as well with respect to this point as to the furnishing of
provissions and instruments and making every other arrangement which may be
necessary or useful for the execution of this article.
ART. IV
It is likewise agreed that the Western boundary of the United States which
separates them from the Spanish Colony of Louisiana, is in the middle of the
channel or bed of the River Mississippi from the Northern boundary of the said
States to the completion of the thirty first degree of latitude North of the
Equator; and his Catholic Majesty has likewise agreed that the navigation of the
said River in its whole breadth from its source to the Ocean shall be free only
to his Subjects, and the Citizens of the United States, unless he should extend
this privilege to the Subjects of other Powers by special convention.
ART. V
The two High contracting Parties shall by all the means in their power maintain
peace and harmony among the several Indian Nations who inhabit the country
adjacent to the lines and Rivers which by the preceding Articles form the
boundaries of the two Floridas; and the better to obtain this effect both
Parties oblige themselves expressly to restrain by force all hostilities on the
part of the Indian Nations living within their boundaries: so that Spain will
not suffer her Indians to attack the Citizens of the United States, nor the
Indians inhabiting their territory; nor will the United States permit these last
mentioned Indians to commence hostilities against the Subjects of his Catholic
Majesty, or his Indians in any manner whatever.
And whereas several treaties of Friendship exist between the two contracting
Parties and the said Nations of Indians, it is hereby agreed that in future no
treaty of alliance or other whatever (except treaties of Peace) shall be made by
either Party with the Indians living within the boundary of the other; but both
Parties will endeavour to make the advantages of the Indian trade common and
mutualy beneficial to their respective Subjects and Citizens observing in all
things the most complete reciprocity: so that both Parties may obtain the
advantages arising from a good understanding with the said Nations, without
being subject to the expence which they have hitherto occasioned.
ART. VI
Each Party shall endeavour by all means in their power to protect and defend all
Vessels and other effects belonging to the Citizens or Subjects of the other,
which shall be within the extent of their jurisdiction by sea or by land, and
shall use all their efforts to recover and cause to be restored to the right
owners their Vessels and effects which may have been taken from them within the
extent of their said jurisdiction whether they are at war or not with the Power
whose Subjects have taken possession of the said effects.
ART. VII
And it is agreed that the Subjects or Citizens of each of the contracting
Parties, their Vessels, or effects shall not be liable to any embargo or
detention on the part of the other for any military expedition or other public
or private purpose whatever; and in all cases of seizure, detention, or arrest
for debts contracted or offenses committed by any Citizen or Subject of the one
Party within the jurisdiction of the other, the same shall be made and
prosecuted by order and authority of law only, and according to the regular
course of proceedings usual in such cases. The Citizens and Subjects of both
Parties shall be allowed to employ such Advocates, Sollicitors, Notaries,
Agents, and Factors, as they may judge proper in all their affairs and in all
their trials at law in which they may be concerned before the tribunals of the
other Party, and such Agents shall have free access to be present at the
proceedings in such causes, and at the taking of all examinations and evidence
which may be exhibited in the said trials.
ART. VIII
In case the Subjects and inhabitants of either Party with their shipping whether
public and of war or private and of merchants be forced through stress of
weather, pursuit of Pirates, or Enemies, or any other urgent necessity for
seeking of shelter and harbor to retreat and enter into any of the Rivers, Bays,
Roads, or Ports belonging to the other Party, they shall be received and treated
with all humanity, and enjoy all favor, protection and help, and they shall be
permitted to refresh and provide themselves at reasonable rates with victuals
and all things needful for the sustenance of their persons or reparation of
their Ships, and prosecution of their voyage; and they shall no ways be hindered
from returning out of the said Ports, or Roads, but may remove and depart when
and whither they please without any let or hindrance.
ART. IX
All Ships and merchandise of what nature soever which shall be rescued out of
the hands of any Pirates or Robbers on the high seas shall be brought into some
Port of either State and shall be delivered to the custody of the Officers of
that Port in order to be taken care of and restored entire to the true
proprietor as soon as due and sufficient proof shall be made concerning the
property there of.
ART. X
When any Vessel of either Party shall be wrecked, foundered, or otherwise
damaged on the coasts or within the dominion of the other, their respective
Subjects or Citizens shall receive as well for themselves as for their Vessels
and effects the same assistance which would be due to the inhabitants of the
Country where the damage happens, and shall pay the same charges and dues only
as the said inhabitants would be subject to pay in a like case: and if the
operations of repair should require that the whole or any part of the cargo be
unladen they shall pay no duties, charges, or fees on the part which they shall
relade and carry away.
ART. XI
The Citizens and Subjects of each Party shall have power to dispose of their
personal goods within the jurisdiction of the other by testament, donation, or
otherwise; and their representatives being Subjects or Citizens of the other
Party shall succeed to their said personal goods, whether by testament or ab
intestato and they may take possession thereof either by themselves or others
acting for them, and dispose of the same at their will paying such dues only as
the inhabitants of the Country wherein the said goods are shall be subject to
pay in like cases, and in case of the absence of the representatives, such care
shall be taken of the said goods as would be taken of the goods of a native in
like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for receiving them. And if
question shall arise among several claimants to which of them the said goods
belong the same shall be decided finally by the laws and Judges of the Land
wherein the said goods are. And where on the death of any person holding real
estate within the territories of the one Party, such real estate would by the
laws of the Land descend on a Citizen or Subject of the other were he not
disqualified by being an alien, such subject shall be allowed a reasonable time
to sell the same and to withdraw the proceeds without molestation, and exempt
from all rights of detraction on the part of the Government of the respective
states.
ART. XII
The merchant Ships of either of the Parties which shall be making into a Port
belonging to the enemy of the other Party and concerning whose voyage and the
species of goods on board her there shall be just grounds of suspicion shall be
obliged to exhibit as well upon the high seas as in the Ports and havens not
only her passports but likewise certificates expressly showing that her goods
are not of the number of those which have been prohibited as contraband.
ART. XIII
For the better promoting of commerce on both sides, it is agreed that if a war
shall break out between the said two Nations one year after the proclamation of
war shall be allowed to the merchants in the Cities and Towns where they shall
live for collecting and transporting their goods and merchandizes, and if any
thing be taken from them, or any injury be done them within that term by either
Party, or the People or Subjects of either, full satisfaction shall be made for
the same by the Government.
ART. XIV
No subject of his Catholic Majesty shall apply for or take any commission or
letters of marque for arming any Ship or Ships to act as Privateers against the
said United States or against the Citizens, People, or inhabitants of the said
United States, or against the property of any of the inhabitants of any of them,
from any Prince or State with which the said United States shall be at war.
Nor shall any Citizen, Subject, or Inhabitant of the said United States apply
for or take any commission or letters of marque for arming any Ship or Ships to
act as Privateers against the subjects of his Catholic Majesty or the property
of any of them from any Prince or State with which the said King shall be at
war. And if any person of either Nation shall take such commissions or letters
of marque he shall be punished as a Pirate.
ART. XV
It shall be lawful for all and singular the Subjects of his Catholic Majesty,
and the Citizens People, and inhabitants of the said United States to sail with
their Ships with all manner of liberty and security, no distinction being made
who are the proprietors of the merchandizes laden thereon from any Port to the
Places of those who now are or hereafter shall be at enmity with his Catholic
Majesty or the United States. It shall be likewise lawful for the Subjects and
inhabitants aforesaid to sail with the Ships and merchandizes aforementioned,
and to trade with the same liberty and security from the Places, Ports, and
Havens of those who are Enemies of both or either Party without any opposition
or disturbance whatsoever, not only directly from the Places of the Enemy
aforementioned to neutral Places but also from one Place belonging to an Enemy
to another Place belonging to an Enemy, whether they be under the jurisdiction
of the same Prince or under several, and it is hereby stipulated that Free Ships
shall also give freedom to goods, and that every thing shall be deemed free and
exempt which shall be found on board the Ships belonging to the Subjects of
either of the contracting Parties although the whole lading or any part thereof
should appertain to the Enemies of either; contraband goods being always
excepted. It is also agreed that the same liberty be extended to persons who are
on board a free Ship, so that, although they be Enemies to either Party they
shall not be made Prisoners or taken out of that free Ship unless they are
Soldiers and in actual service of the Enemies.
ART. XVI
This liberty of navigation and commerce shall extend to all kinds of
merchandizes excepting those only which are distinguished by the name of
contraband; and under this name of contraband or prohibited goods shall be
comprehended arms, great guns, bombs, with the fusees, and other things
belonging to them, cannon ball, gun powder, match, pikes, swords, lances,
speards, halberds, mortars, petards, grenades, salpetre, muskets, musket ball,
bucklers, helmets, breast plates, coats of mail, and the like kind of arms
proper for arming soldiers, musket rests, belts, horses with their furniture and
all other warlike instruments whatever. These merchandizes which follow shall
not be reckoned among contraband or prohibited goods; that is to say, all sorts
of cloths and all other manufactures woven of any wool, flax, silk, cotton, or
any other materials whatever, all kinds of wearing aparel together with all
species whereof they are used to be made, gold and silver as well coined as
uncoined, tin, iron, latton, copper, brass, coals, as also wheat, barley, oats,
and any other kind of corn and pulse: tobacco and likewise all manner of spices,
salted and smoked flesh, salted fish, cheese and butter, beer, oils, wines,
sugars, and all sorts of salts, and in general all provisions which serve for
the sustenance of life. Furthermore all kinds of cotton, hemp, flax, tar, pitch,
ropes, cables, sails, sail cloths, anchors, and any parts of anchors, also ships
masts, planks, wood of all kind, and all other things proper either for building
or repairing ships, and all other goods whatever which have not been worked into
the form of any instrument prepared for war by land or by sea, shall not be
reputed contraband, much less such as have been already wrought and made up for
any other use: all which shall be wholly reckoned among free goods, as likewise
all other merchandizes and things which are not comprehended and particularly
mentioned in the foregoing enumeration of contraband goods: so that they may be
transported and carried in the freest manner by the subjects of both parties,
even to Places belonging to an Enemy, such towns or Places being only excepted
as are at that time besieged, blocked up, or invested. And except the cases in
which any Ship of war or Squadron shall in consequence of storms or other
accidents at sea be under the necessity of taking the cargo of any trading
Vessel or Vessels, in which case they may stop the said Vessel or Vessels and
furnish themselves with necessaries, giving a receipt in order that the Power to
whom the said ship of war belongs may pay for the articles so taken according to
the price thereof at the Port to which they may appear to have been destined by
the Ship's papers: and the two contracting Parties engage that the Vessels shall
not be detained longer than may be absolutely necessary for their said Ships to
supply themselves with necessaries: that they will immediately pay the value of
the receipts: and indemnify the proprietor for all losses which he may have
sustained in consequence of such transaction.
ART. XVII
To the end that all manner of dissensions and quarrels may be avoided and
prevented on one side and the other, it is agreed that in case either of the
Parties hereto should be engaged in a war, the ships and Vessels belonging to
the Subjects or People of the other Party must be furnished with sea letters or
passports expressing the name, property, and bulk of the Ship, as also the name
and place of habitation of the master or commander of the said Ship, that it may
appear thereby that the Ship really and truly belongs to the Subjects of one of
the Parties; which passport shall be made out and granted according to the form
annexed to this Treaty. They shall likewise be recalled every year, that is, if
the ship happens to return home within the space of a year. It is likewise
agreed that such ships being laden, are to be provided not only with passports
as above mentioned but also with certificates containing the several particulars
of the cargo, the place whence the ship sailed, that so it may be known whether
any forbidden or contraband goods be on board the same; which certificates shall
be made out by the Officers of the place whence the ship sailed in the
accustomed form; and if any one shall think it fit or adviseable to express in
the said certificates the person to whom the goods on board belong he may freely
do so: without which requisites they may be sent to one of the Ports of the
other contracting Party and adjudged by the competent tribunal according to what
is above set forth, that all the circumstances of this omission having been well
examined, they shall be adjudged to be legal prizes, unless they shall give
legal satisfaction of their property by testimony entirely equivalent.
ART. XVIII
If the Ships of the said subjects, People or inhabitants of either of the
Parties shall be met with either sailing along the Coasts on the high Seas by
any Ship of war of the other or by any Privateer, the said Ship of war or
Privateer for the avoiding of any disorder shall remain out of cannon shot, and
may send their boats aboard the merchant Ship which they shall so meet with, and
may enter her to number of two or three men only to whom the master or Commander
of such ship or vessel shall exhibit his passports concerning the property of
the ship made out according to the form inserted in this present Treaty: and the
ship when she shall have shewed such passports shall be free and at liberty to
pursue her voyage, so as it shall not be lawful to molest or give her chace in
any manner or firce her to quit her intended course.
ART. XIX
Consuls shall be reciprocally established with the privileges and powers which
those of the most favoured Nations enjoy in the Ports where their consuls
reside, or are permitted to be.
ART. XX
It is also agreed that the inhabitants of the territories of each Party shall
respectively have free access to the Courts of Justice of the other, and they
shall be permitted to prosecute suits for the recovery of their properties, the
payment of their debts, and for obtaining satisfaction for the damages which
they may have sustained, whether the persons whom they may sue be subjects or
Citizens of the Country in which they may be found, or any other persons
whatsoever who may have taken refuge therein; and the proceedings and sentence
of the said Court shall be the same as if the contending parties had been
subjects or Citizens of the said Country.
ART. XXI
In order to terminate all differences on account of the losses sustained by the
Citizens of the United States in consequence of their vessels and cargoes having
been taken by the Subjects of his Catholic Majesty during the late war between
Spain and France, it is agreed that all such cases shall be referred to the
final decision of Commissioners to be appointed in the following manner. His
Catholic Majesty shall name one Commissioner, and the President of the United
States by and with the advice and consent of their Senate shall appoint another,
and the said two Commissioners shall agree on the choice of a third, or if they
cannot agree so they shall each propose one person, and of the two names so
proposed one shall be drawn by lot in the presence of the two original
Commissioners, and the person whose name shall be so drawn shall be the third
Commissioner, and the three Commissioners so appointed shall be sworn
impartially to examine and decide the claims in question according to the merits
of the several cases, and to justice, equity, and the laws of Nations. The said
Commissioners shall meet and sit at Philadelphia and in the case of the death,
sickness, or necessary absence of any such commissioner his place shall be
supplied in the same manner as he was first appointed, and the new Commissioner
shall take the same oaths, and do the same duties. They shall receive all
complaints and applications, authorized by this article during eighteen months
from the day on which they shall assemble. They shall have power to examine all
such persons as come before them on oath or affirmation touching the complaints
in question, and also to receive in evidence all written testimony authenticated
in such manner as they shall think proper to require or admit. The award of the
said Commissioners or any two of them shall be final and conclusive both as to
the justice of the claim and the amount of the sum to be paid to the claimants;
and his Catholic Majesty undertakes to cause the same to be paid in specie
without deduction, at such times and Places and under such conditions as shall
be awarded by the said Commissioners.
ART. XXII
The two high contracting Parties hoping that the good correspondence and
friendship which happily reigns between them will be further increased by this
Treaty, and that it will contribute to augment their prosperity and opulence,
will in future give to their mutual commerce all the extension and favor which
the advantage of both Countries may require; and in consequence of the
stipulations contained in the IV. article his Catholic Majesty will permit the
Citizens of the United States for the space of three years from this time to
deposit their merchandize and effects in the Port of New Orleans, and to export
them from thence without paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of
the stores, and his Majesty promises either to continue his permission if he
finds during that time that it is not prejudicial to the interests of Spain, or
if he should not agree to continue it there, he will assign to them on another
part of the banks of the Mississippi an equivalent establishment.
ART. XXIII
The present Treaty shall not be in force until ratified by the Contracting
Parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months from this time,
or sooner if possible.
In Witness whereof We the underwritten Plenipotentiaries of His Catholic Majesty
and of the United States of America have signed this present Treaty of
Friendship, Limits and Navigation and have thereunto affixed our seals
respectively.
Done at San Lorenzo el Real this seven and twenty day of October one thousand
seven hundred and ninety five.
THOMAS PINCKNEY [SEAL]
EL PRINCIPE DE LA PAZ [SEAL]