e furnished men more competent for such a purpose. They
agreed upon a treaty. The rules by which neutral governments
were to be held to be bound for the purposes of the arbitration
were agreed on beforehand in the Treaty itself. They agreed
to observe these rules between themselves in the future, and
to invite other maritime powers to accede to them. The Treaty
also contained a statement that Her Britannic Majesty had
"authorized her High Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries to
express in a friendly spirit the regret felt by Her Majesty's
Government for the escape, under whatever circumstances,
of the Alabama and other vessels from British ports, and
for the depredations committed by those vessels." I am not
aware a like apology has ever been made by Great Britain during
her history, to any other country. There was a provision
also, for the reference of some other matters in dispute between
the two countries. One of these related to the fisheries--
a source of irritation between this country and the British
possessions north of us ever since the Revolution.

I will not undertake to tell that part of the story here.
It was agreed to submit the questions of the claims growing
out of the escape of the Rebel cruisers to a tribunal which
was to sit at Geneva. Of this, one member was to be appointed
by each of the parties, and the others by certain designated
foreign governments. Our Commissioner was Charles Francis
Adams, who had borne himself so wisely and patiently during
the period of the Civil War. The English Commissioner was
Sir Alexander Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice of England. The
United States was represented by Caleb Cushing, William M.
Evarts and Morrison R. Waite, afterward Chief Justice of
the United States, as counsel.

Adams rarely betrayed any deep emotion on any public occasion,
however momentous. But it must have been hard for him to
conceal the thrill of triumph, after the ignominy to which
he had submitted during that long and anxious time, when he
heard the tribunal pronounce its judgment, condemning Great
Britain to pay $15,500,000 damages for the wrong-doing against
which he had so earnestly and vainly protested. Perhaps the
feeling of his grandfather when he signed the Treaty of Independence
in 1783 might alone be compared to it. Yet his father, John
Quincy Adams, had something of the same feeling when, at the
close of a war which put an end forever to the impressment
of American se