TREATY WITH THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS, Dec. 20, 1849
WHEREAS a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation. between the United
States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, was
concluded and signed at Washington, on the twentieth day of December, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, the original
of which treaty is, word for word, as follows: -
The United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian
Islands, equally animated with the desire of maintaining the relations
of good understanding which have hitherto so happily subsisted between
their respective states, and consolidating the commercial intercourse between
then, have agreed to enter into negotiations for the conclusion of a treaty
of friendship, commerce, and navigation, for which purpose they have appointed
plenipotentiaries, that is to say The President of the United States of
America, John M. Clayton, Secretary of State of the United States; and
his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, James Jackson Jarves, accredited
as his special commissioner to the government of the United States; who,
after having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have
concluded and signed the following articles: -
ARTICLE I.
There shall he perpetual peace and amity between the United States and
the King of the Hawaiian Islands, his heirs and his successors.
ARTICLE II.
There shalt he reciprocal liberty of commerce and navigation between the
United States of America and the Hawaiian Islands. No a duty of customs,
or other impost, shall be charged upon any goods, the produce or manufacture
of, one country, upon importation from such country into the other, other
or higher than the duty or impost charged upon goods of the same kind,
the produce or manufacture of, or tin-ported from, any other country; and
the United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands
do hereby engage, that the subjects or citizens of any other state shall
not enjoy any favor, privilege, or immunity, whatever, in, matters of commerce
and navigation, which shalt not also, at the same time, be extended to
the subjects or citizens of the other contracting party, gratuitously,
if the concession in favor of that other state shall have been gratuitous,
and in return for a compensation, as nearly as possible of proportionate
value and effect, to he adjusted by mutual agreement, if the concession
shall have been conditional.
ARTICLE III.
All articles, the produce or manufacture of either country, which can legally
be imported into either country from the other, in ships of that other
country, and thence coming, shall, when so imported, be subject to the
same duties, and enjoy the same privileges. whether imported in ships of
the one country, or in ships of the other; and in like manner, all goods
which can legally be extorted or re-exported from either country to the
other, in ships of that other country, shall, when so exported or re-exported,
be subject to the same duties, and he entitled to the same privileges,
drawbacks, bounties, and allowances, whether exported in ships of the one
country, or in ships of the other; and all goods and articles, of whatever
description, not being of the produce or manufacture of the United States,
which can be legally imported into the Sandwich Islands, shall, when so
imported in vessels of the United States, pay no other or higher duties,
imposts, or charges, than shall be payable upon the like goods and articles,
when imported in the vessels of the most favored foreign nations, other
than the nation of which the said goods and articles are the produce or
manufacture.
ARTICLE IV.
No duties of tonnage, harbor, lighthouses, pilotage, quarantine, or other
similar duties, of whatever nature, or under whatever denomination, shall
he imposed in either country upon the vessels of the other, in respect
of voyages between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Islands,
if laden, or in respect of any voyage, if in ballast, which shalt not be
equally imposed in the like cases on national vessels.
ARTICLE V.
It is hereby declared, that the stipulations of the present treaty are
not to be understood as applying to the navigation and carrying trade between
one port and another, situated in the states of either contracting party,
such navigation and trade being reserved exclusively to national vessels.
ARTICLE VI.
Steam vessels of the United States which may be employed by the government
of the said States, in the carrying of their public mails across the Pacific
Ocean, or from one port in that ocean to another, shall have free access
to the ports of the Sandwich Islands, with the privilege of stopping therein
to refit, to refresh, to land passengers and their baggage, and for the
transaction of any business pertaining to the public mail service of the
United States, and shall be subject in such ports to no duties of tonnage,
harbor, lighthouses, quarantine, or other similar duties of whatever nature
or under whatever denomination.
ARTICLE VII.
The whale ships of the United States ,shall have access to the ports of
Hilo, Kealakekua, and Hanalei, in the Sandwich Islands, for the purposes
of refitment and refreshment, as well as to the ports of Honolulu and Lahaina,
which only are ports of entry for all merchant vessels; and in all the
above-named ports, they shall be permitted to trade or barter their supplies
or goods, excepting spirituous liquors, to the amount of two hundred dollars
ad
valorem for each vessel, without paying any charge for tonnage or harbor
dues of any description, or any duties or imposts whatever upon the goods
or articles so traded or bartered. They shall also be permitted, with the
like exemption from all charges for tonnage and harbor dues, further to
trade or barter, with the same exception as to spirituous liquors, to the
additional amount of one thousand dollars ad valorem, for each vessel,
paying upon the additional goods and articles so traded and bartered, no
other or higher duties than are payable on like goods and articles, when
imported is the vessels and by the citizens or subjects of the most favored
foreign nation. They shall also be permitted to pass from port to port
of the Sandwich Islands, for the purpose of procuring refreshments, but
they shall not discharge their seamen or land their passengers in the said
Islands, except at Lahaina and Honolulu; and in all the ports named in
this article, the whales ships of the United States shalt enjoy, in all
respects whatsoever, all the rights, privileges, and immunities, which
are enjoyed by, or shall be granted to, the whale ships of the most favored
foreign nation. The like privilege of frequenting the three ports of the
Sandwich Islands, above named in this article, not being ports of entry
for merchant vessels, is also guaranteed to all the public armed vessels
of the United States. But nothing in this article shalt be construed as
authorizing any vessel of the United States, having on board any disease
usually regarded as requiring quarantine, to enter, during the continuance
of such disease on board, any port of the Sandwich Islands, other than
Lahaina or Honolulu.
ARTICLE VIII.
The contracting parties engage, in regard to the personal privileges that
the citizens of the United States of America shell enjoy in the dominions
of his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, and the subjects of his
said Majesty in the United States of America, that they shall have free
and undoubted right to travel and to reside in the states of the two high
contracting parties, subject to the same precautions of police which are
practiced towards the subjects or citizens of the most favored nations.
They shall be entitled to occupy dwellings and warehouses, and to dispose
of their personal property of every kind and description, by sale, gift,
exchange, will, or in any other say whatever, without the smallest hindrance
or obstacle; and their heirs or representatives, being subjects or citizens
of the other contracting party, shall succeed to their personal goods,
whether by testament or ab intestato; and may take possession thereof,
either by themselves or by others acting for them, and dispose of the same
at will, paying to the profit of the respective governments, 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 heir
and representative, such care shall be taken of the said goods as would
be taken of the goods a native of the same country in like case, until
the lawful owner way take measures for receiving them. And if a question
should arise among several claimants as to which of them said goods belong,
the same shall be decided finally by the laws and judges of the land wherein
the said goods are. Where, on the decease of any person holding real estate
within the territories of one party, such real estate would, by the law.
of the land, descend on a citizen or subject of the other, were he not
disqualified by alienage, such citizen or subject shalt be allowed a reasonable
time to sell the same, and to withdraw the proceeds without molestation,.
and exempt from all duties of detraction on the part of the government
of the respective states. The citizens or subjects of the contracting parties
shall not be obliged to pay, under any presence whatever, any taxes or
impositions other or greater than those which are paid, or may hereafter
be paid, by the subjects or citizens or the most favored nations, in the
respective states of the high contracting parties. They shall be exempt
from all military service, whether by land or by sea; from forced loans;
and from every extraordinary contribution not general and by law established.
Their dwelling, warehouses, and all premises appertaining thereto, destined
for the purposes of commerce or residence, shalt be respected. No arbitrary
search of, or visit to, their houses, and no arbitrary examination or inspection
whatever of the books, papers, or accounts of their trade, shall be made;
but such measures shall he executed only in conformity with the legal sentence
of a competent tribunal; and each of the two contracting parties engages
that the citizens or subjects of the other the residing in their respective
states shall enjoy their property and personal security; in as full and
ample manner as their own citizens or subjects, or the subjects or citizens
of the most favored nation, but subject always to the laws and statutes
of the two countries respectively.
ARTICLE IX.
The citizens and subjects of each of the two contracting parties shall
be free in the states of the other to manage their own affairs themselves,
or to commit those affairs to the management of any persons whom they may
appoint as their broker, factor, or agent; nor shall the citizens and subjects
or the two contracting parties be restrained in their choice of persons
to act in such capacities; nor shall they be called upon to pay any salary
or remuneration in any person whom they shall not choose to employ.
Absolute freedom shall he given in all cases to the buyer and seller
to bargain together, and to fix the price of any goods or merchandise imported
into, or to be exported from the states and dominions of the two contracting
parties, save and except generally such cases wherein the laws and usages
of the country may require the intervention of any special agents in the
states and dominions of the contracting parties. But nothing contained
in this or any other article of the present treaty shall be construed to
authorize the sale of spirituous liquors to the natives of the Sandwich
Island, father then such may be allowed by the Hawaiian laws.
ARTICLE X.
Each of the two contracting parties may have, in the ports of the other,
consuls,. vice-consuls, and commercial agents, of their own appointment,
who shall enjoy the same privileges and powers with those of the most favored
nations; but if any such consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be
subject to the same laws and usages to which the private individuals of
their nation are subject in the same place. The said consuls, vice-consuls,
and commercial agents, are authorized to require the assistance of the
local authorities for the search. arrest, detention and imprisonment of
the deserters from the ships of war and merchant vessels of their country.
For this purpose they shall apply to the competent tribunals, judges and
officers, and shall, in writing, demand the said deserters, proving, by
the exhibition of the registers of the vessels, the rolls of the crews,
or by other official documents, that such individuals formed part of the
crews; and this reclamation being thus substantiated, the surrender, shall
not be refused. Such deserters, when arrested, shall be placed at the disposal,
of the -and consuls, vice-consuls, or commercial agents, and may be confined
in the public prisons, at the request and cost of those who shall claim
them, in order to be detained until the time when they shall be restored
to the vessel to which they belonged, or sent back to their own country
by a vessel of the same nation, or any other vessel whatsoever. The agents,
owners, or masters of vessels on account of whom the deserters have been
apprehended, upon requisition of the local authorities, shall be required
take or send away such deserters from the states and dominion of the contracting
parties, or give such security or their good conduct as the law way require.
But if not sent back nor reclaimed within six months from the day of their
arrest, or if all the expenses of such imprisonment are not defrayed by
the party causing such arrest and imprisonment, they shalt be set at liberty,
and shall not be again arrested fur the same cause. However, if the deserters
should be found to have committed any crime or offence, their surrender
may be delayed until the tribunal before which their case shall be depending
shall have pronounced its sentence, and such sentence shall have been carried
into effect.
ARTICLE XI.
It is agreed that perfect and entire liberty of conscience shall be enjoyed
by the citizens and subjects of both the contracting parties, in the countries
of the one and the other, without their being liable to be disturbed or
molested no account of their religious belief. But nothing contained in
this article shall be construed to interfere with the exclusive right of
the Hawaiian government to regulate for itself the schools which it may
establish or support within its jurisdiction.
ARTICLE XII.
If any ships of war or other vessels be wrecked on the coasts of the states
or territories of either of the contracting parties, such ships or vessels,
or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto,
and all goods and merchandise which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce
thereof, if sold, shall be faithfully restored with the least possible
delay to the proprietors, upon being claimed by them, or by their duly
authorized factors; and if there are no such proprietors or factors on
the spot, then the said goods and merchandise, or the proceeds thereof,
as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked ships or vessels,
shill be delivered to the American or Hawaiian consuls, or vice-consul,
in whom district the wreck may have taken place; and such consul, vice-consul,
proprietors, or factors, shall pay only the expenses incurred in the preservation
of the property, together with the rate of salvage and expenses of quarantine
which would have been payable in the like case of a wreak of a national
vessel; and the goods and merchandise saved from the wreck shall not be
subject to duties unless entered for consumption, it being understand that
in case of any legal claim upon such wreck, goods, or merchandise, the
same shall he referred for decision to the competent tribunals of the country.
ARTICLE XIII.
The vessels of either of the two contracting parties which may be forced
by stress of weather or other cause into one of the ports of the other,
shall be exempt from all duties of port or navigation paid for the benefit
of the state, if the motives which led to their seeking refuge be real
and evident, and if no cargo be discharged or taken on board, save such
tat may relate to the subsistence of the crew, or be necessary for the
repair of the vessels, and if they do not stay in port beyond the time
necessary, keeping in view the cause which led to their seeking refuge.
ARTICLE XIV.
The contracting parties mutually agree to surrender, upon official requisition,
to the authorities of each, all persons who, being charged with the crimes
of murder, piracy, arson, robbery, forgery, or the utterance of forged
paper, committed within the jurisdiction of either, shall he found within
the territories of the other, provided that this shall only be done upon
such evidence of criminality as, according to the laws of the place where
the person so charged shall be found, would justify his apprehension and
commitment for trial, if the crime had there been committed; and the respective
judges and other magistrates of the two governments, shall have authority,
upon complaint made under oath, to issue a warrant for the apprehension
of the person so charged, that he may be brought before such judges or
other magistrates respectively, to the end that the evidence of criminality
may be heard and considered; and if, on such hearing, the evidence be deemed
sufficient to sustain the charge, it shall he tile duty of the examining
judge or magistrate to certify the same to the proper executive authority,
that a warrant may issue for the surrender of such fugitive. The expense
of such apprehension and delivery shall be borne and defrayed by the party
who makes the requisition and receives the fugitive.
ARTICLE XV.
So soon as steam or other mail pickets under the flag of either of the
contracting parties shall have commenced running between their respective
ports of entry, the contracting parties agree to receive at the post-offices
of those ports all mailable matter, and to forward it as directed, the
destination being to same regular post-office of either country, charging
thereupon the regular postal rates an established by law in the territories
of either party receiving said mailable matter, in addition to the original
postage of the office whence the mail was sent. Mails for the United States
shall be made up at regular intervals at the Hawaiian post-office, and
dispatched to ports of the United States; the postmasters at which ports
shall open the same, and forward the enclosed matter as directed, crediting
the Hawaiian government with their postages as established by law, and
stamped upon each manuscript or printed sheet.
All mailable matter destined for the Hawaiian Islands shall be received
at the several post-offices in the United States, and forwarded to San
Francisco, or other ports on the Pacific coast of tie United States, whence
the postmasters shall dispatch it by the regular mail packets to Honolulu,
the Hawaiian government agreeing on their part to receive and collect for
and credit the post- office department of the United States with the United
States rates charged thereupon. It shall be optional to prepay the postage
on letters in either country, but postage on printed sheets and, newspapers
shalt in all cases be prepaid. The respective post-office departments of
the contracting parties shall in their accounts, which are to be adjusted
annually, be credited with all dead letters returned.
ARTICLE XVI.
The present treaty shall be in force from the date of the exchange of the
ratifications, for the term of ten years, and further, until the end of
twelve months after either of the contracting parties shall have given
notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same, each of the
said contracting parties reserving to itself the right of giving such notice
at the end of the said term of ten years, or at nay subsequent term.
Any citizen or subject of either party infringing the articles of this
treaty shall be held responsible for the same, and the harmony and good
correspondence between the two governments shall not be interrupted thereby,
each party engaging in no way to protect the offender, or sanction such
violation.
ARTICLE XVII.
The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States
of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate or the said
States, and by his Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, by and with
the advice of his Privy Council of State, and the ratification shall he
exchanged at Honolulu within, eighteen months from the date, of its signature,
or sooner if possible.
In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the
same in triplicate, and have thereto affixed their seals,
Done at Washington, in the English language, the twentieth day of December,
in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
JOHN M. CLAYTON, [SEAL.]
JAMES JACKSON JARVES. [SEAL.]
VOL, IX TREAT. -- 22
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