WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith to the Senate in a new draft the convention with the
Swiss Confederation, originally negotiated at Berne and concluded in
that city on the 25th of November, 1850. On the 7th of March, 1851, it
was considered by the Senate of the United States, whose assent was
given to it with certain amendments, as will appear from the Journal of
the Senate of that day. The convention was sent back to Switzerland with
these alterations, which were taken into consideration by the Government
of that Confederation, whose action in the premises will be learned by a
letter from its President of the 5th of July, 1852.
The modifications which the Government of the Swiss Confederation are
desirous of introducing into the amendments made by the Senate of the
United States and the articles affected by them are not inconsistent
with the object and spirit of those amendments, and appear to me to
proceed upon a reasonable principle of compromise.
I have thought it expedient, in submitting them to the Senate with a
view to their advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty in
its present form, to have the entire instrument taken into a continuous
draft, as well the portions--by far the greater part--already assented
to by the Senate as the modifications proposed by the Government of the
Swiss Confederation in reference to these amendments. In preparing the
new draft a few slight alterations have been made in the modifications
proposed by the Swiss Government.
Should the convention receive the approbation of the Senate in its
present form, it will be immediately transmitted to Switzerland for
ratification by the Swiss Confederation.
The delays which have taken place in the negotiation of this treaty have
been principally caused by the want of a resident diplomatic agent of
the United States at Berne, and are among the reasons for which an
appropriation for a chargé d'affaires to that Government has recently,
by my direction, been recommended in a letter from the Department of
State to the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the
Senate.