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HAITI.
1864.

TREATY OF AMITY, COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION, AND EXTRADITION. Concluded November 3, 1864; ratification advised by the Senate January 17, 1865; ratified by the President May 18, 1865; ratifications exchanged May 22, 1865; proclaimed July 6, 1865. (Treaties and Conventions, 1889, p. 551.)

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The United States of America and the Republic of Hayti, desiring to make lasting and firm the friendship and good understanding which happily prevail between both nations, and to place their commercial relations upon the most liberal basis, have resolved to fix, in a manner clear, distinct, and positive, the rules which shall, in future, be religiously observed between the one and the other, by means of a treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, and for the Extradition of Fugitive Criminals.

For this purpose they have.appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, to wit: the President of the United States, Benjamin F. Whidden, Commissioner and Consul General of the United States to the Republic of Hayti; and the President of Hayti, Boyer Bazelais, Chef d'Escadron, his Aide de camp and Secretary, who, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full powers, found in due and proper form, have agreed to the following articles:

ART. 1.

There shall be a perfect, firm, and inviolable peace and sincere friendship between the United States of America and the Republic of Hayti, in all the extent of their possessions and territories, and between their people and citizens, respectively, without distinction of persons or places.

ART. 2.

The United States of America and the Republic of Hayti, desiring to live in peace and harmony with all the other nations of the earth, by means of a policy frank and equally friendly with all, agree that any favor, exemption, privilege, or immunity whatever, in matters of commerce or navigation, which either of them has granted or may hereafter grant, to the citizens or subjects of any other government, nation, or state, shall extend in identity of cases and circumstances, to the citizens of the other contracting party; gratuitously, if the concession in favor of that other government, nation, or state shall have been gratuitous; or, in return for an equivalent compensation, if the concession shall have been conditional.

ART. 3.

If by any fatality, (which cannot be expected, and which God forbid) the two nations shall become involved in war, one with the other, the term of six months after the declaration thereof shall be allowed to the merchants and other citizens and inhabitants respectively, on each side, during which time they shall be at liberty to withdraw themselves, with their effects and movables, which they shall have the right to carry away, send away, or sell, as they please, without the least obstruction; nor shall their effects, much less their persons, be seized during such term of six months; which immunity is not in any way to be construed to prevent the execution of any existing civil or commercial engagements; on the contrary, passports shall be valid for a term necessary for their return, and shall be given to them for their vessels and their effects which they may wish to carry with them or send away, and such passports shall be a safe conduct against the insults and captures which privateers may attempt against their persons and effects.

ART. 4.

Neither the money, debts, shares in the public funds or in banks, or any other property of either party, shall ever, in the event of war or national difference, be sequestered or confiscated.

ART. 5.

The citizens of each of the high contracting parties, residing or established in the territory of the other, shall be exempt from all compulsory military duty by sea or by land, and from all forced loans or military exactions or requisitions; nor shall they be compelled to pay any contributions whatever higher or other than those that are or may be paid by native citizens.

ART. 6.

The citizens of each of the contracting parties shall be permitted to enter, sojourn, settle, and reside in all parts of the territories of the other, engage in business, hire and occupy warehouses, provided they submit to the laws, as well general as special, relative to the rights of travelling, residing, or trading. While they conform to the laws and regulations in force, they shall be at liberty to manage themselves their own business, subject to the jurisdiction of either party respectively, as well as in respect to the consignment and sale of their goods as with respect to the loading, unloading, and sending off their vessels. They may also employ such agents or brokers as they may deem proper; it being distinctly understood that they are subject also to the same laws. The citizens of the contracting parties shall have free access to the tribunals of justice, in all cases to which they may be a party, on the same terms which are granted by the laws and usage of the country to native citizens, furnishing security in the cases required; for which purpose they may employ in the defence of their interests and rights such advocates, solicitors, attorneys, and other agents as they may think proper, agreeably to the laws and usage of the country.

ART. 7.

There shall be no examination or inspection of the books, papers, or accounts of the citizens of either country residing within the jurisdiction of the other without the legal order of a competent tribunal or judge.

ART. 8.

The citizens of each of the high contracting parties, residing within the territory of the other, shall enjoy full liberty of conscience. They shall not be disturbed or molested on account of their religious opinions or worship, provided they respect the laws and established customs of the country. And the bodies of the citizens of the one who may die in the territory of the other shall be interred in the public cemeteries, or in other decent places of burial, which shall be protected from all violation or insult by the local authorities.

ART. 9.

The citizens of each of the high contracting parties, within the jurisdiction of the other, shall have power to dispose of their personal property by sale, donation, testament, or otherwise; and their personal representatives, being citizens of the other contracting party, shall succeed to their personal property, whether by testament or ab intestato. They may take possession thereof, either by themselves or by others acting for them, at their pleasure, and dispose of the same, paying such duty only as the citizens of the country wherein the said personal property is situated shall be subject to pay in like cases. In the absence of a personal representative, the same care shall be taken of the property as by law would be taken of the property of a native in a similar case, while the lawful owner may take measures for securing it. If a question as to the rightful ownership of the property should arise among claimants, the same shall be determined by the judicial tribunals of the country in which it is situated.

ART. 10.

The high contracting parties hereby agree that whatever kind of produce, manufactures, or merchandise of any foreign country can be, from time to time, lawfully imported into the United States in their own vessels, may also be imported in the vessels of the Republic of Hayti, and no higher or other duties upon the tonnage or cargo of the vessels shall be levied or collected than shall be levied or collected of the vessels of the most favored nation.

And reciprocally whatever kind of produce, manufactures, or merchandise of any foreign country can be, from time to time, lawfully imported into Hayti in her own vessels, may be also imported in the vessels of the United States, and no higher or other duties upon the tonnage or cargo of the vessels shall be levied or collected, than shall be levied or collected of the vessels of the most favored nation.

ART. 11.

It is also hereby agreed that whatever may be lawfully exported or re-exported from the one country in its own vessels, to any foreign country, may in like manner be exported or re-exported in vessels of the other; and the same duties, bounties, and drawbacks shall be collected and allowed as are collected of and allowed to the most favored nation.

It is also understood that the foregoing principles shall apply whether the vessels shall have cleared directly from the ports of the nation to which they appertain, or from the ports of any other nation.

ART. 12.

The provisions of this treaty are not to be understood as applying to the coasting trade of the contracting parties, which is respectively reserved by each exclusively, to be regulated by its own laws.

ART. 13.

No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the United States of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of Hayti or her fisheries; and no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into Hayti of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States or their fisheries, than are or shall be payable on the like articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of any other foreign country or its fisheries.

No other or higher duties or charges shall be imposed in the United States on the exportation of any article to Hayti, nor in Hayti on the exportation of any article to the United States, than such as are or shall be payable on the exportation of the like articles to any foreign country.

No prohibition shall be imposed on the importation of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States or their fisheries, or of Hayti and her fisheries, from or to the ports of the United States or Hayti, which shall not equally extend to any other foreign country.

ART. 14.

It is hereby agreed that if either of the high contracting parties should hereafter impose discriminating duties upon the products of any other nation, the other party shall be at liberty to determine the origin of its own products intended to enter the country by which the discriminating duties are imposed.

ART. 15.

Whenever the citizens of either of the contracting parties shall be forced to seek refuge or asylum in the rivers, ports, or dominions of the other with their vessels, whether merchant or war, through stress of weather, pursuit of pirates or enemies, or want of provisions or water, they shall be received and treated with humanity, giving to them all favor and protection for repairing their vessels and placing themselves in a condition to continue their voyage without obstacle or hindrance of any kind.

And the provisions of this article shall apply to privateers or private vessels of war as well as public, until the two high contracting parties may relinquish that mode of warfare, in consideration of the general relinquishment of the right of capture of private property upon the high seas.

ART. 16.

When any vessel of either party shall be wrecked, stranded, or otherwise damaged on the coasts or within the jurisdiction of the other, their respective 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 accident happened; and they shall be liable to pay the same charges and dues of salvage as the said inhabitants would be liable to pay in like cases.

If the repairs which a stranded vessel may require shall render it necessary that the whole or any part of her cargo should be unloaded, no duties of custom, charges, or fees on such cargo as may be carried away shall be paid, except such as are payable in like cases by national vessels.

ART. 17.

It shall be lawful for the citizens of either Republic to sail with their ships and merchandise (contraband goods excepted) with all manner of liberty and security, no distinction being made who are the proprietors of the merchandise laden thereon, from any port to the places of those who now are, or hereafter shall be, at enmity with either of the contracting parties.

It shall likewise be lawful for the citizens aforesaid to sail with their ships and merchandises before-mentioned, and to trade with the same liberty and security, not only from ports and places of those who are enemies of both or either party, to ports of the other, and 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 one or several Powers, unless such ports or places are blockaded, besieged or invested.

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