The expedition appeared in the waters of the La Plata and our commissioner succeeded in concluding a treaty and convention embracing both branches of our demand.  The convention of indemnity was signed on the 4th of February, 1859.  The preamble of this convention refers to the interruption for a time of the good understanding and harmony between the two nations which has rendered that distant armament necessary.  By the first article the Government of Paraguay “binds itself for the responsibility in favor of the United States and Paraguay Navigation Company which may result from the decree of commissioners” to be appointed in the manner provided by article 2.  This was in accordance with the instructions to our commissioner, who was told that an indispensable preliminary to the negotiation would, “of course, be an acknowledgment on the part of the Paraguayan Government of its liability to the company.”  The first paragraph of this second article clearly specifies the object of the convention.  This was not to ascertain whether the claim was just, to enforce which we had sent a fleet to Paraguay, but to constitute a commission to “determine,” not the existence, but “the amount, of said reclamations.”  The final paragraph provides that “the two commissioners named in the said manner shall meet in the city of Washington to investigate, adjust, and determine the amount of the claims of the above-mentioned company upon sufficient proofs of the charges and defenses of the contending parties.”  By the fifth article the Government of Paraguay “binds itself to pay to the Government of the United States of America, in the city of Assumption, Paraguay, thirty days after presentation to the Government of the Republic, the draft which that of the United States of America shall issue for the amount for which the two commissioners concurring, or by the umpire, shall declare it responsible to the said company.”

The act of Congress of May 16, 1860, employs the same language that is used in the convention, “to investigate, adjust, and determine the amount” of the claims against Paraguay.  Congress, not doubting that an award would be made in favor of the company for some certain amount of damages, in the sixth section of the act referred to provides that the money paid out of the Treasury for the expenses of the commission “shall be retained by the United States out of the money” (not any money) “that may, pursuant to the terms of said convention, be received from Paraguay.”

After all this had been done, after we had fitted out a warlike expedition in part to obtain satisfaction for this very claim, after these solemn acts had been performed by the two Republics, the commissioners have felt themselves competent to decide that they could go behind the action of the legislative and executive branches of this Government and determine that there was no justice in the original claim.  A commissioner of Paraguay might have been a proper