U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, December 23, 1876.

To the House of Representatives: 

When Congress adjourned in August last the execution of the extradition article of the treaty of 1842 between the United States and Great Britain had been interrupted.

The United States had demanded of Her Majesty’s Government the surrender of certain fugitives from justice charged with crimes committed within the jurisdiction of the United States, who had sought asylum and were found within the territories of Her British Majesty, and had, in due compliance with the requirements of the treaty, furnished the evidence of the criminality of the fugitives, which had been found sufficient to justify their apprehension and commitment for trial, as required by the treaty, and the fugitives were held and committed for extradition.

Her Majesty’s Government, however, demanded from the United States certain assurances or stipulations as a condition for the surrender of these fugitives.

As the treaty contemplated no such conditions to the performance of the obligations which each Government had assumed, the demand for stipulations on the part of this Government was repelled.

Her Majesty’s Government thereupon, in June last, released two of the fugitives (Ezra D. Winslow and Charles J. Brent), and subsequently released a third (one William E. Gray), and, refusing to surrender, set them at liberty.

In a message to the two Houses of Congress on the 20th day of June last, in view of the condition of facts as above referred to, I said: 

The position thus taken by the British Government, if adhered to, can not but be regarded as the abrogation and annulment of the article of the treaty on extradition.

Under these circumstances it will not, in my judgment, comport with the dignity or self-respect of this Government to make demands upon that Government for the surrender of fugitive criminals, nor to entertain any requisition of that character from that Government under the treaty.

Article XI of the treaty of 1842 provided that “the tenth article [that relating to extradition] should continue in force until one or the other of the parties should signify its wish to terminate it, and no longer.”

In view, however, of the great importance of an extradition treaty, especially between two states as intimately connected in commercial and social relations as are the United States and Great Britain, and in the hope that Her Majesty’s Government might yet reach a different decision from that then attained, I abstained from recommending any action by Congress terminating the extradition article of the treaty.  I have, however, declined to take any steps under the treaty toward extradition.

It is with great satisfaction that I am able now to announce to Congress and to the country that by the voluntary act of Her Majesty’s Government the obstacles which had been interposed to the execution of the extradition article of the treaty have been removed.