Additional Article to the Treaty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, between the United States of America and her Britannic Majesty, of the 7th of April, 1862; concluded February 17, 1863; ratified by the United States March 5, 1863; ratifications exchanged, April 1, 1863; and proclaimed by the President of the United States, April 22. 1863.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS an additional article to the treaty for the suppression of the African slave-trade, between the United States of America and bet Britannic Majesty, of the 7th of April, 1862, was concluded and signed at Washington by their respective plenipotentiaries, on the 17th day of February, 1863, which additional article is, word for word, as follows:-

Additional Article to the Treaty between the United States of America and her Britannic Majesty for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, signed at Washington April 7 1862.

WHEREAS, by the first article of the treaty between the United States of America and her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the suppression of the African slave-trade, signed at Washington on the 7th of April, 1862, it was stipulated and agreed that those ships of the respective navies of the two high contracting parties which shall be provided with special instructions for that purpose as thereinafter mentioned, may visit such merchant-vessels of the two nations as may, upon reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the African slave-trade, or of having been fitted out for that purpose, or of having, during the voyage on which they are met by the said cruisers, been engaged in the African slave-trade contrary to the provisions of the said treaty; and that such cruisers may detain and send or carry away such vessels in order that they may be brought to trial in the manner thereinafter agreed upon; and whereas it was by the said article further stipulated and agreed that the reciprocal right of search and detention should be exercised only within the distance of two hundred miles from the coast of Africa, and to the southward of the thirty-second parallel of north latitude, and within thirty leagues from the coast of the island of Cuba; and whereas the two high contracting parties are desirous of rendering the said treaty still more efficacious for its purpose, the plenipotentiaries who signed the said treaty have, in virtue of their Dill powers, agreed that the reciprocal right of visit and detention, as defined in the article aforesaid, may be exercised also within thirty leagues of the island of Madagascar, within thirty leagues of the island of Puerto Rico, and within thirty leagues of the island of San Domingo.

The present additional article shall have the same force and validity as if it had been inserted word for word in the treaty concluded between the two high contracting parties on the 7th of April, 1862, and shall have the same duration as that treaty. It shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at London in six months from this date, or l sooner if possible.

In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have thereunto affixed the seal of their arms

Done at Washington, the 17th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD. [L. S.]

LYONS. [L. S.]

And whereas the said additional article has been duly ratified on both parts, and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged at London on the 1st instant, by Charles Francis Adams' Esq., Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, at the Court of St. James, and Earl Russell, her Britannic Majesty's principal Secretary of State for foreign affairs, on the part of their respective governments:

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States of America, have caused the said additional article to be made public, to the end that the same, and every clause and part thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.