Switzerland–United States relations

Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the United States were established in 1853 by the U.S. and in 1868 by Switzerland. The first diplomatic representation of the U.S. was established in Basel in 1853.

History

Consular relations

With the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, many Swiss sought a more peaceful and prosperous life in America. A sizable number emigrated to the United States, especially from the cantons of Vaud and Lucerne. As early as 1815, representatives from the two respective cantons had proposed to the Federal Diet that the country establish a consulate in either Philadelphia or New York City to ensure the rights of their merchants and expatriates. The following year the Diet resolved to create a consulate in New York. It was initially decided that their consul would be chosen from the Swiss population in America, but no appointment was ever made. In July 1822, with consultation from Swiss–American diplomat Albert Gallatin, the Diet appointed its first two consuls to the United States: Henry Casimir de Rham of Yverdon-les-Bains, canton of Vaud, a banker and merchant and then-resident of New York; and Antoine Charles Cazenove of Geneva, a wine and tobacco merchant and then-resident of Alexandria, Virginia. Niklaus Rudolf von Wattenwyl, the chairman of the Diet, sent a letter to United States President James Monroe, asking him to grant the appointees an exequatur and emphasizing the liberal and federal characteristics shared by both of their countries' constitutions. The letter marked the first official correspondence between the governments of Switzerland and the United States and established a precedent for the character of relations between them throughout the rest of the 1800s.