A leııgthy dispute which for almost fifty years opposed the Ottomaıı Empire to the United States is a patent instance of the failure of Ottoman diplomacy to assert its legitimate rights in the face of a cynical manifestation of Great Power Realpolitik. Though the dispute was largely of an "academic" nature, it acquires a different stature when placed in the context of the postTanzimat Ottoman statesmen's aspirations to free the Empire from the shackles of the Capitulations. The dispute had its origin in the working of Article 4 of the TurcoAmerican Treaty signed in the Ottoman capital on May 7, 1830. Article 4 of the treaty, conceming penal matters related to American subjects residing and working in the Empire, was poorly drafted in its Turkish original and it could be construed that mixed cases were also to be heard by American consuls to the exclusion of Turkish courts, that is, it was giving American subjects the right of exterritoriality in ali but name