A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - James D. Richardson
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It is notorious that the Government of the United States, whenever
requested by that of His Majesty, have uniformly agreed to discuss any
subject presented for their consideration, whether the object has been
to obtain the redress of public or private injuries. Acting upon this
principle, the question of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
was, upon the suggestion of the minister of France, made the subject of
a voluminous correspondence, in the course of which all the arguments
of the parties respectively were fully made known to each other and
examined. The result of this discussion has been a thorough conviction
on the part of the Government of the United States that the construction
of that article of the treaty contended for by France is destitute of
any solid foundation and wholly inadmissible. After a discussion so
full as to exhaust every argument on that question, the attempt to
renew it in connection with the question of the claims of our citizens
appeared to the Government of the United States to be a measure so
contrary to the fair and regular course of examining controverted
points between nations that they instructed Mr, Sheldon, their charge
d'affaires, to prepare and present a note explaining their views of the
proceeding, which he delivered on the 11th of October, 1823. To this
note no answer has ever been received.
I have the express instructions of the Government again to call the
attention of that of His Majesty to this subject, and to insist that
the claims of our citizens may continue to be discussed as a distinct
question, without connecting it in any way with the construction of the
Louisiana treaty. The two subjects are in every respect dissimilar. The
difference in the nature and character of the two interests is such as
to prevent them from being blended in the same discussion. The claims
against France are of reparation to individuals for their property taken
from them by undisputed wrong and injustice; the claim of France under
the treaty is that of a right founded on a contract. In the examination
of these questions the one can impart no light to the other; they are
wholly unconnected, and ought on every principle to undergo a distinct
and separate examination. To involve in the same investigation the
indisputable rights of American citizens to indemnity for losses and
the doubtful construction of a treaty can have no other effect than to
occasion an indefinite postponement of the reparation due to individuals
or a sacrifice on the part of the Government of the United States of a
treaty stipulation in order to obtain that reparation. The United States
would hope that such an alternative will not be pressed upon them by the
Government of His Majesty.
Whilst I indulge a hope that the course to which I have objected will no
longer be insisted on by His Majesty's ministers, permit me to renew to
your excellency the sincere assurance that the United States earnestly
desire that every subject of difference between the two countries should
be amicably adjusted and all their relations placed upon the most
friendly footing. Although they believe that any further discussion of
the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty would be wholly unprofitable,
they will be at all times ready to renew the discussion of that article
or to examine any question which may remain to be adjusted between them
and France.
I request your excellency to accept, etc.
JAMES BROWN.
[Extract of a letter (No. 3) from James Brown to the Secretary of State,
dated Paris, May 11, 1824.]
I have the honor to inclose a copy of the answer of the minister of
foreign affairs to the letter which I addressed to him on the 27th
ultimo, upon the subject of the claims of our citizens against the
French Government. You will perceive that no change has been made in
the determination expressed to Mr. Gallatin of connecting in the same
discussion the question on the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
of cession and the claims of the citizens of the United States against
France. In expressing this resolution it has not been considered
necessary even to notice the arguments made use of to induce them
to adopt a different opinion.
_Viscount Chateaubriand to Mr. Brown_.
[Translation.]
PARIS, _May 7, 1824_.
SIR: The object of the letter which you did me the honor to address to
me on the 28th of April is to recall the affair of American claims,
already repeatedly called up by your predecessors, that they may be
regulated by an arrangement between the two powers, and that in this
negotiation the examination of the difficulties which were raised about
the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty should not
be included.
Although the claims made by France upon this last point be of a
different nature from those of the Americans, yet no less attention
ought to be paid to arrange both in a just and amicable manner.
Our claims upon the eighth article had already been laid before the
Federal Government by His Majesty's plenipotentiary when he was
negotiating the commercial convention of 24th June, 1822.
The negotiators not agreeing upon a subject so important, the King's
Government did not wish this difficulty to suspend any longer the
conclusion of an arrangement which might give more activity to commerce
and multiply relations equally useful to the two powers. It reserves to
itself the power of comprehending this object in another negotiation,
and it does not renounce in any manner the claim which it urged.
It is for this reason, sir, that my predecessors and myself have
constantly insisted that the arrangements to be made upon the eighth
article of the Louisiana treaty should be made a part of those which
your Government were desirous of making upon other questions still at
issue.
It is the intention of His Majesty not to leave unsettled any subject
of grave discussion between the two States, and the King is too well
convinced of the friendly sentiments of your Government not to believe
that the United States will be disposed to agree with France on all the
points.
His Majesty authorizes me, sir, to declare to you that a negotiation
will be opened with you upon the American claims if this negotiation
should also include the French claims, and particularly the arrangements
to be concluded concerning the execution of the eighth article of the
Louisiana treaty.
Accept, sir, the assurances of the very distinguished consideration with
which I have the honor to be, etc.,
CHATEAUBRIAND.
[Extracts of a letter (No. 4) from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown,
dated Department of State, Washington, August 14, 1824.]
The subject which has first claimed the attention of the President
has been the result of your correspondence with the Viscount de
Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of numerous citizens of
the United States upon the justice of the French Government.
I inclose herewith a copy of the report of the Committee on Foreign
Relations of the House of Representatives upon several petitions
addressed to that body at their last session by some of those claimants
and a resolution of the House adopted thereupon.
The President has deliberately considered the purport of M. de
Chateaubriand's answer to your note of the 28th of April upon this
subject, and he desires that you will renew with earnestness the
application for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just
and resting upon the same principle with others which have been admitted
and adjusted by the Government of France.
In the note of the Viscount de Chateaubriand to you of 7th May it is
said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation will be opened with
you upon the American claims if this negotiation should also include
French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be concluded
concerning the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
You are authorized in reply to declare that any just claims which
subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United States
will readily be included in the negotiation, and to stipulate any
suitable provision for the examination, adjustment, and satisfaction
of them.
But the question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
is not only of a different character--it can not be blended with that of
indemnity for individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
United States of a principle of right. The negotiation for indemnity
presupposes that wrong has been done, that indemnity ought to be made,
and the object of any treaty stipulation concerning it can only be to
ascertain what is justly due and to make provision for the payment of
it. By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to
the eighth article of the Louisiana convention the United States would
abandon the _principle_ upon which the whole discussion concerning
it depends. The situation of the parties to the negotiation would be
unequal. The United States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are
told that France will not discuss it with them unless they will first
renounce their own sense of right to admit and discuss with it a claim
the _justice_ of which they have constantly denied.
The Government of the United States is prepared to renew the discussion
with that of France relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana
treaty in any manner which may be desired and by which they shall not
be understood to admit that France has _any_ claim under it whatever.
_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 12_).
PARIS, _August 12, 1824_.
SIR: Some very unimportant changes have taken place in the composition
of the ministry. The Baron de Damas, late minister of war, is now
minister of foreign affairs; the Marquis de Clermont Tonnese is
appointed to the department of war, and the Count Chabrol de Crousal
to that of the marine.
These appointments are believed to correspond with the wishes of the
president of the Council of Ministers, and do not inspire a hope that
our claims will be more favorably attended to than they have been under
the former administrations. The interpretation of the eighth article
of the Louisiana treaty contended for by France will, I apprehend,
be persisted in and all indemnity refused until it shall have been
discussed and decided. After the correspondence which has already passed
upon that article, it would appear that any further discussion upon it
would be wholly unprofitable. With a view, however, of ascertaining the
opinions of the minister of foreign affairs, I shall at an early day
solicit a conference with him, and inform you of the result.
I have had the honor of receiving your letter recommending the claim of
Mr. Kingston to my attention. The difficulties which that claim must
experience, from its antiquity and from the operation of the treaty of
1803, can not have escaped your observation. It has also to encounter,
in common with all our claims, the obstacle presented by the eighth
article, which is found broad enough to be used as a shield to protect
France, in the opinion of ministers, from the examination and adjustment
of any claim which we can present.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
humble servant,
JAMES BROWN.
_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 14_).
PARIS, _September 28, 1824_.
SIR: Little has occurred of importance during the present month, except
the death of the King. This event had been anticipated for nearly a
year; he had declined gradually, and the affairs of the Government
have been for some time almost wholly directed by Monsieur, who on his
accession to the throne has declared that his reign would be only a
continuation of that of the late King. No change in the policy of the
Government is expected, and probably none in the composition of the
ministry. The present King is satisfied with Mr. De Villele, who is at
its head; and if any of its members should be changed the spirit in
which public affairs are directed will not, it is believed, be affected
by that circumstance.
The ceremonies attending the change of the Crown have principally
occupied the public attention for the last fortnight. It will, I
presume, be officially announced by the French minister at Washington,
and, according to the forms observed here, will, I understand, require
fresh letters of credence for all foreign ministers at this Court,
addressed to the new King.
My health has not permitted me (having been confined for some weeks to
the bed by a rheumatic affection) to confer with the Baron de Damas on
our affairs since his appointment as minister of the foreign department.
I should regret this the more if I were not satisfied that the same
impulse will direct the decisions of the Government upon these points
now as before he had this department in charge, and that no favorable
change in those decisions can be expected from any personal influence
which might be exerted by the new minister. I shall, however, take the
earliest opportunity that my health will allow to mention the subject
to him and ascertain what his views of it are.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
humble servant.
JAMES BROWN.
[Extracts of a letter from Mr. James Brown to Mr, Adams (No. 16).]
PARIS, _October 23, 1824_.
The packet ship which sailed from New York on the 1st of September
brought me the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on
the 14th of August.
In conformity with the instructions contained in that letter, I have
addressed one to the Baron de Damas, minister of foreign affairs, a copy
of which I now inclose. I expect to receive his answer in time to be
sent by the packet which will sail from Havre on the 1st of next month,
in which event it may probably reach Washington about the 15th of
December.
The recent changes which have been made in the ministry, of which I have
already informed you, do not justify any very strong expectation that a
change of measures in relation to our affairs at this Court will follow.
The same individuals fill different places in the ministry from those
which they formerly held, but in all probability adhere to their former
opinions in relation to the subjects of discussion between the United
States and France. On the point to which my letter to the Baron de
Damas particularly relates the Count de Villele has already given his
deliberate views in his letters to Mr. Gallatin dated 6th and 15th
November, 1822, and I have every reason to believe that they remain
unchanged. Having bestowed much attention on the subject, it is probable
his opinion will be in a great measure decisive as to the answer which
shall be given to my letter. It is the opinion of many well-informed men
that in the course of a few months important changes will be made in the
composition of the ministry. As these changes, however, will proceed
from causes wholly unconnected with foreign affairs, I am by no means
sanguine in my expectations that under any new composition of the
ministry we may hope for a change of policy as it relates to our claims.
The eighth article of the Louisiana treaty will be continually put
forward as a bar to our claims and its adjustment urged as often as
we renew our claim for indemnity.
The Journal des Debats of this morning states that at a superior council
of commerce and of the colonies at which His Majesty yesterday presided
Mr. De St. Cricq, president of the bureau de commerce, made a report on
the commercial convention of the 24th June, 1822, between the United
States and France.
_Mr. Brown to Baron de Damas_.
PARIS, _October 22, 1824_.
His Excellency BARON DE DAMAS,
_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
SIR: I availed myself of the earliest opportunity to transmit to my
Government a copy of the letter which I had the honor to address to the
Viscount de Chateaubriand on the 28th day of April last, together with
a copy of his answer to that letter, dated 7th of May.
After a candid and deliberate consideration of the subject of that
correspondence, my Government has sent me recent instructions to
renew with earnestness the application, already so frequently and so
ineffectually made, for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously
just, and resting on the same principles with others which have been
admitted and adjusted by the Government of France.
In reply to that part of the Viscount de Chateaubriand's letter in
which he offers to open with me a negotiation upon American claims if
that negotiation should also include French claims, and particularly
the arrangements to be concluded concerning the eighth article of the
Louisiana treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just claims
which the subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United
States will readily be embraced in the negotiation, and that I am
authorized to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
adjustment, and satisfaction of them.
The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty is
viewed by my Government as one of a very different character. It can
not be blended with that of indemnity for individual claims without
a sacrifice on the part of the United States of a principle of right.
Every negotiation for indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong
has been done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to ascertain the
extent of the injury, and to make provision for its adequate reparation.
This is precisely the nature of the negotiation for American claims
which has been for so many years the subject of discussion between
the Governments of the United States and of France. The wrongs done to
our citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to indemnity
has been established by acts done by the French Government in cases
depending upon the same principles under which they derive their claim.
By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the
eighth article of the Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon
the principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When asking for
reparation for acknowledged wrong the United States have been told that
France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce
their own sense of right and admit and discuss in connection with it a
claim the justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation of the
parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the pretensions of
France under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty with claims for
indemnity for acknowledged injustice and injury the United States would
be understood as admitting that those pretensions were well founded;
that wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to be
made. The Government of the United States, not having yet been convinced
that this is the case, can not consent to any arrangement which shall
imply an admission so contrary to their deliberate sense of right.
I am authorized and prepared on behalf of the United States to enter
upon a further discussion of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
in any manner which may be desired, and by which they shall not be
understood previously to admit that the construction of that article
claimed by France is well founded; and also to renew the separate
negotiation for American claims, embracing at the same time all just
claims winch French subjects may have upon the Government of the
United States.
The change which has lately taken place in His Majesty's department of
foreign affairs encourages the hope that this important subject will
be candidly reconsidered; that the obstacles which have arrested the
progress of the negotiation may be removed, and that the subjects of
contestation between the two Governments may be ultimately adjusted upon
such principles as may perpetuate the good understanding and harmony
which have so long subsisted between the United States and France.
Should I, however, be disappointed in the result of this application,
it is to be seriously apprehended that as the United States have not
hitherto seen in the course of the discussion any just claim of France
arising from the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, so in the
persevering refusal of the French Government to discuss and adjust
the well-founded claims of citizens of the United States to indemnity
for wrongs unless in connection with one which they are satisfied
is unfounded the United States will ultimately perceive only a
determination to deny justice to the claimants.
Permit me respectfully to request that at as early a day as your
convenience will allow your excellency will favor me with an answer
to this letter.
I embrace with pleasure this occasion to offer to your excellency the
renewed assurance, etc.,
JAMES BROWN.
WASHINGTON, _December 24, 1824_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the
23d December, 1823, requesting that a negotiation should be opened with
the British Government "for the cession of so much land on the island of
Abaco at or near the Hole-in-the-Wall, and on such other places within
the acknowledged dominions of that power on the islands, keys, or shoals
of the Bahama Banks as may be necessary for the erection and support of
light-houses, beacons, buoys, or floating lights for the security of
navigation over or near the said banks, and to be used solely for that
purpose," directions were given to the minister of the United States at
London on the 1st of January, 1824, to communicate the purport of that
resolution to the Government of Great Britain with a view to their
acceding to the wish of this; and I transmit to the House copies of Mr.
Rush's correspondence upon this subject, communicating the result of
his application to the British Government.
JAMES MONROE.
WASHINGTON, _December 28, 1824_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of
the 27th instant, requesting information explanatory of the character
and objects of the visit of the naval officer of the United States
commanding in the West Indies to the town of Faxyardo, in the island
of Porto Rico, on the ---- day of November last, I herewith transmit
a report of the Secretary of the Navy, with a letter from Commodore
Porter, which contains all the information in possession of the
Executive on the subject.
Deeming the transactions adverted to of high importance, an order has
been sent to Commodore Porter to repair hither without delay, that all
the circumstances connected therewith may be fully investigated.
JAMES MONROE.
WASHINGTON, _January 5, 1825_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
As the term of my service in this high trust will expire at the end
of the present session of Congress, I think it proper to invite your
attention to an object very interesting to me, and which in the movement
of our Government is deemed on principle equally interesting to the
public. I have been long in the service of my country and in its most
difficult conjunctures, as well abroad as at home, in the course of
which I have had a control over the public moneys to a vast amount.
If in the course of my service it shall appear on the most severe
scrutiny, which I invite, that the public have sustained any loss by
any act of mine, or of others for which I ought to be held responsible,
I am willing to bear it. If, on the other hand, it shall appear on a
view of the law and of precedents in other cases that justice has been
withheld from me in any instance, as I have believed it to be in many,
and greatly to my injury, it is submitted whether it ought not to be
rendered. It is my wish that all matters of account and claims between
my country and myself be settled with that strict regard to justice
which is observed in settlements between individuals in private life.
It would be gratifying to me, and it appears to be just, that the
subject should be now examined in both respects with a view to a
decision hereafter. No bill would, it is presumed, be presented for my
signature which would operate either for or against me, and I would
certainly sanction none in my favor. While here I can furnish testimony,
applicable to any case, in both views, which a full investigation may
require, and the committee to whom the subject may be referred, by
reporting facts now with a view to a decision after my retirement, will
allow time for further information and due consideration of all matters
relating thereto. Settlements with a person in this trust, which could
not be made with the accounting officers of the Government, should
always be made by Congress and before the public. The cause of the delay
in presenting these claims will be explained to the committee to whom
the subject may be referred. It will, I presume, be made apparent that
it was inevitable; that from the peculiar circumstances attending each
case Congress alone could decide on it, and that from considerations of
delicacy it would have been highly improper for me to have sought it
from Congress at an earlier period than that which is now proposed--the
expiration of my term in this high trust.