cussed; and I trust that since I am authorized to treat, as well concerning the Claims of French Subjects against the United States, as respecting those of American Citizens against France, a distinct Negotiation to that effect will be opened without any further delay. Permit me, at the same time, to renew to your Excellency the assurances that The United States have the most earnest desire, that every subject of difference between the two Countries should be amicably arranged, and their Commercial and Political Relations placed on the most friendly and solid footing. They will be ready to open again Negotiations on the subject of the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty, and on every other which remains to be adjusted, and will have no objection that the seat of those Negotiations should be transferred from Washington to this place. Although my powers to treat respecting every subject connected with the Commerce of the two Countries may embrace that of a Consular Convention, yet, as this had not been contemplated by my Government, I am not at this time prepared to conclude an arrangement for that purpose. I request your Excellency to accept, &c. H. E. Count de Villèle. SIR, ALBERT GALLATIN. (237.)-Mr. Gallatin to the Secretary of State. Paris, 19th November, 1822. I RECEIVED last night, and have the honour to enclose a Copy of M. de Villèle's answer (dated 15th instant,) to my Letter of the 12th. You will perceive that, without taking any notice of the reasons I had urged, why a distinct Negotiation should be immediately opened on the subject of the claims against both Governments, he insists that this shall be treated in connection with the question respecting the construction of the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty. The object is too obvious to require any comments on my part, and this final decision leaves me no other course than to refer the whole to my GoI have the honour to be, &c. vernment. SIR, ALBERT GALLATIN. (Enclosure.)--M. de Villèle to Mr. Gallatin.--(Translation.) Paris, 15th November, 1822. You did me the honour to announce to me, on the 12th of this month, that you were authorized to negotiate a Convention relative to the claims of Americans against France, and to those of France against The United States; but, that you had no power to enter upon a Negotiation concerning the interpretation of the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty. The discussions which have arisen upon this last point between your Government and the King's Minister Plenipotentiary to The United States, having had no result, and this question being thus left undecided, it is both proper and just to resume the examination of it: it touches upon too great interests not to be treated of with renewed attention, or to be abandoned. If a new arrangement takes place for the claims, which are still in controversy, it ought to comprehend the whole, and the desire of the King's Government is not to leave any difficulty, any indecision, remaining in the relations of the two Countries. It is for the same reason, Sir, that I demanded, in the Letter which I had the honour to address to you on the 6th of this month, that the Negotiation to be opened on the respective claims should also include a Consular Convention. If your powers for discussing these difficult points should not ap pear to you sufficiently extensive to make it the object of a Negotia tion, I think, Sir, that you will deem it fit to ask of your Govenment supplementary authority, to come at an arrangement which cannot be of the utility proposed by the two Governments, unless it shall embrace all the questions and the claims which are still in dispute. I can only refer, Sir, on this subject, to the communications which I had the honour to make to you on the 6th of this month, and with which you have, doubtless, acquainted your Government. Mr. Gallatin. (Extract.) Accept, &c. JH. DE VILLELE. (250.)-Mr. Gallatin to the Secretary of State. Paris, 27th February, 1823. THE more I have reflected on the ground assumed by this Go vernment, on the subject of our claims, and on the attempt to connect their discussion with the question arising under the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty, the more I have felt satisfied that it was impossible that The United States should depart from the true construction of that Article, and acquiesce in that contended for by France, and that renewed discussion on that subject would be unprofitable, and lead to no result whatever. As a last, but I believed unavailing effort, I have concluded to express that conviction to the French Government, and have accordingly addressed, this day, to M. Chateaubriand the Letter of which I have the honour to enclose a Copy. Hon. J. Q. Adams. SIR, ALBERT GALLATIN. (Enclosure.)-Mr. Gallatin to M. de Chateaubriand. I HAD the honour to receive his Excellency Count de Villèle's Letter of the 15th November last, by which, notwithstanding the remon strances contained in mine of the 12th, his Excellency, being at that time charged with the department of Foreign Affairs, still insisted that the discussion of the claims of individuals of both Nations upon the two Governments, respectively, should not take place, unless it was connected with a renewed Negotiation on the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty. A conversation I had the honour to have with his Excellency the Duke de Montmorency, after his return from Verona, induced me to hope, although he did not encourage any expectations of a different result, that he would, however, again lay the subject before His Majesty's Council of Ministers. This circumstance, the subsequent change in the department of Foreign Affairs, and the objects of primary importance which have heretofore necessarily engrossed your Excellency's attention, have prevented an earlier official answer to his Excellency Count de Villèle's Letter. It has, together with the others on the same subject, as he had naturally anticipated, been of course transmitted to my Government. But, on a review of the correspondence of Mr. Adams with M. Hyde de Neuville, and with myself, I must express my perfect conviction that the subject having been maturely examined, and thoroughly discussed, there cannot be the least expectation that The United States will alter their view of it, or acquiesce in the construction put by His Majesty's Minister on the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty. It is not my intention, at this moment, to renew a discussion which seems to have been already exhausted; but I will beg leave, simply, to state the question to your Excellency. It was agreed, by the article above-mentioned, that the ships of France should for ever be treated upon the footing of the most favoured Nation in the Ports of Louisiana.* Vessels of certain foreign Nations being now treated in the Ports of the United States, including those of Louisiana, on the same footing with American vessels, in consideration of the American vessels being treated in the Ports of those Nations on the same footing with their own vessels, France has required that French vessels should, by virtue of the said Article, be treated in the Ports of Louisiana, on the same footing with the vessels of those Nations, without allowing, on her part, the consideration, or reciprocal condition, by virtue of which those vessels are thus treated. The United States contend, that the right to be treated upon the footing of the most favoured Nation, when not otherwise defined, and when expressed only in those words, is that, and can only be that, of being entitled to that treatment, gratuitously, if such Nation enjoys it gratuitously, and on paying the same equivalent, if it has been granted in consideration of an equivalent. Setting aside every collateral matter Treaty between The United States and France, Paris, 30th April, 1803, Art. VIII. In future and for ever, after the expiration of the 12 Years, the Ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favoured Nations, in the Ports above-mentioned. and subsidiary argument, they say that the Article in question, expressed as it is, can have no other meaning, is susceptible of no other construction, for this plain and incontrovertible reason: that, if the French vessels were allowed to receive, gratuitously, the same treatment which those of certain other Nations receive, only in consideration of an equivalent, they would not be treated as the most favoured Nation, but more favourably than any other Nation. And, since the Article must necessarily have the meaning contended for by The United States, and no other, the omission or insertion of words to define it is wholly immaterial, a definition being necessary only when the expressions used are of doubtful import, and the insertion of words to that effect in some other Treaties, belonging to that class of explanatory but superfluous phrases, of which instances are to be found in so many Treaties. It might, indeed, have, perhaps, been sufficient to say, that, in point of fact, there was no most favoured Nation in The United States, the right enjoyed by the vessels of certain foreign Nations to be treated in the Ports of The United States as American vessels, in consideration of American vessels receiving a similar treatment in the Ports of those Nations, not being a favour, but a mere act of reciprocity. Let me also observe, that the pretensions of France would, if admitted, leave no alternative to The United States, than either to suffer the whole commerce between France and Louisiana to be carried exclusively in French vessels, or to renounce the right of making arrange. ments with other Nations deemed essential to our prosperity, and having for object not to lay restrictions on Commerce, but to remove them. If the meaning of the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty was such, indeed, as has been contended for, on the part of France, The United States, bound to fulfil their engagements, must submit to the consequences, whatever these might be; but this having been proved not to be the case, the observation is made only to shew that The United States never can, either for the sake of obtaining indemnities for their citizens, or from their anxious desire to settle by conciliatory arrangements all their differences with France, be brought to acquieser in the erroneous construction put upon the Article in question. The proposal made by his Excellency Mr. de Villèle, in his Letter of the 6th November, and reiterated in that of the 15th, can, therefore, have no other effect than to produce unnecessary delays, and would, if persisted in, be tantamount to an indefinite postponement of the examination and settlement of the claims of the citizens of The United States. It will remain for His Majesty's Government to decide, whether this determination be consistent with justice, whether the reclamations of private individuals should be thus adjourned, because the two Governments happen to differ in opinion on a subject altogether foreign to those claims. Having nothing to add to my reiterated and unavailing applications on that subject, my only object at this moment has been, to show that I cannot expect any instructions from my Government that will alter the state of the question. I request your Excellency to accept the assurance, &c. H. E. Visct. de Chateaubriand. ALBERT GALLATIN.. AN ACT to carry into effect the 9th Article of the Treaty concluded between The United States and Spain, the 22d day of February, 1819.* Approved 3d March, 1823. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the Judges of * ART. IX. The Two High Contracting Parties, animated with the most earnest desire of conciliation, and with the object of putting an end to all the differences which have existed between them, and of confirming the good understanding which they wish to be for ever maintained between them, reciprocally renounce all claims for damages or injuries which they, themselves, as well as their respective Citizens and Subjects, may have suffered, until the time of signing this Treaty. The renunciation of The United States will extend: 1. To all the injuries mentioned in the Convention of the 11th August, 1802,* 2. To all Claims on account of Prizes made by French Privateers, and condemned by French Consuls, within the Territory and Jurisdiction of Spain. 8. To all Claims of Indemnities, on account of the suspension of the right of deposit at New Orleans, in the Year 1802. 4. To all Claims of Citizens of The United States upon the Government of Spain, arising from the unlawful seizures at Sea, and in the Ports and Territories of Spain, or the Spanish Colonies. 5. To all Claims of Citizens of The United States upon the Spanish Government, statements of which, soliciting the interposition of the Government of The United States, have been presented to the Department of State, or to the Minister of The United States in Spain, since the date of the Convention of 1802, and until the signature of this Treaty. The renunciation of His Catholick Majesty extends : 1. To all the injuries mentioned in the Convention of the 11th of August, 1802.* 2. To the sums which His Catholick Majesty advanced for the return of Captain Pike from the Provincias Internas. 3. To all injuries caused by the expedition of Miranda, that was fitted out and equipped at New York. 4. To all Claims of Spanish Subjects upon the Government of The United "A Convention between His Catholick Majesty and The United States of America, for the indemnification of those who have sustained losses, damages, or injuries, in consequence of the excesses of Individuals of either Nation during the late War, contrary to the existing Treaty or the Laws of Nations." |