1st Session. REPORT Ог THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON No. 44. FRENCH SPOLIATIONS PRIOR TO 1800, WITH THE VIEWS OF THE MINORITY OF THAT COMMITTEE. FEBRUARY 5, 1850. WASHINGTON: PRINTED FOR THE SENATE. 1850. The Select Committee to whom were referred the memorials of sundry citizens of the United States, praying indemnity for injuries received by the spoliation of the French prior to the 31st of July, 1801, having had the same under consideration, respectfully report: That these claims, in which large numbers of the citizens of this country are interested, have been pending before Congress for almost half a century. The committee find that, as early as the 5th of February, 1802, a memorial of sundry merchants of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, was presented to the House of Representatives, praying relief for injuries received as above indicated; and from that day to this the parties in interest, by memorials presented at nearly every session, have been urging Congress to grant them the redress to which they suppose themselves to be entitled. But, in a manner which is believed to be wholly unexampled in the history of the country, all final action on the subject was postponed until the first session of the twentyninth Congress, when a bill in conformity with the views of the petitioners passed the Senate and House of Representatives, but was vetoed by the President, and thus failed to become a law. The hopes of the petitioners so long deferred having been thus defeated, they are again constrained to appeal to Congress for that measure of justice which the circumstances of the case would seem clearly to indicate. The committee are of the opinion that the subject demands the early attention and prompt action of the Senate, and that a final disposition thereof should, if possible, be made at the present session. There is probably no subject submitted to Congress since the organization of the government under the constitution, in 1789, which has been so fully and thoroughly investigated by committees of the two houses as the present. Every essential fact having a bearing on the question, and every consideration of international law, combined with a full development of the proceedings of both the French and American governments in this regard, with an exposition of our diplomacy and numerous treaties, all, in the judgment of this committee, evincing conclusively the equity of these claims, have, from time to time, been laid before Congress. In the House of Representatives there have been presented no less than fourteen reports, as follows: select committee. do 3, 1st Mr. Russell, Com. For. Affairs. do In the Senate the subject has undergone an investigation by the committees thereof, in a manner equally elaborate, and reports have from time to time been submitted to this body, as follows: It is a remarkable fact, that there has not been a report adverse to these claims in either House of Congress since the President laid before the Senate, by message of May 20, 1826, the correspondence between the United States and France, relative to these claims. Prior to that disclosure, three adverse reports were made, to wit: one in the Senate, by Mr. Roberts, from the Committee of Claims, in 1818; and two in the House of Representatives, from the Committee on Foreign Affairs-the first by Mr. Russell, in 1822, and the other by Mr. Forsyth, in 1824; all of which were far from being positive in opposition to their justice. The papers communicated by the President in his message of the 20th May, 1826, poured a flood of light on the subject; and since then, every committee having the matter in charge have been constrained to come to the conclusion that these claims are just and equitable. This committee can only account for the unexampled delay which (in face of expositions of great cogency by some of the most accomplished jurists and statesmen that have occupied seats in this chamber) has occurred, by the magnitude of the claims, and the large draught which their allowance would make on the treasury of the United States. It would be difficult to find anywhere a more striking illustration of the truth of the axiom, that delay is a denial of justice. As long ago as the 11th of February, 1829, a committee of this body proposed, as an indemnity for these claims, two millions of dollars; and to make to the sufferers an equivalent, would now require an appropriation of four million five hundred and twenty thousand dollars-the interest at six per cent., up to this date, being two million five hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Soon after, to wit: on the 22d of February, 1830, another committee of the Senate, at the head of which was the learned and accomplished Edward Livingston, being fully convinced that the sum above named was inadequate, recommended an indemnity of five millions of dollars-the equivalent of which at this time would be eleven millions of dollars. Since then, the committees of the Senate have been incessantly reiterating the same measure of justice for these claimants; and the same remark may be made of the committees of the House. At the second session of the twenty-third Congress a bill passed the Senate, appropriating five millions of dollars for the purpose aforesaid; but it failed in the House for want of time. At the second session of the twenty-eighth Congress, the Senate, after full discussion, ordered a bill for a like sum to a third reading, by a vote of yeas 26, nays 15; which was not reached for want of time. And, again, the Senate took up the subject at the first session of the twenty-ninth Congress, and gave a renewed expression of their sense of the justice of these claims by an appropriation of the same amount, in which the House concurred; but the bill was defeated, as already stated, by reason of the dissent of the Executive. To make to these claimants now an equivalent for the sum comprised in the bill of the twenty-ninth Congress, would require an appropriation of six million two hundred thousand dollars. The committee have gone into these details to show the injustice of these tantalizing propositions, and to impress on the Senate the necessity of early action on the subject. To this conclusion we are further urged by the fact that nearly all of the original claimants have been compelled to submit to the inexorable law of our nature; and their heirs, whose only patrimony, by reason of the outrages of France and the injustice of their own government, is penury and want, are extending their imploring hands to the Congress of the present day for relief. The committee do not deem it to be necessary to go into an exposition of the considerations of fact, equity, and justice which constitute, in their judgment, a solid basis for this appeal; and they would refer the Senate to the annexed report from the pen of that eminent jurisconsult and statesman, Mr. Livingston, as constituting an adequate expression of their sense of the merits of these claims. They have prepared a bill for the relief of the claimants, and respectfully recommend its passage. |