Of all doubts, there are none more painful or indefensible than those by which human rights are put in jeopardy.

He was a Representative of Illinois, born in Maine when Maine was part of Massachusetts, which made him a connecting link between the East and the West. The welcome he found in the West, and his complete fellowship with that region, while his sympathies overflowed to his early home, attest better than arguments the ligatures binding together these different parts of our common Union; so that, hereafter, should any malignant spirit seek to sow strife between us, his name alone will be a standing protest against the alienation. Born in the East, he was honored in the West. Honored in the West, he never lost his love for the East. But the whole country, not excepting the South, had a home in his patriotic, hospitable, and capacious heart. He hated Slavery; but he loved his country in every part, with heart, soul, and mind.

He was of the Old Guard of Antislavery, and we bury him with the honors that belong to such a soldier. Flags are at half-mast, and funeral guns are sounding in our hearts. But from his new-made grave he speaks now to the whole vast Republic, animating all good citizens to labor as he labored and to live as he lived, that this land may be redeemed. Especially does he speak to the State that honored him in life, and to those associate States constituting the mighty Northwest, where he found the home of his mature years,—Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota,—exhorting them to take up bravely and without faltering the cause he made his own, that it may not lose by his death. But, alas! the vigilance of many will be needed to supply the place he filled.

Such a character must be mourned in Congress; but he will be mourned throughout the country, at all those virtuous firesides where fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters speak of those who have helped human happiness on earth. And there is another company, who cannot yet pronounce his name, but, as they hear how truly he was their friend, will rise to call him blessed. Already, unseen of men, in vast uncounted procession, the slaves of the Union help to swell his funeral.

COLORED SUFFRAGE IN THE TERRITORY OF MONTANA.

MR. PRESIDENT,—The multiplication table tells us that two and two make four. Now, if a tribunal honored like the Supreme Court should undertake to declare that two and two make five, and a Senator as distinguished as the Senator from Maryland should uphold the high tribunal in its decision, I am not satisfied that it would be presumptuous in me to call that decision in question. But the Dred Scott decision was as absurd and irrational as such a reversal of the multiplication table, besides shocking the moral sense of mankind. The Senator will pardon the little scruple with which I denounce it. I claim nothing for myself; I may be weak; but, according to the measure of my abilities as God has given them to me, I enter a standing protest against that atrocious judgment, which was false in law, and also false in the history with which it sought to maintain its false law.

The Senator seems to imply that I am not familiar with the case. Sir, I know it too well. I have read carefully the opinion of the Chief Justice, which the Senator now vaunts, and I have read, also, the opposing opinions, by the side of which that much vaunted opinion is dwarfed into the pettiness proper to a production in such a cause, ignoble in character, and impotent except in that little brief authority incident to judicial rank. The Senator pleads for this judgment in the name of jurisprudence, of justice, and of the nation. Sir, by the same title I denounce it,—in the name of jurisprudence, which it disgraces, of justice, which it denies, and of the nation it has offended.

Among the influences and agencies that helped forward the present Rebellion, and set fellow-citizens in bloody conflict with each other, the Dred Scott decision must always be held in dismal memory. It gave conspirators new confidence. It filled patriots for a while with despair. It became the platform of Slavery, whose tyrannical behests would have triumphed, had this decision been allowed to prevail. Hating the Rebellion in its origin and all the circumstances that nursed it into wicked being, we must hate this decision.

But the Senator wandered into eulogy of that old Supreme Court, now departed, when Marshall was Chief Justice, and from the past claimed consideration for the present. Sir, I have been no careless student of that court in its great and palmy days. I know the learning, wisdom, and ability of its judgments, and am proud that there are such pages in the jurisprudence of my country. My sentiments toward the court of that day are warmed, also, by personal experience. It is among the cherished reminiscences of early life, that I was privileged to know, as a youth might know, the illustrious magistrate whom the Senator praises so well. He received me at his table, and allowed me to accompany him in his morning walks to the court-room. He was a venerable character. But I pray the Senator not to claim for the Dred Scott decision any of the reverence justly belonging to his name. There is no question of tribute to Chief Justice Marshall, or respect for the tribunal while he presided over it. The Dred Scott decision is more noticed from contrast with all that is good and great in the decisions of other days. It is sad that the tribunal that had established such an authority among us should do an act by which its authority has been endangered.

This whole debate is in the nature of a diversion or a deviation, and therefore I bring it back to the precise point from which it started. The Senator from Maryland invoked the Dred Scott decision as a reason why Congress should not recognize colored persons as citizens. In reply I simply asserted the right of Congress to interpret the Constitution without constraint from the Supreme Court, and this I now repeat. Each branch of the Government must interpret the Constitution for itself, according to its own sense of obligation under the oath we have all taken. And God forbid that Congress should consent to wear the strait-jacket of the Dred Scott decision!

It will be observed that in this Ordinance, to which we so often refer as a commanding authority, there is no discrimination of color. Now I ask if this is not a good precedent. Like the present bill, it was applicable to a vast unsettled Territory. Senators may say that our fathers, in the Ordinance, were not practical. I am not of that number. Senators may say that our fathers, in the Declaration of Independence, were not practical. I am not of that number. Senators may say that our fathers, in the Constitution of the United States, which contains no discrimination of color, were not practical. I am not of that number. Sir, I believe that the authors of this Ordinance, and the authors of the Declaration of Independence, and the authors of the Constitution were eminently practical, when they excluded from those instruments any discrimination of color. But it is said that there are no persons in the new Territory to whom the principle is now applicable. This can make no difference. It is something to declare a principle, and I cannot hesitate to say that at this moment the principle is much more important than the bill. The bill may be postponed, but the principle must not be postponed.

Mr. Sumner. Certainly.

Mr. Sumner. Practically, the subject-matter of this clause is not Indians, but the well-known African race of this continent; and it is proposed, by specious words wrapped up in a clause borrowed from another bill, to exclude them from the right of suffrage in this Territory; and the argument for this injustice, as my friend from New Hampshire [Mr. Hale] has so ably stated, is only a reproduction of that well-known ancient argument for Slavery in the Territories. How often were we in those days compelled to encounter the charge that we were not practical,—that we were urging a prohibition, when there was no occasion for it! For myself, I believe you cannot too often assert a prohibition of Slavery, nor too often assert human rights, wherever they may be called in question; and especially do I believe in the importance of such assertion when you are laying the foundations of a new community. “Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.” These are familiar words of childhood. Would my friend from Maine have the tree that he plants grow up with a generous and protecting shelter for all mankind, or shall it be the bent and crabbed product of unhappy prejudices which are only a growth of Slavery? I know my friend means no such thing; but I insist that the policy he recommends tends to such fatal end. For myself, Sir, I am satisfied with the Declaration of Independence; I am satisfied with the Constitution on this important subject; and, adopting the language of our Lieutenant-General in the field, I desire to say, “I will fight on this line to the end, even if it takes all summer.” There is no line better than that of human rights. While fighting on that line, I cannot err; there is no pertinacity too great; there is no ardor that is not respectable. I thank General Grant for these words. They express his own steadfast purpose, and we all thank him. But each, in his sphere, may make them his own. I make them mine, wherever human rights are in question.

CLAIMS ON FRANCE FOR SPOLIATIONS OF AMERICAN COMMERCE PRIOR TO JULY 31, 1801.

The welfare of the Republic requires that there should he an end of “suits,” lest, while men are mortal, these should be immortal. Such is a venerable maxim of the law, illustrated by the case before the Committee. The present claims have outlived all the original sufferers, and at least two generations of those who have so ably enforced them in the Halls of Congress. Against their unwonted vitality death has not been able to prevail.

CHARACTER OF THESE CLAIMS.

Of all claims in our history, these are most associated with great events and great sacrifices. First in time, they are also first in character, for they spring from the very cradle of the Republic and the trials of its infancy. To comprehend them, you must know, first, how independence was won, and, secondly, how, at a later day, peace was assured. Other claims have been personal or litigious; these are historic. Here were “individual” losses, felt at the time most keenly, and constituting an unanswerable claim upon France, which, at a critical moment, were employed by our Government, like a credit or cash in hand, to purchase release from outstanding “national” obligations, so that the whole country became at once trustee of these sufferers, bound, of course, to gratitude for the means thus contributed, but bound also to indemnify them against these losses. And yet these sufferers, thus unique in situation, have been compelled to see all other claims for foreign spoliations satisfied, while they alone have been turned away. At the beginning of our history, our plundered fellow-citizens obtained compensation to the amount of many million dollars on account of British spoliations. Similar indemnities have been obtained since from Spain, Naples, Denmark, Mexico, and the South American states, while, by the famous Convention of 1831, France contributed five million dollars to the satisfaction of spoliations under the Continental system of Napoleon. Spain stipulated to pay for every ship or cargo taken within Spanish waters, even by the French; so that French spoliations on our commerce within Spanish waters have been paid for, but French spoliations on our commerce elsewhere before 1800 are still unredeemed. Such has been the fortune of claimants the most meritorious of all.

In all other cases there has been simply a claim for foreign spoliations, but without superadded obligation on the part of our Government. Here is a claim for foreign spoliations, the precise counterpart of all other claims, but with superadded obligation, on the part of our Government, in the nature of a debt, constituting an assumpsit, or implied promise to pay; so that these sufferers are not merely claimants on account of French spoliations, but they are also creditors on account of a plain assumption by the National Government of the undoubted liability of France. The appeal of these creditor claimants is enhanced beyond the pecuniary interests involved, when we consider the nature of this assumption, and especially that in this way our country obtained final release from embarrassing stipulations with France contracted in the war for national independence. Regarding it, therefore, as debt, it constitutes part of that sacred debt incurred for national independence, and is the only part now outstanding and unpaid.

PRELIMINARY OBJECTIONS.

Before proceeding to consider the nature of existing obligations on the part of the United States, the Committee ask attention to three objections which they encounter on the threshold: the first, founded on the alleged antiquity of the original claims; the second, on the alleged character of the actual possessors; and the third, on the present condition of the country.

I.—CLAIMS ANCIENT, BUT NOT STALE.

It is said that the claims are ancient and stale, and therefore not to be entertained. It is true that the claims are the most ancient of any now pending, and that they date from the very origin of our existence as a nation. But in this respect they do not differ from a Revolutionary pension or a Revolutionary claim. Down to this day there is a standing committee of the Senate, entitled “Committee on Revolutionary Claims”; but if a claim traced to the Revolution must be rejected for staleness, there can be little use for this committee. If these claims, after uninterrupted sleep throughout the long intervening period, were now for the first time revived, they might be obnoxious to this imputation. But, as from the beginning of the century they have occupied the attention of Congress, and been sustained by speeches, reports, and votes, it is impossible to say that they have been allowed to sleep.

The whole case was stated with admirable succinctness, as long ago as 1807, by Mr. Marion, of South Carolina, in the report of a committee of the House of Representatives.

Claims thus authoritatively stated at that early day cannot be overcome by any sleep.

It is true that these claims were pressed with less constancy and determination at the beginning of the century than at a later day. But there are two sufficient reasons for the change. First, the evidence on which they are founded was less generally known at the beginning than afterward. It was only in 1826, under the administration of John Quincy Adams, by the communication to Congress of the ample materials accumulated in the Archives of State, that the true strength of the case was fully revealed. Here, in one full volume, was the documentary history of the whole double transaction,[112] showing at once the original obligation of France, and the substituted obligation of the United States, reinforced by the associations of our own Revolutionary history. A more sufficient reason for this change is found in the fact, that for some time in the early part of the century our country was still laboring under pressure of the Revolutionary debt. As this pressure was gradually removed, and the national resources became more apparent, these claims were naturally urged with more confidence, until, on the final extinction of that debt, they occupied the attention of the best minds in both Houses of Congress.

No single question in our history has been the subject of such a succession of able reports. Whether counted or weighed, these reports are equally exceptional. They are no less than forty-one in number, twenty-two in the Senate and nineteen in the House. Among the eminent characters whose names they bear are Edward Livingston, John Holmes, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Caleb Gushing, Charles J. Ingersoll, John M. Clayton, and Rufus Choate. Out of the whole number only three have been adverse,—one in the Senate and two in the House. But the three adverse reports were evasive only, besides being prior to the communication of the decisive evidence on the subject. The thirty-six reports since that communication were all in favor of the claims.[113]

Resolutions in favor of these claims by thirteen States, being the original number which declared independence, have been presented to Congress between the years 1832 and 1858. Some States, not content with one series, have repeated their resolutions, and accompanied them with elaborate arguments. They all tend to the conclusion that it is the duty of Congress, without further delay, to provide for these claims; and Senators and Representatives are earnestly requested to use their best exertions for an Act of Congress to carry this obligation into effect.

Memorials and petitions from the beginning testify to the sleeplessness of these claims. On the 5th of February, 1802, only forty-six days after the promulgation of the Convention of 1800, they began, and they have continued from that early day down to this very session of Congress, making in all four thousand six hundred and two. Of these, nineteen hundred and thirty-one were in the Senate, two thousand six hundred and seventy-one in the House. They are chiefly from original sufferers, their executors, administrators, assigns, widows, and heirs, residing in the large seaports from which the despoiled vessels originally sailed; but there are some from all parts of the country, where, in the vicissitudes of life, the representatives of original sufferers have been carried,—all of which may be seen in the list of these petitioners.[114]

Two several times—once under President Polk, and again under President Pierce—both Houses of Congress concurred in an act for the relief of these claimants; but this tardy justice was arrested by Presidential veto.

In the face of this constant succession of reports, resolutions of State Legislatures, and petitions, constituting not only “continual claim,” but continual recognition of the claim,—the whole crowned by two several Acts of Congress,—it is impossible to infer negligence in the claimants, or, indeed, any assumption of inordinate confidence. They have had good reason to believe that they should be successful. Under such circumstances, the lapse of time, sometimes urged against them, becomes an argument in their favor; for it adds constantly recurring testimony to their merits, besides a new title from the disappointment to which they have been doomed. Claims beginning thus early, and thus sustained, may be ancient, but they cannot be stale.

II.—POSSESSORS OF THE CLAIMS ARE NOT SPECULATORS.

A trivial remark, which is rather slur than objection, may justify a moment’s attention. It is sometimes said that these claims are no longer the property of the original sufferers or their representatives, but that they have passed, like a fancy stock, into the hands of speculators. This remark, if it had foundation in fact, has little in equity. It would be hardly creditable for a government to take advantage of its own procrastination, and refuse just compensation, because the original sufferer had been compelled by unwelcome necessity to discount his claims.

From the nature of the case, such claims, being unliquidated, do not readily pass from hand to hand, but remain in the original custody, as has become apparent in ample experience. Precisely the same reflection was cast upon the claims against Spain, Denmark, and Naples,—and, indeed, it is cast upon long outstanding claims generally, until it has become a commonplace of sarcasm. The records of successive Commissions which have liquidated foreign claims afford its best refutation. In every case these Commissions required proof of property; but the evidence disclosed that the original sufferers, or their legal representatives, including heirs, executors, assignees of bankrupts, persons having a lien for advances, or underwriters, possessing in law and equity the same right as the original sufferers, were actual possessors of the larger part. There is no reason to suppose that it would be otherwise with the claims for French spoliations. On the contrary, it is believed that they remain substantially unchanged, except by legal inheritance.

The great speculator has been Death; for there are few of these claims that have not passed through his hands. Such a transfer cannot draw the title into doubt, especially when we consider the character of the petitioners whose names are spread on the journals of Congress. It is well known that in many families these claims still exist as heirlooms, transmitted by ancestral care in full confidence that sooner or later they will be recognized by the Government.

III.—PRESENT CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY NO REASON AGAINST PAYMENT OF JUST DEBTS.

It is sometimes suggested, that, even assuming the meritorious character of these claims, yet, in the present condition of the country, they ought to be postponed. Looking at the practical consequences of this suggestion, it will be found, that, though plausible in form, it is fatal in substance. Any postponement must inevitably throw these claims into direct competition with those now accumulating on account of losses during the Rebellion, having in their favor the swelling sympathies of our time. It is not unjust to human nature, if the Committee say that the distant in time, like the distant in space, is too often out of mind. If the earlier claims are just, they should not be exposed to the hazards of any such competition, when feeling will be stronger than reason. From the probability of future claims, whose shadows already commence, the argument is strengthened for the immediate satisfaction of those now existing, especially when we consider their character and origin.

The resources of the people are tasked to put down the Rebellion which Slavery has aroused. Let nothing be stinted. But there is another duty not to be forgotten. The just debts of the Republic must be paid, to the last dollar. Here, also, nothing must be stinted; and the glory of the one will be kindred to the glory of the other. The Republic will have new title to love at home and to honor abroad, when with one hand it overcomes the Rebellion now menacing its existence, and with the other does justice to ancient petitioners, long neglected, constituting the only remaining creditors left to us from the War of Independence.

STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION.

Therefore, putting aside all preliminary objections from alleged antiquity, from the character of the actual possessors, or from the present condition of the country, the Committee insist that the present obligations of the United States must be determined according to principles of justice and the facts of the case. The hearing now is as if there had been no lapse of time since the obligations accrued, and as if no war now existed to task the country.

Is the money justly due? To answer this question, the subject must be considered in detail, under several heads.

First. Claims of citizens of the United States against France, founded on spoliations of our commerce, as seen in their origin and history.

Secondly. Counter claims of France, founded on treaty stipulations and services rendered in the War of Independence, also as seen in their origin and history.

Thirdly. The Convention of 1800 and the reciprocal release of the two Governments, by which the “individual” claims of the petitioners were treated as a set-off to the “national” claims of France.

Fourthly. The assumption by our Government of the obligations of France, so that the United States were substituted for France, and became liable to these petitioners as France had been liable.

After considering these heads in their order, it will be proper to review the objections alleged against the liability of the United States: (1.) from the semi-hostile relations between France and the United States anterior to the Convention; (2.) from payments under the Louisiana Treaty; (3.) from payments under the Convention with France in 1831; (4.) from the Act of Congress annulling the early treaties with France; (5.) from the early efforts of our Government to obtain from France the satisfaction of these claims; and (6.) from the desperate character attributed to these claims at the time of their abandonment.

The question of “just compensation” will present itself last: (1.) in the advantages secured to the United States by the sacrifice of these claims; (2.) in the value of the losses which the claimants suffered; and (3.) in the recommendation of the Committee.

The subject is of such importance, from the magnitude of interests involved, and from its historic character, that the minuteness of this inquiry will not be regarded as superfluous.

I.
CLAIMS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS IN THEIR ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

The history of French spoliations on our commerce is a gloomy chapter, where a friendly power, assuming the name of Republic, shows itself fitful, passionate, and unjust. This conduct is more remarkable, when it is considered, that, only a short time before, France, while yet a kingdom, contributed treasure and blood to sustain our national independence. And yet an explanation may be found in the extraordinary temper of the times. By a generous uprising of the people the kingdom was overthrown, and then, as the alarmed royalties of Europe intervened, the head of the monarch was flung to them as a gage of battle. The gage had been accepted in advance, and all those royalties, by successive treaties, entered into coalition against France. The fleets of England came tardily into the great contest, but their presence gave to it a new character, and enveloped ocean as well as land in its flames. The growing commerce of the United States suffered from both sides, but especially from France, driven to frenzy by the British attempt, in the exercise of belligerent rights, to starve a whole nation.

French feelings were still further aroused against the United States, when, instead of friendship and alliance, France was encountered by the Proclamation of Neutrality launched by Washington on the 22d April, 1793, where he undertook, in behalf of the United States, to “adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers.”[115] Here, according to France, was a failure not only of that proper sympathy due from us, but even of solemn duties pledged by those early treaties which helped to secure the national independence. This failure, which became afterward the occasion of counter claims, contributed to the exasperations of the time.

An early apology, addressed to the American minister at Paris by the French Government, attests the spoliations which had begun, and discloses also their indefensible character, unless the common language spoken by the English and ourselves was a sufficient excuse. Here are the exact words:—

Thus recklessly did these spoliations begin. The National Convention associated itself with this injustice, when, on the 9th May, 1793, only seventeen days after the Proclamation of Neutrality, but before it had arrived in France, a retaliatory decree was issued in response to the British attempt at starvation,—arresting all neutral vessels laden with provisions and destined to an enemy port. The decree itself did not disguise that it was a violation of neutral rights; but the necessity of the hour was pleaded, and indemnity was promised to neutrals suffering by its operation.[117] Unwilling to await the dilatory performance of this promise, our minister at Paris remonstrated against the application of the decree to vessels of the United States. Amidst vacillations of the National Convention, which, under the urgency of our minister, at one time seemed to relent, the decree continued to be enforced against property of American citizens. Here were spoliations, confessed at the time to be in violation of neutral rights, which still rise in judgment.

As this intelligence reached the United States, our whole commerce was fluttered. Merchants hesitated to expose ships and cargoes to such cruel hazards. It was necessary that something should be done to enlist again their activity. The National Government came forward voluntarily, with assurance of protection and redress, in a circular letter, dated 27th August, 1793, when Mr. Jefferson, the Secretary of State, in the name of the President, used the following language: “I have it in charge from the President to assure the merchants of the United States concerned in foreign commerce or navigation, that due attention will be paid to any injuries they may suffer on the high seas or in foreign countries, contrary to the Law of Nations or to existing treaties, and that, on their forwarding hither well-authenticated evidence of the same, proper proceedings will be adopted for their relief.”[118] This circular was confirmed by President Washington, in his message of December 5, 1793, where he speaks as follows: “The vexations and spoliation understood to have been committed on our vessels and commerce by the cruisers and officers of some of the belligerent powers appeared to require attention. The proofs of these, however, not having been brought forward, the description of citizens supposed to have suffered were notified, that, on furnishing them to the Executive, due measures would be taken to obtain redress of the past and more effectual provisions against the future.”[119] Here, then, was a double promise from the National Government, and under its encouragement our merchants resumed their commerce, venturing once more upon the ocean. Their Government had tempted them, and, on the occurrence of “injuries on the high seas,” these good citizens, according to instructions, made haste to lodge with the Department of State the “well-authenticated evidence of the same.” Their children and grandchildren are waiting, even now, the promised redress.

Thus, at the very beginning, these spoliations were recognized by both Governments in their true character. The National Convention, even in its arbitrary edict, confessed them. The Administration of Washington, in its solemn assurance of protection, also confessed them. Offspring of wrongful violence in the heat of war, they were regarded on both sides as indefensible. Ministers, in this respect, reflected the sentiments of the two Governments. Fauchet, the French minister at Philadelphia, in a communication to the Secretary of State, under date of March 27, 1794, expressed himself in this manner: “If any of your merchants have suffered any injury by the conduct of our privateers, (a thing which would be contrary to the intention and express orders of the Republic,) they may with confidence address themselves to the French Government, which will never refuse justice to those whose claims shall be legal.”[120] Mr. Morris, our minister at Paris, under date of March 6, 1794, gave vent to his feelings: “These captures create great confusion, must produce much damage to mercantile men, and are a source of endless and well-founded complaint. Every post brings me piles of letters about it from all quarters, and I see no remedy.… In the mean time, if I would give way to the clamors of the injured parties, I ought to make demands very like a declaration of war.”[121] But M. Buchot, the French Commissioner of Foreign Relations, addressed Mr. Morris the following soothing words, under date of July 5, 1794: “The sentiments of the Convention and of the Government towards your fellow-citizens are too well known to you to leave a doubt of their dispositions to make good the losses which the circumstances inseparable from a great revolution may have caused some American navigators to experience.”[122] Such was the testimony, at that day, of ministers on both sides.

Meanwhile, Genet, the French minister, was recalled, at the instance of President Washington, on account of presumptuous interference in our affairs, especially hostile to the Proclamation of Neutrality; and John Jay reached London to negotiate the treaty of 1794 which goes under his name. The latter event added to the exasperation of France. But Mr. Monroe, who took the place of Mr. Morris at Paris, was full of sympathy for the new republic, even when he frankly discharged his unpleasant duties. In a communication to the Committee of Public Safety, under date of October 18, 1794, he exposed “a frightful picture of difficulties and losses, equally injurious to both countries, and which, if suffered to continue, will unavoidably interrupt for the time the commercial intercourse between them.”[123] Notwithstanding this strong language, his influence was thought to have prevailed so far that President Washington ventured to announce, in a confidential message of February 28, 1795, good news for our plundered merchants. “It affords me,” he said, “the highest pleasure to inform Congress that perfect harmony reigns between the two republics, and that those claims are in a train of being discussed with candor, and of being amicably adjusted.”[124] This perfect harmony was short-lived, and the hopes flowering from it were nipped.

The rumor of Mr. Jay’s negotiations with England had already produced uneasiness in France; but when the treaty, on its ratification, in October, 1795, was finally divulged, there was an outburst against us. The treaty was pronounced to be in violation of existing engagements with France, and our whole policy was openly branded by the President of the Directory, in reply to Mr. Monroe, as a “condescension of the American Government to the wishes of its ancient tyrants.”[125] The Directory refused to receive Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, sent by our Government in place of James Monroe. Meanwhile, by a succession of cruel edicts, it unleashed all its cruisers to despoil our commerce, and cry havoc wherever they sailed. On the 2d July, 1796, it was declared that “the French Republic will treat neutral vessels, either as to confiscation, as to searches, or capture, in the same manner as they shall suffer the English to treat them.”[126] The indefinite terms of this edict were justly denounced by our Government, as “giving scope for arbitrary constructions, and consequently for unlimited oppression and vexation.”[127] These results were soon manifest. With contagious injustice, the French commissioners at San Domingo reported to the Government at home, “that, having found no resource in finance, and knowing the unfriendly disposition of the Americans, and to avoid perishing in distress, they had armed for cruising, and that already eighty-seven cruisers were at sea, and that for three months preceding the Administration had subsisted and individuals been enriched with the products of those prizes.”[128] So extensively did this brutality prevail, that it was announced that American vessels “no longer entered the French ports, unless carried in by force.”[129]

This spirit of hostility broke forth in another edict of the Directory, which became at once a universal scourge to American commerce. This fulmination, bearing date March 2, 1797, after enlarging the list of contraband, and ordaining other measures of rigor, proceeds to declare all American vessels lawful prize, if found without a rôle d’équipage, or circumstantial list of the crew:[130] all of which was in violation of existing treaties, and also of American usage, which notoriously did not require, among a ship’s papers, any such list. No edict was so comprehensive in its sweep; for, as all our vessels were without this safeguard, they were all defenceless. Numberless spoliations ensued, so absolutely lawless and unjust that John Marshall did not hesitate to record of them in his journal, under date of December 17, 1797, “The claims of the American citizens for property captured and condemned for want of a rôle d’équipage” constituted “as complete a right as any individuals ever possessed.”[131] This right, thus complete, according to the judgment of our great authority, enters into a large part of the claims still pending before Congress.

As if to perfect this strange, eventful history, a third edict, at once inhospitable and unjust, was launched by the Directory, January 18, 1798, prohibiting “every foreign vessel which in the course of her voyage shall have entered into an English port from being admitted into a port of the French Republic, except in case of necessity,” and, still further, handing over to condemnation “every vessel found at sea loaded in whole or in part with merchandise the production of England or of her possessions.”[132] This edict was promptly denounced by the American plenipotentiaries newly arrived at Paris. In earnest, vigorous tones, they said that it invaded at the same time the interests and the independence of neutral powers,—that it took from them the profits of an honest and lawful industry, as well as the inestimable privilege of conducting their own affairs as their own judgment might direct,—and that acquiescence in it would establish a precedent for national degradation, authorizing any measures power might be disposed to practise.[133] Our plenipotentiaries depicted the spirit in which French spoliations had their origin, and the humiliating consequences of submission to the outrage; but the personal sufferers are, down to this day, without redress.

Perplexed and indignant, the United States constituted a special mission of three eminent citizens, Mr. Pinckney, Mr. Marshall, and Mr. Gerry, who were charged to secure indemnity for these spoliations. In his elaborate instructions, dated July 15, 1797, the Secretary of State, Mr. Pickering, lays down the following rule of conduct: “In respect to the depredations on our commerce, the principal objects will be to agree on an equitable mode of examining and deciding the claims of our citizens, and the manner and periods of making them compensation.… The proposed mode of adjusting those claims, by commissioners appointed on each side, is so perfectly fair, we cannot imagine that it will be refused.” Although this reparation was not made “an indispensable condition of the proposed treaty,” yet the plenipotentiaries were enjoined “not to renounce these claims of our citizens, nor to stipulate that they be assumed by the United States as a loan to the French Government.”[134] Thus fully were these claims recognized at the time by our Government, and most carefully placed under the protection of our plenipotentiary triumvirate.

The triumvirate found the French Republic in no mood of justice. Bonaparte was then triumphant at the head of the army of Italy, and Talleyrand was exhibiting his remarkable powers at the head of the foreign relations of France. Victory had given confidence, and the exulting Republic was standing tiptoe, more disposed to strike than negotiate, unless it could dictate, and implacable always towards England and all supposed to sympathize with that power. After exactions and humiliations hard to bear, the plenipotentiaries were compelled to return home without any official reception by the intoxicated Government to which they were accredited, but not before they had encountered the masterly ability of Talleyrand, who, in reply to their statement of the claims of the United States, presented the counter claims of France. Though in Paris merely on sufferance, they had unofficial interviews with various agents of the Republic, and even with Talleyrand himself; but without dwelling on details not pertinent to the occasion, it is enough to say, that, while refusing to offer a loan or bribe, they were able to declare frankly “that France had taken violently from America more than fifteen millions of dollars, and treated us in every respect as enemies”;[135] and also to receive from Talleyrand a concession, recorded in one of their despatches, that “some of those claims were probably just,” with the inquiry, “whether, if they were acknowledged by France, we could not give a credit as to the payment,—say, for two years?”[136] Here again was an admission not to be forgotten.

The return of our disappointed plenipotentiaries was aggravated by circumstances which an eminent Continental writer has not hesitated to brand as “unique in the annals of diplomacy.”[137] They had been invited to contribute a gratification of twelve hundred thousand francs, and the whole desperate intrigue, conducted by persons known in the correspondence as W, X, Y, Z, was unveiled to the world. The country was indignant, and war seemed imminent. By various acts of legislation Congress entered upon preparations, summoning Washington from retirement to gird on his sword once more as Lieutenant-General. The claims for French spoliations were never absent from mind. By Act of the 28th May, 1798, public vessels of the United States were authorized to capture all “armed vessels sailing under authority or pretence of authority from the Republic of France,” “which shall have committed, or which shall be found hovering on the coasts of the United States for the purpose of committing, depredations on the vessels belonging to citizens thereof”; and this statute was introduced by a preamble asserting “depredations on the commerce of the United States, … in violation of the Law of Nations and treaties between the United States and the French nation.” By Act of June 13, 1798, all commercial intercourse was suspended between the United States and France, until “the Government of France … shall clearly disavow, and shall be found to refrain from, the aggressions, depredations, and hostilities which have been and are by them encouraged and maintained against the vessels and other property of the citizens of the United States.” By Act of June 25, 1798, merchant vessels of the United States were authorized to resist search or seizure by any French armed vessel, to repel assaults, and to capture the aggressors, until “the Government of France … shall disavow, and shall cause the commanders and crews of all armed French vessels to refrain from, the lawless depredations and outrages hitherto encouraged and authorized by that Government against the merchant vessels of the United States.” By Act of July 7, 1798, the treaties with France were declared to be no longer obligatory on the United States; and this statute was introduced by a preamble asserting that “the just claims of the United States for reparation of injuries have been refused, and their attempts to negotiate an amicable adjustment of all complaints between the two nations have been repelled with indignity.” Thus, by express words, in repeated acts, did Congress recognize these claims.

By such vigorous measures were the rights of these claimants asserted, while the country assumed an attitude of defence. The French Directory became less intolerable, and negotiations were invited again, with assurance that the former rudeness should not be renewed. John Adams was President, and for the sake of peace he seized the opportunity of this overture, by appointing Chief Justice Ellsworth, Patrick Henry, and William Vans Murray as a second plenipotentiary triumvirate to France. As Mr. Henry declined, Mr. Davie, of North Carolina, was substituted in his place. In adjusting the instructions President Adams himself took a personal part, as appears by a letter to the Secretary of State, where he says: “The principal points, indeed all the points, of the negotiation were so minutely considered and approved by me and all the heads of department that nothing remains but to put them into form and dress: this service I pray you to perform as promptly as possible.”[138] But “all the points” were three only: 1st, Indemnity for spoliations of American commerce; 2d, The unquestionable wrong of seizing American vessels for want of the paper known to French law as rôle d’équipage; 3d, The refusal to renew the treaty guaranty of the French West Indies. Such were the ultimata originally settled by the President and his cabinet on the 11th of March, 1799, and afterwards fully developed in the elaborate instructions of Mr. Pickering, dated 22d October, 1799, which, after announcing that “the conduct of the French Republic would well have justified an immediate declaration of war on the part of the United States,” proceeded to declare, as the first point, that the plenipotentiaries, “at the opening of the negotiation, will inform the French ministers that the United States expect from France, as an indispensable condition of the treaty, a stipulation to make to the citizens of the United States full compensation for all losses and damages which they shall have sustained by reason of irregular or illegal captures or condemnations of their vessels and other property.” And the instructions end, as they began, by declaring, first among the terms, “that an article be inserted for establishing a board with suitable powers to hear and determine the claims of our citizens, and binding France to pay or secure payment of the sums which shall be awarded.”[139] Observe the positiveness of the assertion.

These instructions attest the interest of our Government. Placed first among the ultimata adopted in the councils of President Adams, these indemnities were placed first in the diplomatic instructions. There is yet other evidence of the character and amount of the spoliations. The Secretary of State, in a report to Congress, dated January 18, 1799, after attributing them to French feeling on account of the British treaty, proceeds to characterize them in remarkable words: “Yet that treaty had been made by the French Government its chief pretence for those unjust and cruel depredations on American commerce which have brought distress on multitudes and ruin on many of our citizens, and occasioned a total loss of property to the United States of probably more than twenty millions of dollars.”[140] Such were the outrages for which our plenipotentiaries were to seek redress.

The Directory had ceased; but on reaching Paris the plenipotentiaries were cordially received by Talleyrand, the citizen minister of Foreign Affairs, who without delay presented them to the First Consul as he was about to mount for that wonderful campaign which, opening with the passage of the Alps, closed at Marengo. Negotiations commenced at once, Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of the First Consul, and afterward King of Spain, being at the head of the commission on the part of France. “Appreciating,” as they announced, “the value of time,” the American plenipotentiaries, in a brief note, on the 7th of April,—the very day when the exchange of powers was completed,—proposed “an arrangement to ascertain and discharge the equitable claims of the citizens of either nation upon the other, whether founded on contract, treaty, or the Law of Nations”; all of which was to be done in order “to satisfy the demands of justice, and render a reconciliation cordial and permanent.”[141] Thus instantly were these claims presented. The French plenipotentiaries in their prompt reply admitted that “the first object of the negotiation ought to be the determination of the regulations, and the steps to be followed, for the estimation and indemnification of injuries for which either nation may make claim for itself or for any of its citizens.”[142] Here was the suggestion of claims, not only “individual,” but also “national,” under which loomed the counter claims of France.

The American plenipotentiaries, while professing to be free from “apprehension of an unfavorable balance,” protested against the consideration of any “national” claims until some “convenient stage of the negotiation, after it shall be seen what arrangement would be acceptable for the claims of citizens.”[143] The French plenipotentiaries rejoined by enforcing “national” as well as “individual” claims.[144] The issue seemed to be made. On the one side were the “individual” claims of American citizens, on the other side the “national” claims of France. The American plenipotentiaries were not authorized to recognize the “national” claims alone. The French plenipotentiaries were not authorized to recognize the “individual” claims, without a previous recognition on our part of the “national” claims. At last, after various efforts at harmony, it was officially announced that “the negotiation was at a stand on the part of France,” as her plenipotentiaries were constrained by instructions of the First Consul to make “the acknowledgment of former treaties the basis of negotiation and the condition of compensation.”[145] The First Consul was then on the Italian slope of the Alps, about to pounce upon the astonished Austrians. Claims and counter claims were of little concern to him.

Thus far the Committee have exhibited our claims in their origin and history. The time has come to change the scene, and to exhibit those counter claims which played such part in the successive negotiations, and finally produced that memorable dead-lock, when the two powers stood face to face with antagonist pretensions, unable to go forward, and unwilling to go backward.

II.
COUNTER CLAIMS OF FRANCE, THEIR ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

The counter claims of France differ widely from the claims of American citizens. They were not “individual,” but “national,” being founded on alleged violations of treaty stipulations assumed by the United States in return for the aid of France in the establishment of national independence. During the protracted controversy between the two republics they were detailed in numerous official notes; but they were brandished by Talleyrand, with offensive skill and effect, in the very faces of our insulted plenipotentiaries, under date of March 18, 1798, when, while driving them from Paris, he insisted “that the priority of grievances and complaints belonged to the French Republic,” and “that these complaints and these grievances were as real as numerous, long before the United States had the least grounded claim to make.”[146] Careful inquiry enables us to see that this allegation, thus confidently uttered, was not without a certain foundation; and here we revert to the history of our country.

The triumph with which the War of Independence happily ended came tardily, after seven years of battle, suffering, and exhaustion; but it was hastened, if not assured, by the generous alliance of France. From Bunker Hill to Saratoga the war was checkered with gloom, which even the surrender of Burgoyne did not suffice to dispel. Then came the dreary winter of Valley Forge, when soldiers of Washington, after treading the snows barefoot, were obliged, for want of blankets, to huddle all night by the fires, and even the stout heart of the commander-in-chief bent so far as to announce, in formal letter to Congress, that, “unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place, the army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things,—starve, dissolve, or disperse.”[147] But the scene changed with the glad tidings that France, by solemn treaty, signed by Franklin, February 6, 1778, had bound herself to “guaranty to the United States their liberty, sovereignty, and independence, absolute and unlimited.” The camp broke forth with the mingled joy of soldier and patriot, as it turned gratefully to Lafayette, already by the side of Washington, glorious forerunner of armies and navies promised to our cause. Congress took up the strain, and, by unanimous vote, ratified the treaty which opened to our country the gates of the Future.

It is difficult to estimate the value of this treaty in money, especially when we consider its consequences. According to the report of Calonne, the French Minister of Finance, the war which ensued in the support of this guaranty cost France fourteen hundred and forty millions of francs, or about two hundred and eighty millions of dollars. But French blood, more costly than money, was shed on land and sea in the same cause, until at last the army of Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown to the allied forces of Rochambeau and Washington, and the war closed by the recognition of our national independence. If liberty be priceless, if life be priceless, then was the aid lavished by France infinite beyond calculation.

The engagements were not all on the side of France. Beyond gratitude due for this powerful alliance, were express obligations solemnly assumed by the United States, not only in the Treaty of Alliance, but also in the Treaty of Amity and Commerce negotiated on the same day. These obligations, constituting the consideration of the weighty contract, were of two classes: first, a guaranty by the United States of the possessions of France in America; and, secondly, important privileges for the armed ships of France, with a promise of American convoy to French commerce.

1. The terms of the guaranty are as follows:—