PRESIDENT JACKSON'S FOREIGN DIPLOMACY.
A view of President Jackson's foreign diplomacy has been reserved
for the last year of his administration, and to the conclusion of
his longest, latest, and most difficult negotiation; and is now
presented in a single chapter, giving the history of his intercourse
with foreign nations. From no part of his administration was more
harm apprehended, by those who dreaded the election of General
Jackson, than from this source. From his military character they
feared embroilments; from his want of experience as a diplomatist,
they feared mistakes and blunders in our foreign intercourse. These
apprehensions were very sincerely entertained by a large proportion
of our citizens; but, as the event proved, entirely without
foundation. No part of his administration, successful, beneficial,
and honorable as it was at home, was more successful, beneficial
and honorable than that of his foreign diplomacy. He obtained
indemnities for all outrages committed on our commerce before
his time, and none were committed during his time. He made good
commercial treaties with some nations from which they could not be
obtained before--settled some long-standing and vexatious questions;
and left the whole world at peace with his country, and engaged in
the good offices of trade and hospitality. A brief detail of actual
occurrences will justify this general and agreeable statement,
1. THE DIRECT TRADE WITH THE BRITISH WEST INDIES.--I have already
shown, in a separate chapter, the recovery, in the first year of
his administration, of this valuable branch of our commerce, so
desirable to us from the nearness of those islands to our shore,
the domestic productions which they took from us, the employment
it gave to our navigation, the actual large amount of the trade,
the acceptable articles it gave in return, and its satisfactory
establishment on a durable basis after fifty years of interrupted,
and precarious, and restricted enjoyment: and I add nothing more on
that head. I proceed to new cases of indemnities obtained, or of new
treaties formed.
2. At the head of these stands the FRENCH INDEMNITY TREATY.--The
commerce of the United States had suffered greatly under the decrees
of the Emperor Napoleon, and redress had been sought by every
administration, and in vain, from that of Mr. Madison to that of
Mr. John Quincy Adams, inclusively. President Jackson determined
from the first moment of his administration to prosecute the claims
on France with vigor; and that not only as a matter of right,
but of policy. There were other secondary powers, such as Naples
and Spain, subject to the same kind of reclamation, and which
had sheltered their refusal behind that of France; and with some
show of reason, as France, besides having committed the largest
depredation, was the origin of the system under which they acted,
and the inducing cause of their conduct. France was the strong
power in this class of wrong-doers, and as such was the one first
to be dealt with. In his first annual message to the two Houses of
Congress, President Jackson brought this subject before that body,
and disclosed his own policy in relation to it. He took up the
question as one of undeniable wrong which had already given rise
to much unpleasant discussion, and which might lead to possible
collision between the two governments; and expressed a confident
hope that the injurious delays of the past would find a redress in
the equity of the future. This was pretty clear language, and stood
for something in the message of a President whose maxim of foreign
policy was, to "ask nothing but what was right, and to submit to
nothing that was wrong." At the same time, Mr. William C. Rives,
of Virginia, was sent to Paris as minister plenipotentiary and
envoy extraordinary, and especially charged with this reclamation.
His mission was successful; and at the commencement of the session
1831-'32, the President had the gratification to communicate
to both Houses of Congress and to submit to the Senate for its
approbation, the treaty which closed up this long-standing head of
complaint against an ancient ally. The French government agreed
to pay twenty-five millions of francs to American citizens "for
(such was the language of the treaty) unlawful seizures, captures,
sequestrations, confiscations or destruction of their vessels,
cargoes or other property;" subject to a deduction of one million
and a half of francs for claims of French citizens, or the royal
treasury, for "ancient supplies or accounts," or for reclamations
on account of commercial injury. Thus all American claims for
spoliation in the time of the Emperor Napoleon were acknowledged
and agreed to be satisfied, and the acknowledgment and agreement
for satisfaction made in terms which admitted the illegality and
injustice of the acts in which they originated. At the same time
all the French claims upon the United States, from the time of
our revolution, of which two (those of the heirs of Beaumarchais
and of the Count Rochambeau) had been a subject of reclamation
for forty years, were satisfied. The treaty was signed July 4th,
1831, one year after the accession of Louis Phillippe to the
French throne--and to the natural desire of the new king (under
the circumstances of his elevation) to be on good terms with the
United States; and to the good offices of General Lafayette, then
once more influential in the councils of France, as well as to the
zealous exertions of our minister, the auspicious conclusion of
this business is to be much attributed. The indemnity payable in
six annual equal instalments, was satisfactory to government and
to the claimants; and in communicating information of the treaty
to Congress, President Jackson, after a just congratulation on
putting an end to a subject of irritation which for many years
had, in some degree, alienated two nations from each other, which,
from interest as well as from early recollections, ought to cherish
the most friendly relations--and (as if feeling all the further
consequential advantages of this success) went on to state, as some
of the good effects to result from it, that it gave encouragement
to persevere in demands for justice from other nations; that it
would be an admonition that just claims would be prosecuted to
satisfactory conclusions, and give assurance to our own citizens
that their own government will exert all its constitutional power to
obtain redress for all their foreign wrongs. This latter declaration
was afterwards put to the proof, in relation to the execution of
the treaty itself, and was kept to the whole extent of its letter
and spirit, and with good results both to France and the United
States. It so happened that the French legislative chambers refused
to vote appropriations necessary to carry the treaty into effect.
An acrimonious correspondence between the two governments took
place, becoming complicated with resentment on the part of France
for some expressions, which she found to be disrespectful, in a
message of President Jackson. The French minister was recalled from
the United States; the American minister received his passport;
and reprisals were recommended to Congress by the President. But
there was no necessity for them. The intent to give offence, or to
be disrespectful, was disclaimed; the instalments in arrear were
paid; the two nations returned to their accustomed good feeling;
and no visible trace remains of the brief and transient cloud
which for a while overshadowed them. So finished, in the time of
Jackson, with entire satisfaction to ourselves, and with honor to
both parties, the question of reclamations from France for injuries
done our citizens in the time of the Great Emperor; and which the
administrations of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams
had been unable to enforce.
3. DANISH TREATY.--This was a convention for indemnity for
spoliations on American commerce, committed twenty years before the
time of General Jackson's administration. They had been committed
during the years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811, that is to say, during
the last year of Mr. Jefferson's administration and the three first
years of Mr. Madison's. They consisted of illegal seizures and
illegal condemnations or confiscations of American vessels and
their cargoes in Danish ports, during the time when the British
orders in council and the French imperial decrees were devastating
the commerce of neutral nations, and subjecting the weaker powers
of Europe to the course of policy which the two great belligerent
powers had adopted. The termination of the great European contest,
and the return of nations to the accustomed paths of commercial
intercourse and just and friendly relations, furnished a suitable
opportunity for the United States, whose citizens had suffered so
much, to demand indemnity for these injuries. The demand had been
made; and had been followed up with zeal during each succeeding
administration, but without effect, until the administration of Mr.
John Quincy Adams. During that administration, and in the hands of
the American Chargé d'Affaires (Mr. Henry Wheaton), the negotiation
made encouraging progress. General Jackson did not change the
negotiator--did not incur double expense, a year's delay, and
substitute a raw for a ripe minister--and the negotiation went on
to a speedy and prosperous conclusion. The treaty was concluded in
March, 1830, and extended to a complete settlement of all questions
of reclamation on both sides. The Danish government renounced
all pretension to the claims which it had preferred, and agreed
to pay the sum of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the
government of the United States, to be by it distributed among the
American claimants. This convention, which received the immediate
ratification of the President and Senate, terminated all differences
with a friendly power, with whom the United States never had any
but kind relations (these spoliations excepted), and whose trade to
her West India islands, lying at our door, and taking much of our
domestic productions, was so desirable to us.
4. NEAPOLITAN INDEMNITY TREATY.--When Murat was King of Naples,
and acting upon the system of his brother-in-law, the Emperor
Napoleon, he seized and confiscated many vessels and their cargoes,
belonging to citizens of the United States. The years 1809, 1810,
1811 and 1812 were the periods of these wrongs. Efforts had been
made under each administration, from Mr. Madison to Mr. John Quincy
Adams, to obtain redress, but in vain. Among others, the special
mission of Mr. William Pinkney, the eminent orator and jurist,
was instituted in the last year of Mr. Madison's administration,
exclusively charged, at that court, with soliciting indemnity for
the Murat spoliations. A Bourbon was then upon the throne, and this
'legitimate,' considering Murat as an usurper who had taken the
kingdom from its proper owners, and done more harm to them than to
any body else, was naturally averse to making compensation to other
nations for his injurious acts. This repugnance had found an excuse
in the fact that France, the great original wrongdoer in all these
spoliations, and under whose lead and protection they were all
committed, had not yet been brought to acknowledge the wrong and to
make satisfaction. The indemnity treaty with France, in July 1831,
put an end to this excuse; and the fact of the depredations being
clear, and the law of nations indisputably in our favor, a further
and more earnest appeal was made to the Neapolitan government. Mr.
John Nelson, of Maryland, was appointed United States Chargé to
Naples, and concluded a convention for the payment of the claims.
The sum of two millions one hundred and fifteen thousand Neapolitan
ducats was stipulated to be paid to the United States government,
to be by it distributed among the claimants; and, being entirely
satisfactory, the convention immediately received the American
ratification. Thus, another head of injury to our citizens, and
of twenty years' standing, was settled by General Jackson, and in
a case in which the strongest prejudice and the most revolting
repugnance had to be overcome. Murat had been shot by order of the
Neapolitan king, for attempting to recover the kingdom; he was
deemed a usurper while he had it; the exiled royal family thought
themselves sufficiently wronged by him in their own persons, without
being made responsible for his wrongs to others; and although bound
by the law of nations to answer for his conduct while king in point
of fact, yet for almost twenty years--from their restoration in
1814 to 1832--they had resisted and repulsed the incessant and just
demands of the United States. Considering the sacrifice of pride, as
well as the large compensation, which this branch of the Bourbons
had to make in paying a bill of damages against an intrusive king
of the Bonaparte dynasty, and this indemnity obtained from Naples
in the third year of General Jackson's first presidential term,
which had been refused to his three predecessors--Messrs. Madison,
Monroe and John Quincy Adams--may be looked upon as one of the most
remarkable of his diplomatic successes.
SPANISH INDEMNITY TREATY.--The treaty of 1819 with Spain, by
which we gained Florida and lost Texas, and paid five millions of
dollars to our own citizens for Spanish spoliations, settled up
all demands upon that power up to that time; but fresh causes of
complaint soon grew up. All the Spanish-American states had become
independent--had established their own forms of government--and
commenced political and commercial communications with all the
world. Spanish policy revolted at this escape of colonies from its
hands; and although unable to subdue the new governments, was able
to refuse to acknowledge their independence--able to issue paper
blockades, and to seize and confiscate the American merchant vessels
trading to the new states. In this way much damage had been done to
American commerce, even in the brief interval between the date of
the treaty of 1819 and General Jackson's election to the presidency,
ten years thereafter. A new list of claims for spoliations had
grown up; and one of the early acts of the new President was to
institute a mission to demand indemnity. Mr. Cornelius Van Ness,
of New-York, was the minister appointed; and having been refused
in his first application, and given an account of the refusal to
his government, President Jackson dispatched a special messenger to
the American minister at Madrid, with instructions, "once more" to
bring the subject to the consideration of the Spanish government;
informing Congress at the same time, that he had made his last
demand; and that, if justice was not done, he would bring the case
before that body, "as the constitutional judge of what was proper to
be done when negotiation fails to obtain redress for wrongs." But
it was not found necessary to bring the case before Congress. On a
closer examination of the claims presented and for the enforcement
of which the power of the government had been invoked, it was
found that there had occurred in this case what often takes place
in reclamation upon foreign powers; that claims were preferred
which were not founded in justice, and which were not entitled
to the national interference. Faithful to his principle to ask
nothing but what was right, General Jackson ordered these unfounded
claims to be dropped, and the just claims only to be insisted
upon; and in communicating this fact to Congress, he declared his
policy characteristically with regard to foreign nations, and in
terms which deserve to be remembered. He said: "Faithful to the
principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, additional
instructions have been sent to modify our demands, so as to embrace
those only on which, according to the laws of nations, we had a
strict right to insist upon." Under these modified instructions
a treaty of indemnity was concluded (February, 1834), and the
sum of twelve millions of reals vellon stipulated to be paid to
the government of the United States, for distribution among the
claimants. Thus, another instance of spoliation upon our foreign
commerce, and the last that remained unredressed, was closed up and
satisfied under the administration of General Jackson; and this
last of the revolutionary men had the gratification to restore
unmixed cordial intercourse with a power which had been our ally in
the war of the Revolution; which had ceded to us the Floridas, to
round off with a natural boundary our Southern territory; which was
our neighbor, conterminous in dominions, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific; and which, notwithstanding the jars and collisions to which
bordering nations are always subject, had never committed an act of
hostility upon the United States. The conclusion of this affair was
grateful to all the rememberers of our revolutionary history, and
equally honorable to both parties: to General Jackson, who renounced
unfounded claims, and to the Spanish government, which paid the good
as soon as separated from the bad.
6. RUSSIAN COMMERCIAL TREATY.--Our relations with Russia had been
peculiar--politically, always friendly; commercially, always
liberal--yet, no treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, to
assure these advantages and guarantee their continuance. The United
States had often sought such a treaty. Many special missions, and of
the most eminent citizens, and at various times, and under different
administrations, and under the Congress of the confederation
before there was any administration, had been instituted for that
purpose--that of Mr. Francis Dana of Massachusetts (under whom
the young John Quincy Adams, at the age of sixteen, served his
diplomatic apprenticeship as private secretary), in 1784, under
the old Congress; that of Mr. Rufus King, under the first Mr.
Adams; that of Mr. John Quincy Adams, Mr. Albert Gallatin, Mr.
James A. Bayard, and Mr. William Pinkney, under Mr. Monroe; that
of Mr. George Washington Campbell, and Mr. Henry Middleton, under
Mr. Monroe (the latter continued under Mr. John Quincy Adams);
and all in vain. For some cause, never publicly explained, the
guaranty of a treaty had been constantly declined, while the actual
advantages of the most favorable one had been constantly extended
to us. A convention with us for the definition of boundaries on the
northwest coast of America, and to stipulate for mutual freedom
of fishing and navigation in the North Pacific Ocean, had been
readily agreed upon by the Emperor Alexander, and wisely, as by
separating his claims, he avoided such controversies as afterwards
grew up between the United States and Great Britain, on account
of their joint occupation; but no commercial treaty. Every thing
else was all that our interest could ask, or her friendship extend.
Reciprocity of diplomatic intercourse was fully established;
ministers regularly appointed to reside with us--and those of my
time (I speak only of those who came within my Thirty Years' View),
the Chevalier de Politica, the Baron Thuyl, the Baron Krudener,
and especially the one that has remained longest among us, and
has married an American lady, M. Alexandre de Bodisco--all of a
personal character and deportment to be most agreeable to our
government and citizens, well fitted to represent the feelings
of the most friendly sovereigns, and to promote and maintain the
most courteous and amicable intercourse between the two countries.
The Emperor Alexander had signally displayed his good will in
offering his mediation to terminate the war with Great Britain;
and still further, in consenting to become arbitrator between the
United States and Great Britain in settling their difference in
the construction of the Ghent treaty, in the article relating to
fugitive and deported slaves. We enjoyed in Russian ports all the
commercial privileges of the most favored nation; but it was by
an unfixed tenure--at the will of the reigning sovereign; and the
interests of commerce required a more stable guaranty. Still, up to
the commencement of General Jackson's administration, there was no
American treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation with that great
power. The attention of President Jackson was early directed to this
anomalous point; and Mr. John Randolph of Roanoke, then retired from
Congress, was induced, by the earnest persuasions of the President,
and his Secretary of State, Mr. Van Buren, to accept the place of
envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Court of
St. Petersburg--to renew the applications for the treaty which had
so long been made in vain. Repairing to that post, Mr. Randolph
found that the rigors of a Russian climate were too severe for the
texture of his fragile constitution; and was soon recalled at his
own request. Mr. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was then appointed
in his place; and by him the long-desired treaty was concluded,
December, 1832--the Count Nesselrode the Russian negotiator, and
the Emperor Nicholas the reigning sovereign. It was a treaty of
great moment to the United States; for, although it added nothing to
the commercial privileges actually enjoyed, yet it gave stability
to their enjoyment; and so imparted confidence to the enterprise
of merchants. It was limited to seven years' duration, but with a
clause of indefinite continuance, subject to termination upon one
year's notice from either party. Near twenty years have elapsed: no
notice for its termination has ever been given; and the commerce
between the two countries feels all the advantages resulting from
stability and national guaranties. And thus was obtained, in the
first term of General Jackson's administration, an important treaty
with a great power, which all previous administrations and the
Congress of the Confederation had been unable to obtain.
7. PORTUGUESE INDEMNITY.--During the years 1829 and '30, during the
blockade of Terceira, several illegal seizures were made of American
vessels, by Portuguese men-of-war, for alleged violations of the
blockade. The United States _chargé d'affairs_ at Lisbon, Mr. Thomas
L. Brent, was charged with the necessary reclamations, and had no
difficulty in coming to an amicable adjustment. Indemnity in the
four cases of seizure was agreed upon in March, 1832, and payment
in instalments stipulated to be made. There was default in all the
instalments after the first--not from bad faith, but from total
inability--although the instalments were, in a national point of
view, of small amount. It deserves to be recorded, as an instance
of the want to which a kingdom, whose very name had been once
the synonym of gold regions and diamond mines, may be reduced by
wretched government, that in one of the interviews of the American
_chargé_ (then Mr. Edward Kavanagh), with the Portuguese Minister of
Finance, the minister told him "that no persons in the employment of
the government, except the military, had been paid any part of their
salaries for a long time; and that, on that day, there was not one
hundred dollars in the treasury." In this total inability to pay,
and with the fact of having settled fairly, further time was given
until the first day of July, 1837; when full and final payment was
made, to the satisfaction of the claimants.
Indemnity was made to the claimants by allowing interest on the
delayed payments, and an advantage was granted to an article
of American commerce by admitting rice of the United States in
Portuguese ports at a reduced duty. The whole amount paid was
about $140,000, which included damages to some other vessels, and
compensation to the seamen of the captured vessels for imprisonment
and loss of clothes--the sum of about $1,600 for these latter
items--so carefully and minutely were the rights of American
citizens guarded in Jackson's time. Some other claims on Portugal,
considered as doubtful, among them the case of the brave Captain
Reid, of the privateer General Armstrong, were left open for future
prosecution, without prejudice from being omitted in the settlement
of the Terceira claims, which were a separate class.
8. TREATY WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.--At the commencement of the
annual session of Congress of 1830-'31, President Jackson had the
gratification to lay before the Senate a treaty of friendship and
commerce between the United States and the Turkish emperor--the
Sultan Mahmoud, noted for his liberal foreign views, his domestic
reforms, his protection of Christians, and his energetic suppression
of the janissaries--those formidable barbarian cohorts, worse than
prætorian, which had so long dominated the Turkish throne. It was
the first American treaty made with that power, and so declared in
the preamble (and in terms which implied a personal compliment from
the Porte in doing now what it had always refused to do before),
and was eminently desirable to us for commercial, political and
social reasons. The Turkish dominions include what was once nearly
the one half of the Roman world, and countries which had celebrity
before Rome was founded. Sacred and profane history had given these
dominions a venerable interest in our eyes. They covered the seat
which was the birth-place of the human race, the cradle of the
Christian religion; the early theatre of the arts and sciences; and
contained the city which was founded by the first Roman Christian
emperor. Under good government it had always been the seat of rich
commerce and of great wealth. Under every aspect it was desirable
to the United States to have its social, political and commercial
intercourse with these dominions placed on a safe and stable footing
under the guaranty of treaty stipulations; and this object was now
accomplished. These were the general considerations; particular and
recent circumstances gave them additional weight.
Exclusion of our commerce from the Black Sea, and the advantages
which some nations had lately gained by the treaty of Adrianople,
called for renewed exertions on our part; and they were made by
General Jackson. A commissioner was appointed (Mr. Charles Rhind)
to open negotiations with the Sublime Porte; and with him were
associated the United States naval commander in the Mediterranean
(Commodore Biddle), and the United States consul at Smyrna (Mr.
David Offley). Mr. Rhind completed the negotiation, though the other
gentlemen joined in the signature of the treaty. By the provisions
of this treaty, our trade with the Turkish dominions was placed on
the footing of the most favored nation; and being without limitation
as to time, may be considered as perpetual, subject only to be
abrogated by war, in itself improbable, or by other events not to
be expected. The right of passing the Dardanelles and of navigating
the Black Sea was secured to our merchant ships, in ballast or with
cargo, and to carry the products of the United States and of the
Ottoman empire, except the prohibited articles. The flag of the
United States was to be respected. Factors, or commercial brokers,
of any religion were allowed to be employed by our merchants.
Consuls were placed on a footing of security, and travelling
with passports was protected. Fairness and justice in suits and
litigations were provided for. In questions between a citizen of
the United States and a subject of the Sublime Porte, the parties
were not to be heard, nor judgment pronounced, unless the American
interpreter (dragoman) was present. In questions between American
citizens the trial was to be before the United States minister or
consul. "Even when they (the American citizens, so runs the fourth
article), shall have committed some offence, they shall not be
arrested and put in prison by the local authorities, but shall be
tried by the minister or consul, and punished according to the
offence." By this treaty all that was granted to other nations by
the treaty of Adrianople is also granted to the United States, with
the additional stipulation, to be always placed on the footing of
the most favored nation--a stipulation wholly independent of the
treaty exacted by Russia at Adrianople as the fruit of victories,
and of itself equivalent to a full and liberal treaty; and the
whole guaranteed by a particular treaty with ourselves, which
makes us independent of the general treaty of Adrianople. A spirit
of justice, liberality and kindness runs through it. Assistance
and protection is to be given throughout the Turkish dominions to
American wrecked vessels and their crews; and all property recovered
from a wreck is to be delivered up to the American consul of the
nearest port, for the benefit of the owners. Ships of war of the two
countries are to exhibit towards each other friendly and courteous
conduct, and Turkish ships of war are to treat American merchant
vessels with kindness and respect. This treaty has now been in force
near twenty years, observed with perfect good faith by each, and
attended by all the good consequences expected from it. The valuable
commerce of the Black Sea, and of all the Turkish ports of Asia
Minor, Europe and Africa (once the finest part of the Roman world),
travelling, residence, and the pursuit of business throughout the
Turkish dominions, are made as safe to our citizens as in any of
the European countries; and thus the United States, though amongst
the youngest in the family of nations, besides securing particular
advantages to her own citizens, has done her part in bringing those
ancient countries into the system of modern European commercial
policy, and in harmonizing people long estranged from each other.
9. RENEWAL OF THE TREATY WITH MOROCCO.--A treaty had been made with
this power in the time of the old Congress under the Confederation;
and it is honorable to Morocco to see in that treaty, at the time
when all other powers on the Barbary coast deemed the property
of a Christian, lawful prey, and his person a proper subject for
captivity, entering into such stipulations as these following,
with a nation so young as the United States: "Neither party to
take commissions from an enemy; persons and property captured in
an enemy's vessel to be released; American citizens and effects to
be restored; stranded vessels to be protected; vessels engaged in
gunshot of forts to be protected; enemies' vessels not allowed to
follow out of port for twenty-four hours; American commerce to be
on the most favored footing; exchange of prisoners in time of war;
no compulsion in buying or selling goods; no examination of goods
on board, except contraband was proved; no detention of vessels;
disputes between Americans to be settled by their consuls, and the
consul assisted when necessary; killing punished by the law of the
country; the effects of persons dying intestate to be taken care of,
and delivered to the consul, and, if no consul, to be deposited with
some person of trust; no appeal to arms unless refusal of friendly
arrangements; in case of war, nine months to be allowed to citizens
of each power residing in the dominions of the other to settle their
affairs and remove." This treaty, made in 1787, was the work of
Benjamin Franklin (though absent at the signature), John Adams, at
London, and Thomas Jefferson, at Paris, acting through the agent,
Thomas Barclay, at Fez; and was written with a plainness, simplicity
and beauty, which I have not seen equalled in any treaty, between
any nations, before or since. It was extended to fifty years, and
renewed by General Jackson, in the last year of his administration,
for fifty years more; and afterwards until twelve months' notice of
a desire to abridge it should be given by one of the parties. The
resident American consul at Tangier, Mr. James R. Leib, negotiated
the renewal; and all the parties concerned had the good taste to
preserve the style and language of the original throughout. It will
stand, both for the matter and the style, a monument to the honor of
our early statesmen.
10. TREATY OF AMITY AND COMMERCE WITH SIAM.--This was concluded in
March, 1833, Mr. Edmund Roberts the negotiator on the part of the
United States, and contained the provisions in behalf of American
citizens and commerce which had been agreed upon in the treaty with
the Sublime Porte, which was itself principally framed upon that
with Morocco in 1787; and which may well become the model of all
that may be made, in all time to come, with all the Oriental nations.
11. THE SAME WITH THE SULTAN OF MUSCAT.
Such were the fruits of the foreign diplomacy of President Jackson.
There were other treaties negotiated under his administration--with
Austria, Mexico, Chili, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela--but being in the
ordinary course of foreign intercourse, do not come within the scope
of this View, which confines itself to a notice of such treaties
as were new or difficult--which were unattainable by previous
administrations; and those which brought indemnity to our citizens
for spoliations committed upon them in the time of General Jackson's
predecessors. In this point of view, the list of treaties presented,
is grand and impressive; the bare recital of which, in the most
subdued language of historical narrative, places the foreign
diplomacy of General Jackson on a level with the most splendid
which the history of any nation has presented. First, the direct
trade with the British West Indies, which had baffled the skill and
power of all administrations, from Washington to John Quincy Adams
inclusive, recovered, established, and placed on a permanent and
satisfactory footing. Then indemnities from France, Spain, Denmark,
Naples, Portugal, for injuries committed on our commerce in the
time of the great Napoleon. Then original treaties of commerce and
friendship with great powers from which they never could be obtained
before--Russia, Austria, the Sublime Porte. Then leaving his country
at peace with all the world, after going through an administration
of eight years which brought him, as a legacy from his predecessors,
the accumulated questions of half an age to settle with the great
powers. This is the eulogy of FACTS, worth enough, in the plainest
language, to dispense with eulogium of WORDS.