[Extract of a letter from Mr. Adams (No. 1) to Mr. Sheldon, dated
Department of State, Washington, August 13, 1823.]
I have had the honor of receiving your dispatches Nos. 1 and 2, the
latter dated the 10th of June. Mr. Gallatin arrived with his family
at New York on the 24th of that month.
I inclose herewith copies of the recent correspondence between the
Count de Menou, the chargé d'affaires of France, and this Department
on various subjects highly interesting to the relations between the
two countries.
With regard to the Count's note of the 11th of July, the President
received with great satisfaction the testimonial of the Viscount de
Chateaubriand to the candor and ability with which Mr. Gallatin has
performed the duties of his official station in France. The proposal
to renew the negotiation in behalf of the well-founded claims of our
citizens upon the French Government in _connection_ with a claim on
the part of France to special privileges in the ports of Louisiana,
which, after a very full discussion, had in the views of this Government
been proved utterly groundless, could neither be accepted nor considered
as evidence of the same conciliatory spirit. The claims of our citizens
are for mere justice; they are for reparation of unquestionable
wrongs--for indemnity or restitution of property taken from them or
destroyed without shadow or color of right. The claim under the eighth
article of the Louisiana convention has nothing to rest upon but a
forced construction of the terms of the stipulation, which the American
Government considered, and have invariably considered, as totally
without foundation. These are elements not to be coupled together in the
same negotiation, and while we yet trust to the final sense of justice
of France for the adjustment of the righteous claims of our citizens, we
still hope that their unquestionable character will ultimately secure
to them a consideration unencumbered with other discussions. You will
respectfully make this representation to the Viscount de Chateaubriand,
with the assurance of the readiness of this Government to discuss the
question upon the Louisiana convention further if desired by France,
but of our final conviction that it is not to be blended with the claims
of our citizens for mere justice.
_Count de Menou to Mr. Adams_.
[Translation.]