[Extracts of a letter (No. 4) from the Secretary of State to Mr. Brown,
dated Department of State, Washington, August 14, 1824.]
The subject which has first claimed the attention of the President
has been the result of your correspondence with the Viscount de
Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of numerous citizens of
the United States upon the justice of the French Government.
I inclose herewith a copy of the report of the Committee on Foreign
Relations of the House of Representatives upon several petitions
addressed to that body at their last session by some of those claimants
and a resolution of the House adopted thereupon.
The President has deliberately considered the purport of M. de
Chateaubriand's answer to your note of the 28th of April upon this
subject, and he desires that you will renew with earnestness the
application for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just
and resting upon the same principle with others which have been admitted
and adjusted by the Government of France.
In the note of the Viscount de Chateaubriand to you of 7th May it is
said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation will be opened with
you upon the American claims if this negotiation should also include
French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be concluded
concerning the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty.
You are authorized in reply to declare that any just claims which
subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United States
will readily be included in the negotiation, and to stipulate any
suitable provision for the examination, adjustment, and satisfaction
of them.
But the question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
is not only of a different character--it can not be blended with that of
indemnity for individual claims without a sacrifice on the part of the
United States of a principle of right. The negotiation for indemnity
presupposes that wrong has been done, that indemnity ought to be made,
and the object of any treaty stipulation concerning it can only be to
ascertain what is justly due and to make provision for the payment of
it. By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to
the eighth article of the Louisiana convention the United States would
abandon the _principle_ upon which the whole discussion concerning
it depends. The situation of the parties to the negotiation would be
unequal. The United States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are
told that France will not discuss it with them unless they will first
renounce their own sense of right to admit and discuss with it a claim
the _justice_ of which they have constantly denied.
The Government of the United States is prepared to renew the discussion
with that of France relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana
treaty in any manner which may be desired and by which they shall not
be understood to admit that France has _any_ claim under it whatever.
_Mr. Brown to Mr. Adams_ (_No. 12_).
PARIS, _August 12, 1824_.
SIR: Some very unimportant changes have taken place in the composition
of the ministry. The Baron de Damas, late minister of war, is now
minister of foreign affairs; the Marquis de Clermont Tonnese is
appointed to the department of war, and the Count Chabrol de Crousal
to that of the marine.
These appointments are believed to correspond with the wishes of the
president of the Council of Ministers, and do not inspire a hope that
our claims will be more favorably attended to than they have been under
the former administrations. The interpretation of the eighth article
of the Louisiana treaty contended for by France will, I apprehend,
be persisted in and all indemnity refused until it shall have been
discussed and decided. After the correspondence which has already passed
upon that article, it would appear that any further discussion upon it
would be wholly unprofitable. With a view, however, of ascertaining the
opinions of the minister of foreign affairs, I shall at an early day
solicit a conference with him, and inform you of the result.
I have had the honor of receiving your letter recommending the claim of
Mr. Kingston to my attention. The difficulties which that claim must
experience, from its antiquity and from the operation of the treaty of
1803, can not have escaped your observation. It has also to encounter,
in common with all our claims, the obstacle presented by the eighth
article, which is found broad enough to be used as a shield to protect
France, in the opinion of ministers, from the examination and adjustment
of any claim which we can present.
I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your most obedient and
humble servant,