[Extracts of a letter from Mr. James Brown to Mr, Adams (No. 16).]
PARIS, _October 23, 1824_.
The packet ship which sailed from New York on the 1st of September
brought me the letter which you did me the honor to address to me on
the 14th of August.
In conformity with the instructions contained in that letter, I have
addressed one to the Baron de Damas, minister of foreign affairs, a copy
of which I now inclose. I expect to receive his answer in time to be
sent by the packet which will sail from Havre on the 1st of next month,
in which event it may probably reach Washington about the 15th of
December.
The recent changes which have been made in the ministry, of which I have
already informed you, do not justify any very strong expectation that a
change of measures in relation to our affairs at this Court will follow.
The same individuals fill different places in the ministry from those
which they formerly held, but in all probability adhere to their former
opinions in relation to the subjects of discussion between the United
States and France. On the point to which my letter to the Baron de
Damas particularly relates the Count de Villele has already given his
deliberate views in his letters to Mr. Gallatin dated 6th and 15th
November, 1822, and I have every reason to believe that they remain
unchanged. Having bestowed much attention on the subject, it is probable
his opinion will be in a great measure decisive as to the answer which
shall be given to my letter. It is the opinion of many well-informed men
that in the course of a few months important changes will be made in the
composition of the ministry. As these changes, however, will proceed
from causes wholly unconnected with foreign affairs, I am by no means
sanguine in my expectations that under any new composition of the
ministry we may hope for a change of policy as it relates to our claims.
The eighth article of the Louisiana treaty will be continually put
forward as a bar to our claims and its adjustment urged as often as
we renew our claim for indemnity.
The Journal des Débats of this morning states that at a superior council
of commerce and of the colonies at which His Majesty yesterday presided
Mr. De St. Cricq, president of the bureau de commerce, made a report on
the commercial convention of the 24th June, 1822, between the United
States and France.
_Mr. Brown to Baron de Damas_.
PARIS, _October 22, 1824_.
His Excellency BARON DE DAMAS,
_Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc_.
SIR: I availed myself of the earliest opportunity to transmit to my
Government a copy of the letter which I had the honor to address to the
Viscount de Chateaubriand on the 28th day of April last, together with
a copy of his answer to that letter, dated 7th of May.
After a candid and deliberate consideration of the subject of that
correspondence, my Government has sent me recent instructions to
renew with earnestness the application, already so frequently and so
ineffectually made, for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously
just, and resting on the same principles with others which have been
admitted and adjusted by the Government of France.
In reply to that part of the Viscount de Chateaubriand's letter in
which he offers to open with me a negotiation upon American claims if
that negotiation should also include French claims, and particularly
the arrangements to be concluded concerning the eighth article of the
Louisiana treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just claims
which the subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United
States will readily be embraced in the negotiation, and that I am
authorized to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
adjustment, and satisfaction of them.
The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty is
viewed by my Government as one of a very 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.
Every negotiation for indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong
has been done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to ascertain the
extent of the injury, and to make provision for its adequate reparation.
This is precisely the nature of the negotiation for American claims
which has been for so many years the subject of discussion between
the Governments of the United States and of France. The wrongs done to
our citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to indemnity
has been established by acts done by the French Government in cases
depending upon the same principles under which they derive their claim.
By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the
eighth article of the Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon
the principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When asking for
reparation for acknowledged wrong the United States have been told that
France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce
their own sense of right and admit and discuss in connection with it a
claim the justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation of the
parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the pretensions of
France under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty with claims for
indemnity for acknowledged injustice and injury the United States would
be understood as admitting that those pretensions were well founded;
that wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to be
made. The Government of the United States, not having yet been convinced
that this is the case, can not consent to any arrangement which shall
imply an admission so contrary to their deliberate sense of right.
I am authorized and prepared on behalf of the United States to enter
upon a further discussion of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty
in any manner which may be desired, and by which they shall not be
understood previously to admit that the construction of that article
claimed by France is well founded; and also to renew the separate
negotiation for American claims, embracing at the same time all just
claims winch French subjects may have upon the Government of the
United States.
The change which has lately taken place in His Majesty's department of
foreign affairs encourages the hope that this important subject will
be candidly reconsidered; that the obstacles which have arrested the
progress of the negotiation may be removed, and that the subjects of
contestation between the two Governments may be ultimately adjusted upon
such principles as may perpetuate the good understanding and harmony
which have so long subsisted between the United States and France.
Should I, however, be disappointed in the result of this application,
it is to be seriously apprehended that as the United States have not
hitherto seen in the course of the discussion any just claim of France
arising from the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, so in the
persevering refusal of the French Government to discuss and adjust
the well-founded claims of citizens of the United States to indemnity
for wrongs unless in connection with one which they are satisfied
is unfounded the United States will ultimately perceive only a
determination to deny justice to the claimants.
Permit me respectfully to request that at as early a day as your
convenience will allow your excellency will favor me with an answer
to this letter.
I embrace with pleasure this occasion to offer to your excellency the
renewed assurance, etc.,