WASHINGTON, _August 8, 1846_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I return to the Senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "An
act to provide for the ascertainment and satisfaction of claims of
American citizens for spoliations committed by the French prior to the
31st day of July, 1801," which was presented to me on the 6th instant,
with my objections to its becoming a law.
In attempting to give to the bill the careful examination it requires,
difficulties presented themselves in the outset from the remoteness of
the period to which the claims belong, the complicated nature of the
transactions in which they originated, and the protracted negotiations
to which they led between France and the United States.
The short time intervening between the passage of the bill by Congress
and the approaching close of their session, as well as the pressure of
other official duties, have not permitted me to extend my examination of
the subject into its minute details; but in the consideration which I
have been able to give to it I find objections of a grave character to
its provisions.
For the satisfaction of the claims provided for by the bill it is
proposed to appropriate $5,000,000. I can perceive no legal or equitable
ground upon which this large appropriation can rest. A portion of the
claims have been more than half a century before the Government in its
executive or legislative departments, and all of them had their origin
in events which occurred prior to the year 1800. Since 1802 they have
been from time to time before Congress. No greater necessity or
propriety exists for providing for these claims at this time than has
existed for near half a century, during all which period this
questionable measure has never until now received the favorable
consideration of Congress. It is scarcely probable, if the claim had
been regarded as obligatory upon the Government or constituting an
equitable demand upon the Treasury, that those who were contemporaneous
with the events which gave rise to it should not long since have done
justice to the claimants. The Treasury has often been in a condition to
enable the Government to do so without inconvenience if these claims had
been considered just. Mr. Jefferson, who was fully cognizant of the
early dissensions between the Governments of the United States and
France, out of which the claims arose, in his annual message in 1808
adverted to the large surplus then in the Treasury and its "probable
accumulation," and inquired whether it should "lie unproductive in the
public vaults;" and yet these claims, though then before Congress, were
not recognized or paid. Since that time the public debt of the
Revolution and of the War of 1812 has been extinguished, and at several
periods since the Treasury has been in possession of large surpluses
over the demands upon it. In 1836 the surplus amounted to many millions
of dollars, and, for want of proper objects to which to apply it, it was
directed by Congress to be deposited with the States.
During this extended course of time, embracing periods eminently
favorable for satisfying all just demands upon the Government, the
claims embraced in this bill met with no favor in Congress beyond
reports of committees in one or the other branch. These circumstances
alone are calculated to raise strong doubts in respect to these claims,
more especially as all the information necessary to a correct judgment
concerning them has been long before the public. These doubts are
strengthened in my mind by the examination I have been enabled to give
to the transactions in which they originated.
The bill assumes that the United States have become liable in these
ancient transactions to make reparation to the claimants for injuries
committed by France. Nothing was obtained for the claimants by
negotiation; and the bill assumes that the Government has become
responsible to them for the aggressions of France. I have not been able
to satisfy myself of the correctness of this assumption, or that the
Government has become in any way responsible for these claims. The
limited time allotted me before your adjournment precludes the
possibility of reiterating the facts and arguments by which in preceding
Congresses these claims have been successfully resisted.
The present is a period peculiarly unfavorable for the satisfaction of
claims of so large an amount and, to say the least of them, of so
doubtful a character. There is no surplus in the Treasury. A public debt
of several millions of dollars has been created within the last few
years.
We are engaged in a foreign war, uncertain in its duration and involving
heavy expenditures, to prosecute which Congress has at its present
session authorized a further loan; so that in effect the Government,
should this bill become a law, borrows money and increases the public
debt to pay these claims.
It is true that by the provisions of the bill payment is directed to be
made in land scrip instead of money, but the effect upon the Treasury
will be the same. The public lands constitute one of the sources of
public revenue, and if these claims be paid in land scrip it will from
the date of its issue to a great extent cut off from the Treasury the
annual income from the sales of the public lands, because payments for
lands sold by the Government may be expected to be made in scrip until
it is all redeemed. If these claims be just, they ought to be paid in
money, and not in anything less valuable. The bill provides that they
shall be paid in land scrip, whereby they are made in effect to be a
mortgage upon the public lands in the new States; a mortgage, too, held
in great part, if not wholly, by nonresidents of the States in which the
lands lie, who may secure these lands to the amount of several millions
of acres, and then demand for them exorbitant prices from the citizens
of the States who may desire to purchase them for settlement, or they
may keep them out of the market, and thus retard the prosperity and
growth of the States in which they are situated. Why this unusual mode
of satisfying demands on the Treasury has been resorted to does not
appear. It is not consistent with a sound public policy. If it be done
in this case, it may be done in all others. It would form a precedent
for the satisfaction of all other stale and questionable claims in the
same manner, and would undoubtedly be resorted to by all claimants who
after successive trials shall fail to have their claims recognized and
paid in money by Congress.
This bill proposes to appropriate $5,000,000, to be paid in land scrip,
and provides that "no claim or memorial shall be received by the
commissioners" authorized by the act "unless accompanied by a release or
discharge of the United States from all other and further compensation"
than the claimant "may be entitled to receive under the provisions of
this act." These claims are estimated to amount to a much larger sum
than $5,000,000, and yet the claimant is required to release to the
Government all other compensation, and to accept his share of a fund
which is known to be inadequate. If the claims be well founded, it would
be unjust to the claimants to repudiate any portion of them, and the
payment of the remaining sum could not be hereafter resisted. This bill
proposes to pay these claims not in the currency known to the
Constitution, and not to their full amount.
Passed, as this bill has been, near the close of the session, and when
many measures of importance necessarily claim the attention of Congress,
and possibly without that full and deliberate consideration which the
large sum it appropriates and the existing condition of the Treasury and
of the country demand, I deem it to be my duty to withhold my approval,
that it may hereafter undergo the revision of Congress. I have come to
this conclusion with regret. In interposing my objections to its
becoming a law I am fully sensible that it should be an extreme case
which would make it the duty of the Executive to withhold his approval
of any bill passed by Congress upon the ground of its inexpediency
alone. Such a case I consider this to be.