_Washington, September 14, 1835_.
THOMAS P. BARTON, Esq., etc.
SIR: So much time will have elapsed before this dispatch can reach you,
since the passage of the law by the French Chambers placing at the
disposition of the King the funds to fulfill the treaty with the United
States, that it is presumed the intention of the French Government will
have been by that period disclosed. It is proper therefore, in the
opinion of the President, that you should receive your last instructions
in relation to it. It has always been his intention that the legation of
the United States should leave France if the treaty were not fulfilled.
You have been suffered to remain after the departure of Mr. Livingston
under the expectation that the Government of France would find in all
that has occurred its obligation to proceed forthwith to the fulfillment
of it as soon as funds were placed in its hands. If this expectation is
disappointed, you must ask for your passports and return to the United
States. If no movement has been made on the part of France and no
intimation given to you or to the banker of the United States who is the
authorized agent of the Treasury to receive the installments due of the
time that payment will be made, you are instructed to call upon the Duke
de Broglie and request to be informed what are the intentions of the
Government in relation to it, stating that you do so by orders of your
Government and with a view to regulate your conduct by the information
you may receive from him. In the present agitated state of France it is
the particular desire of the President that your application should be
made in the most conciliatory tone and your interview with the Duke
marked by expressions, as coming from your Government, of great personal
respect for that minister and of an anxious desire for the safety of the
King of France. If the Duke should inform you that the money is to be
paid on any fixed day, you will remain in France; otherwise you will
apply for your passports, and state the reason to be that the treaty
of indemnity has not been executed by France.
The President especially directs that you should comply with these
instructions so early that the result may be known here before the
meeting of Congress, which takes place on the 7th of December next.