ties, irreconcileable with her neutral situation, it is not by France that those reproaches ought to be made. They have been induced to take this review by a hope, which they cannot relinquish without regret, that it may contribute to efface impressions which misrepresentation may have made, and to take from the intentions and conduct of the government they represent, that false colouring which unfriendly pencils have so profusely bestowed upon them. They are anxious still to cherish the hope, that by exposing frankly and sincerely the sentiments which have hitherto guided their nation, they may restore dispositions on the part of France, compatible with the continuance of those sentiments.

Complaints have been made that in the application in particular cases of those general principles, which the neutral station of the United States rendered indispensable, inconveniences and vexations which were unavoidable have been sometimes sustained. These complaints have been separately and fully discussed.

The undersigned persuade themselves, that the explanations which have been given respecting them, if not entirely satisfactory, have yet been such as to prove the good faith and upright intentions which have never ceased to direct the conduct of the United States.

If notwithstanding this good faith and the purity of these intentions, the difficulty of their situation has in any case produced even an involuntary departure from those principles by which they professed to be guided, they are ready to consider that case and to repair any fault which may inadvertently have been committed. With these dispositions on their part, with this consciousness of having never ceased to merit the friendship and esteem of the French nation, with a conviction that a temperate and thorough view of the past cannot fail to remove prejudices not warranted by facts, the United States have relied confidently on the justice of France for a discontinuance and reparation of those serious and heavy injuries, which have been accumulated on them.

Desirous of establishing, not the dependence of a weak on a powerful nation, but that real and cordial friendship the willing and spontaneous offering of generous minds, which can only be lasting when evidenced to be mutual, and can only be preserved when bottomed on reciprocal

justice, the undersigned will now represent with candour and frankness the well founded complaints with which they are charged.

These complaints consist :

Of claims uncontroverted by the government of France, but which remain unsatisfied, and

Of claims founded on captures and confiscations, the illegality of which has not yet been admitted.

In the first class of cases are arranged;

1stly, Those whose property has been seized under the decree of the national convention of the 9th May 1793. 2dly, Those who are entitled to compensation in consequence of the long detention of their vessels at Bordeaux in the years 1793 and 1794.

3dly, The holders of bills and other evidences of debts due drawn by the colonial administrations in the West ladies.

4thly, Those whose cargoes have been appropriated to publick use without receiving therefor adequate payment;

and

5thly, Those who have supplied the government under contracts with its agents, which have not yet been complied with on the part of France.

These well founded claims of American citizens, thus originating in voluntary and important supplies, in the forcible seizure of valuable property, accompanied with promises of payment, and in injurious detentions, constitute a mass of debt which the justice and good faith of the French government cannot refuse to provide for, and which is too considerable to be unnoticed by that of the United States. The undersigned are instructed to solicit your attention to this subject, and they would persuade themselves that they do not solicit in vain. So many circumstances concur to give force to the application, that they leave it to your government, in the confidence that no additional representations can be necessary.

They pass to complaints still more important for their amount, more interesting in their nature, and more serious in their consequences.

On the 14th Messidor, 4th year of the French Republick, one and indivisible (July 2d, 1796,) the executive. directory decreed "That all neutral or allied powers. shall without delay be notified that the flag of the French

Republick will treat neutral vessels, either as to confiscation, as to searches or capture, in the same manner as they shall suffer the English to treat them." This decree, in any point of view in which it can be considered, could not fail to excite in the United States the most serious attention. It dispenses at once as they conceive with the most solemn obligations which compact can create, and consequently asserts a right on the part of France, to recede at her discretion from any stipulations she may have entered into. It has been demonstrated that governments may by contract change, as between themselves, the rules established by the law of nations, and that such contract becomes completely obligatory on the parties, though it can in no manner affect the rights of others; yet by this decree, allies with whom such stipulations exist, are to be treated without regard to such stipulations, in the same manner as they are treated by others, who are bound by a different rule. This as it respects the United States is the more unfriendly, because a readiness has been manifested on their part so to modify by consent their treaty with France, as to reinstate the rules established by the law of nations.

The general terms too, in which this decree is conceived, threatened but too certainly the mischiefs it has generated, and the abuses which have been practised under it. Neutrals are to be treated as they shall permit the English to treat them. No rule extracted from the practice of England is laid down, which might govern the cruisers of France, or instruct the vessels of neutrals. No principles are stated, manifesting the opinion entertained of the treatment received from England, which might enable a neutral to controvert that opinion, and to show that the English were not permitted to treat its flag as was supposed by the government of France. To judge from the decree itself, from any information given concerning it, or from the practice under it, those who were to be benefitted by its abuse, were to decide in what manner it should be executed; and the cruiser who should fall in with a valuable vessel had only to consult his own rapacity, in order to determine whether an English privateer, meeting a vessel, under similar circumstances, would capture and bring her into port. Multiplied excesses, and accumulated vexations could not but have been apprehended from such a decree, and the fact has realized every fear that was enter

tained concerning it. It has been construed even in Europe to authorize the capture and condemnation of American vessels, for the single circumstance of their being destined for a British port. At no period of the war has Britain undertaken to exercise such a power. At no period of the war has she asserted such a right. It is a power which prostrates every principle of national sovereignty and to which no nation can submit without relinquishing at the same time its best interests and sacrificing its dearest rights. This power has been exercised by France on the rich and unprotected commerce of an ally, on the presumption that that ally was sustaining the same injuries from Britain, at a time when it is believed that the depredations of that nation had ceased, and the principle of compensating for them had been recognised.

In the West Indies similar depredations have been experienced. On the 1st of August 1796, the special agents of the executive directory to the Windward Islands, decreed, that all vessels loaded with contraband, should be seized and confiscated for the benefit of the captors.

On the 7th Frimaire, 5th year of the French Republick, one and indivisible (27th November, 1796) the commission, delegated by the French Republick to the Leeward Islands, resolved, that the captains of French national vessels and privateers are authorized to stop and bring into the ports of the colony, American vessels bound to English ports, or coming from the said ports.

On the 19th Pluviose, 5th year of the French Republick, one and indivisible, (February 1st, 1797) Victor Hugues and Lebas, the special agents of the executive directory to the Windward Islands, passed a decree, subjecting to capture and confiscation neutral vessels destined for the Windward and Leeward Islands of America, delivered up to the English, and occupied and defended by the emigrants. These ports are said to be, Martinico, St. Lucie, Tobago, Demarara, Berbice, Essequibo, Port-au-Prince, St. Marks, L'Archaye, and Jeremie. The decree also subjects to capture all vessels which have cleared out for the West Indies generally.

The undersigned will not detain you, citizen minister, for the purpose of proving how directly and openly these decrees violate both the law of nations, and the treaty between France and the United States.

They have been executed on the officers and crews of the captured vessels, in a manner by no means calculated to mitigate their rigour.

The decree of the 14th of Messidor, was soon followed by another which has spared but little of the American commerce, except what has fortunately escaped the pursuit of the cruisers of France. On the 12th Ventose, 5th year, (2d March, 1797) the executive directory, considering the treaty of amity, commerce and navigation, concluded at London, the 19th of November, 1794, between the said United States and England, as containing concessions of privileges to Britain which, under the treaty of February, 1778, might be enjoyed by this Republick also, proceeds to modify the treaty between France and the United States, by declaring enemies goods, in American bottoms, liable to capture and confiscation; by enlarging the list of contraband; and by subjecting to punishment, as a pirate, any American citizen holding a commission given by the enemies of France, as well as every seaman of that nation, making a part of the crew of enemies' ships. The decree next proceeds to exact from Americans, papers which had been made necessary to establish the neutrality of foreign vessels, generally, by the ordinance of the 26th of July, 1778, but which had never been considered as applying to the United States, which required papers their vessels could not be supposed to possess, and which the treaty between the two nations was supposed to have rendered unnecessary.

The basis taken by the executive directory, on which to rest their modification of the treaty of the 6th of February, 1778, is, that by the treaty of the nineteenth of November, 1794, particular favours in respect of commerce and navigation have been granted to England.

It has been demonstrated, that no particular favours, in respect of commerce or navigation, have been granted to England. That treaty has been shown only to recognise, regulate and moderate the exercise of rights before possessed, and before openly acknowledged to be possessed-rights which France and America had reciprocally ceded to each other, without requiring, as a condition of the cession, that either should compel England to form a similar stipulation.