P Relations with France. asked, with some surprise, whether we had not written for instructions? and we answered that we had not; and Mr. Gerry said that we had stated facts to our Government, and conceived that nothing more was necessary. General Pinckney observed that the Government, knowing the facts, would do what was proper, and that our applying or not applying for instructions would not alter our conduct. Mr. Talleyrand then inquired whether we had not sent any one to the United States. Gen. Pinckney said no; and Mr. Gerry added that, soon after our arrival we had made propositions to send one of our number, which were not accepted. And General Marshall further added, that those who had communicated with us had told us we should be ordered out of France immediately; and we had supposed that we should be ordered out before our letters could reach the Government. Mr. Gerry then observed that the Government of France must judge for itself; but that it appeared to him that a treaty on liberal principles, such as those on which the Treaty of Commerce between the two nations was first established, would be infinitely more advantageous to France than the trifling advantages she could derive from a loan. Such a treaty would produce a friendship and attachment on the part of the United States to France, which would be solid and permanent, and produce benefits far superior to those of a loan, if we had power to make it. To this observation Mr. Talleyrand made no reply. We parted without any sentiment delivered by the Minister on the subject of our going home to consult our Government. As we were taking our leave of Mr. Talleyrand, we told him that two of us would return immediately, to receive the instructions of our Government, if that would be agreeable to the Directory; if it was not, we would wait some time. in the expectation of receiving instructions. FRANCE. [Communicated to Congress, June 18, 1798.] Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I now transmit to Congress the despatch, No. 8, from our Envoys Extraordinary to the French Republic. which was received at the Secretary of State's office on Thursday, the 14th day of this month. JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, June 18, 1798. No. 8. PARIS, April 3, 1798. DEAR SIR: We herewith transmit you a copy of the letter written to us by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated the 28th Ventose, (18th March.) and purporting to be an answer to our memorial of the 17th of January. We also send you in this enclosure a copy of our reply, which has been presented this morning. As soon as we certainly know what steps the 5th CoN.-109 French Government mean to pursue in conse- Col. PICKERING, Secretary U. S. The Minister of Foreign Relations of the French Republic to Messrs. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, J. Marshall, and E. Gerry. The undersigned, Minister of Foreign Relations of the French Republic. has laid before the Executive Directory the memorial which the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary of the United States of America have transmitted to him, under date of the 28th Nivose last, (17th January, 1798,) and it is in execution of the intentions of the Directory, which desires to convince the United States of the true dispositions which animate it with respect to them, that the undersigned communicates to the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary the following observations: The first thing which must excite attention, in the memorial of the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary, is the method which they have thought proper to pursue in the exposition and in the discussion of the points which are in dispute between the two States. The Executive Directory, animated with dispositions the most conciliatory, and penetrated with the interests which should draw the two nations together, as well as eager to concur in the well known wish of the two people to maintain a perfect intimacy, had reason to expect that the Envoys would have brought, in the name of their Government, dispositions entirely similar, and a temper previously prepared by the same views and the same desires. What must be, after this, the surprise of the Executive Directory, when the undersigned rendered it an account of a memorial in which the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary, reversing the known order of facts, have aimed to pass over, as it were in silence, the just motives of complaint of the French Government, and to disguise the true cause of the misunderstanding which is prolonged between the two Republics! So that it would appear, from that exposition, as partial as unfaithful, that the French Republic has no real grievance to substantiate, no legitimate reparation to demand, whilst the United States should alone have a right to complain-should alone be entitled to claim satis faction. The designs which have induced a preference of this course to every other have not escaped the Executive Directory; and it is as well from a just sentiment of the dignity of the Republic, whose interests are confided to it, as to provide eventually against the views which may be contemplated by such conduct, that it has charged the undersigned to dispel these empty appearances, which, indeed, cannot exist when facts shall be re-established, and the true intentions of the Directory shall be solemnly made to appear, in opposition to those which can be attributed to it only gratuitously, and by taking advantage of its silence. Relations with France. An incontestable truth, and one which has been entirely passed over in the memorial of the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary, is, that the priority of grievances and complaints belonged to the French Republic; that these complaints and these grievances were as real as numerous, long before the United States had the least grounded claim to make, and, consequently, before all the facts, on which the Envoys rest with so many details, had existed. Soon afterward a national corvette, at anchor in the port of Philadelphia,* was seized by order of the Government, and this arrest was afterward extended even to her commander. The American tribunals, in like manner, arrested the person of the ex-Governor of Guadaloupe, for acts of his administration; and it was necessary that the Executive Directory should threaten to make reprisals, to put this affair in the course prescribed by the law of nations. Another truth, not less incontestable, is, that all During the whole space of time which has been the grievances which the Commissioners and En- just reviewed, the French Government made voys Extraordinary exhibit, with the exceptions fruitless efforts to induce the Government of the which the undersigned was ready to discuss, are a United States to procure, for the agents of the necessary consequence of the measures which the Republic, the legal means of carrying into effect prior conduct of the United States had justified on the clauses of the Consular Convention of 1788, the part of the French Republic, and which its which granted to our navigation and commerce treaties with the said United States authorized in privileges, whose principle was consecrated by the certain cases, which it depended upon the Gene-treaties of 1778; and nothing could ever be obral Government of the Union to create or not to create. It would be foreign to the purpose to enter into an enumeration of the complaints which the French Government had room to make against the Federal Government, since the commencement of the war, excited against the French Republic by a Power jealous of its prosperity and its regeneration. These details are contained in the numerous official communications, made at Philadelphia by the Ministers of the Republic, and have been recapitulated by the predecessor of the undersigned in a note addressed, under date of the 19th Ventose, in the 4th year, (9th March, 1796,) to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, and very particularly detailed in the official note of Citizen Adet, dated at Philadelphia, on the 25th Brumaire, in the 5th year, (15th November, 1796.) Complaint was made in the above note of the inexecution of the treaties concluded in 1778, in the only clauses in which France had stipulated some advantages, in return for the efforts which she engaged to make for the common benefit, and against the insults offered to the dignity of the French Republic. In fact, from the commencement of the war, the American tribunals have claimed the right to take cognizance of the validity of prizes, carried into the ports of the United States by French cruisers. It has resulted from this pretension, contrary to the letter of the Treaty of Commerce of 1778, that the property of citizens of the Republic has been unjustly detained, and that French cruising has been totally discouraged in the American seas, against an enemy who revived the most barbarous laws of that mode of warfare, to destroy and insult the American commerce, even under the eyes of the Federal Government. That Government did not confine itself to favor the enemies of the French Republic in a point so essential, a point on which, in truth, some abuses might arise, but which the French Government manifested itself disposed to prevent; it even went so far as to permit enemy's vessels, contrary to the literal meaning of the above treaty, to put into the ports of the United States, after having captured the property or ships belonging to French citizens. tained, in this respect, but fruitless references to the tribunals. In general, all matters which, with intentions sincerely conciliatory, should have been terminated by means of negotiation, were habitually referred to the Judicial authorities; and these, whether they were or were not subject to a secret influence, in the end either deprived the Republic of rights founded upon treaties, or modified their exercise as suited the system of the Government. Such was the true state of things in the month of August, 1795, the period when the ratification of the Treaty of Amity, Navigation, and Commerce, signed at London in the month of November preceding, between the United States and Great Britain. filled the measure of the grievances of the Republic. What had, until then, been the conduct of the French Government toward the United States? The undersigned, in order to contrast it with that of the said States, will content himself with recalling facts, which cannot, however, have been forgotten. Occupied with the most pressing cares in Europe, the Republic did not direct her attention to the United States; but in order constantly to give them new proofs of the most sincere friendship and interest, she left it to her agents amicably to discuss with the Federal Government the controversies which have just been sketched, and which, had they been handled on both sides in the true spirit of conciliation, could not have altered their good understanding to the present degree. The Republic was hardly constituted, when a Minister was sent to Philadelphia, whose first act was to declare to the United States that they would not be pressed to execute the defensive clauses of the Treaty of Alliance, although the circumstances, in the least equivocal manner, exhibited the casus fæderis. Far from appreciating this conduct, the American Government received it as the acknowledgment of a right; and it is in this spirit, also, that the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary have met this question in the beginning of their memorial. The Minister of the Republic at Philadelphia, having given uneasiness * Seizure of the Cassius, in August, 1795. : Relations with France. to the American Government, was readily recall-length. in his official note of the 25th Brumaire. ed, even with circumstances of extreme rigor. His successor carried to the United States every desirable reparation, as well as declarations the most friendly and sincere. Nothing equals the spirit of conciliation, or rather of condescension, in which his instructions were drawn, relatively to all the points which caused any uneasiness in the Federal Government. The Citizen Adet again enforced, in the name of the National Convention, those expressions of good will; and that assembly itself received, with the effusion of an unbounded confidence and security, the new Minister, whom the President of the United States sent to it, with the apparent intention of sincerely corresponding with the dispositions which the Republic had not ceased to profess. He will content himself with observing, summarily, that, in this treaty, everything having been calculated to turn the neutrality of the United States to the disadvantage of the French Republic, and to the advantage of England; that the Federal Government having in this act made to Great Britain concessions, the most unheard of; the most incompatible with the interests of the United States; the most derogatory to the alliance which subsisted between the said States and the French Republic; the latter was perfectly free, in order to avoid the inconveniences of the Treaty of London, to avail itself of the preservative means with which the law of nature, the law of nations, and prior treaties, furnished it. Such are the reasons which have produced the decrees of the Directory, of which the United States complain, as well as the conduct of its agents to the West Indies. All these measures are founded on the 2d article of the treaty of 1778, which requires that, in matters of navigation and commerce, France should always be, with respect to the United States, on the footing of the most favored nation. The Executive Directory cannot be arraigned, if, from the execution of this eventual clause, some inconveniences have resulted to the American flag. As to the abuses which may have sprung from that principle, the undersigned again repeats that he was ready to discuss them in the most friendly manner. What might appear incredible is, that the Republic, and her alliance, were sacrificed at the moment when she thus redoubled her regards for her ally; and that the corresponding demonstrations of the Federal Government had no other object but to keep her, as well as her Government, in a false security. And yet it is now known that, at this very period, Mr. Jay, who had been sent to London solely, as it was then said, to negotiate arrangements relative to the depredations committed upon the American commerce by the cruisers of Great Britain, signed a Treaty of Amity, Navigation, and Commerce, the negotiating and signing of which had been kept a profound secret From this faithful exposition of facts, which at Paris and at Philadelphia. This treaty was have progressively led to the present misunderavowed to our Minister Plenipotentiary only at standing between the two States, it results, as the the last extremity; and it was communicated to undersigned has said in the beginning of this anhim only for form's sake, and after it had received swer, that the priority of grievances belongs to the ratification of the Senate. When the agents the French Republic; and that such of its measof the Republic complained of this mysterious ures as may have occasioned the complaints of the conduct, they were answered by an appeal to the United States, are, with some exceptions, the natindependence of the United States, solemnly sanc-ural consequence of a state of things, which it detioned in the treaties of 1778-a strange manner of contesting a grievance, the reality of which was demonstrated by the dissimulation to which recourse was had-an insidious subterfuge, which substitutes for the true point of the question a general principle, which the Republic cannot be supposed to dispute, and which destroys by the aid of a sophism, that intimate confidence which ought to exist between two allies, and which, above all, ought to exist between the French Republic and the United States. If it be difficult to find in this conduct what ought to be expected from a friend, what must be thought of the treaty itself, and of its provisions? This treaty is now known to all Europe; and the small majority by which it passed the two Houses, as well as the multitude of imposing wishes which were expressed by the nation against such an act, bear honorable testimony in favor of the opinion which the French Government has adopted concerning it. The undersigned will not repeat, with respect to this treaty, what his predecessor has said of it in his note of the 19th Ventose, before cited, and in that of the 19th Messidor following, nor what the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic at Philadelphia has set forth, at great pended upon them to create or not to create. If the undersigned should terminate the existence of the grievances of the Republic with the Treaty of London, he would imperfectly fulfil his task; it is his duty to carry his views further. From the moment that the treaty in question was put into execution, the Government of the United States seemed to think itself freed from the necessity of keeping any measures with the Republic: notwithstanding the reiterated assurance which had been given to its Ministers, that the treaty would in no respect change the pre-existing state of neutrality of the United States, notice was given in the course of the year 1796 to the French cruisers, that they could no longer, as had been until then practised, be permitted to sell their prizes in the ports of the United States. This decision was rendered by the Federal Court of Justice, and founded upon the treaty between the United States and Great Britain. The newspapers, known to be under the indirect control of the Cabinet, have, since the treaty, redoubled the invectives and calumnies against the Republic and against her principles, her magistrates, and her Envoys. Pamphlets, openly paid for by the Minister of Great Britain, have repro Relations with France. duced, in every form, those insults and calumnies too well known to hope from them dispositions without a state of things so scandalous having sincerely conciliatory. It is painful for the underever attracted the attention of the Government, signed to be obliged to make a contrast between which might have repressed it. On the contrary, this conduct and that which was pursued towards the Government itself was intent upon encourag- the Cabinet of St. James's, under similar circuming this scandal in its public acts. The Execu- stances. An eagerness was then felt to send to tive Directory has seen itself denounced in a London Ministers well known for sentiments corSpeech delivered by the President in the course of responding with the object of their mission. The the month of May last (O. S.) as endeavoring to Republic, it seems, might have expected a like propagate anarchy and division within the United deference; and if the same propriety has not been States. The new allies which the Republic has observed with respect to it, it is exceedingly probacquired, and who are the same that contributed able that it is to be attributed to the views above to the independence of the Americans, have been alluded to by the undersigned. equally insulted in the official correspondences which have been made public, or in the newspapers. In fine, one cannot help discovering, in the tone of the Speech and of the publications which have been just pointed out, a latent enmity which only waits an opportunity to break out. Facts being thus established, it is disagreeable to be obliged to think that the instructions, under which the Commissioners have acted, have not been drawn up with the sincere intention of obtaining pacific results; because, far from proceeding in their memorial upon some avowed principles and acknowledged facts, they have inverted and confounded both, so as to be enabled to impute to the Republic all the misfortunes of a rupture, which they seem willing to produce by such a course of proceeding. It is evident that the desire plainly declared of supporting, at hazard, the Treaty of London, which is the principal grievance of the Republic, of adhering to the spirit in which this treaty was formed and executed, and of not granting to the Republic any of the means of reparation which she has proposed through the medium of the undersigned, have dictated those instructions. It is equally evident that no hesitation is made in sacrificing to these strange sentiments those which the treaties of 1778, and the recollection of the circumstances in the midst of which they were concluded, ought to inspire. It is impossible to foresee whither such dispositions may lead. The undersigned does not hesitate to believe, that the American nation, like the French nation, sees this state of things with regret, and does not consider its consequences without sorrow. He apprehends that the American people will not commit a mistake concerning the prejudices with which it has been desired to inspire them against an allied people, nor concerning the engagements which it seems to be wished to make them contract to the detriment of an alliance, which so powerfully contributed to place them in the rank of nations, and to support them in it; and that they will see in these new combinations the only dangers their prosperity and importance can incur. Penetrated with the justice of these reflections and their consequences, the Executive Directory has authorized the undersigned to express himself with all the frankness which becomes the French nation. It is indispensable that, in the name of the Directory, he should dissipate those illusions with which for five years the complaints of the Ministers of the Republic have been incessantly surrounded at Philadelphia, in order to weaken. calumniate, or distort them. It was essential, in fine, that, by exhibiting their sentiments in an unequivocal manner, he should clear up all the doubts, and all the false interpretations, of which they might be the object. The remote consequences of such conduct have It is, therefore, in order to smooth the way of not escaped the attention of the Directory. It is discussions, that the undersigned has entered into desired, while nothing is omitted to prolong the the preceding explanations. It is with the same misunderstanding, and even to augment it, to view that he declares to the Commissioners and throw upon the Republic all the odium, in the Envoys Extraordinary, that, notwithstanding the view of America and of Europe. It is sought to kind of prejudice which has been entertained with justify, by delusive appearances, the prejudices respect to them, the Executive Directory is diswith which the name of the Republic is surround-posed to treat with that one of the three, whose ed at pleasure, and the system of exasperation and alienation which is pursued in relation to it, with the most strange obstinacy. It is finally wished to seize the first favorable occasion to consum mate an intimate union with a Power, towards which a devotion and partiality is professed, which has long been the principle of the conduct of the Federal Government. The intentions which the undersigned here attributes to the Government of the United States are so little disguised, that nothing seems to have been neglected at Philadelphia to manifest them to every eye. It is, probably, with this view, that it was thought proper to send to the French Republic persons whose opinions and connexions are opinions, presumed to be more impartial, promise, in the course of the explanations, more of that reciprocal confidence which is indispensable. The undersigned flatters himself that this overture will not meet, on the part of the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary, with any serious difficulty. It is still more natural to hope it, because, by the tenure of their powers, the said Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary are authorized to negotiate jointly or separately; so that nothing but the desire of preventing any accommodation could produce any objection against this measure; which, moreover, is only pointed out to the Commissioners themselves, in order that nothing may here bear an unfavorable ap Relations with France. pearance, and which evidently has no other object than to assure to the negotiation an happy issue, by avoiding, at the outset, everything which may on either side awaken, in the course of this negotiation, sentiments calculated to endanger it. The undersigned hopes that the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary will soon enable him to inform the Executive Directory of their determination. Whatever this determination may be, the undersigned flatters himself that the explanations into which he has entered will have placed the subjects in dispute in their true light, and may eventually serve to dissipate, in the eyes of all impartial men, the unfavorable impression which it might be endeavored to fix upon the intentions of the French Republic and its Government. He concludes by renewing to the Commissioners and Envoys Extraordinary the assurance of his consideration. CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. CITIZEN MINISTER: Your letter of the 28th Ventose, (18th March,) in answer to a memorial of the undersigned, dated 17th January, was received the day after its date, and has been considered with the most respectful attention. In that memorial, the undersigned, without furnishing cause for reproach, might have limited themselves to a statement of the numerous and well founded complaints of the nation they represent. They have been induced to extend their observations to other subjects, by that sincere desire to re-establish harmony and mutual confidence between the two Republics which the Government of the United States has never ceased to feel and to express. Supposing that those misrepresentations, to which human actions and human sentiments must ever continue to be ex posed, might have impressed on the mind of the French Government, occupied with the great and interesting events of Europe. the unfounded suspicion of partiality, on the part of America, for the enemies of France, the undersigned cherished the hope that a complete review of the conduct of their Government, accompanied with a candid and thorough investigation of the real principles on which that conduct was founded, by removing prejudices, might restore the sentiments which the United States have ever sought, and still seek to preserve. In taking this review, it was obvious that a minute discussion of every particular fact might incumber the examination with details which previous explanations had rendered unnecessary, and therefore it was confined to those leading measures of which the particular cases were the necessary result. The undersigned, however, declared, and still declare, that if the Government of the United States has given just cause of complaint to that of France, in any case, they are ready to consider, and to compensate the injury. That negotiation, the opening of which they have for nearly six months unremittingly solicited and patiently attended, would, if entered upon, demonstrate the sincerity of this declaration. Still animated by the same spirit which has dictated all their efforts to approach this Republic, still searching to remove unfavorable impressions, by a candid display of truths, and a frank manifestation of the principles which have really governed the United States, and still endeavoring thereby to facilitate the restoration of harmony between two nations which ought to be the friends of each other, the undersigned will lay before you the result of their reflections on your letter of the 28th Ventose. Whatever force you may please to allow to their observations, the relative situation of the two Republics, it is hoped, will not fail to convince you that they proceed from the most perfect conviction of their justice. You contend, Citizen Minister, that the priority of complaint is on the side of France, and that those measures, which have so injured and oppressed the people of the United States, have been produced by the previous conduct of their Government. To this the undersigned will now only observe, that if France can justly complain of any act of the Government of the United States, whether that act be prior or subsequent to the wrongs received by that Government, a disposition and a wish to do in that case what justice and friendship may require, is openly avowed, and will continue to be manifested. Your complaints against the United States may be classed under three heads: 1st, The inexecution of their treaties with France. Navigation, formed with Great Britain. 2dly, The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and that treaty. 3dly, The conduct of their Government since If the undersigned shall be disappointed in their hope to convince you that on no one of these points can their Government be justly inculpated, yet they persuade themselves that the demonstration of the good faith and upright intention with which it has ever acted, will be complete and satisfactory. This being proved, and a tender of compensation for any unintentional wrong being made, a base for accommodation is offered, which they must yet hope will be acceptable to France. 1st, The inexecution of the treaties between the United States and France. Under this head, you complain, first, that, from the commencement of the war, the American tribunals have, in effect, pretended to the right of taking cognizance of the validity of prizes brought into the ports of the United States. 2dly, That, against the textual sense of the treaty, the Government has permitted the ships of the enemy to come into their ports, after having |