1st. Claims under the 4th Article of the Convention, of September, 1800. 2d. Forced contracts, or sales imposed upon our citizens by French authorities; and 3d. Voluntary contracts, which have been suffered to remain unfulfilled by them. Where our citizens have become creditors of the French Government, in consequence of agencies or appointments derived from it, the United States are under no particular obligations to patronize their claims, and therefore no sacrifice of any sort, in their behalf, ought to be made in the arrangement. As far as this class of claimants can be embraced, without embarrassing the negotiation, or influencing, in any respect, the demands or expectations of the French Government, it will not be improper to admit them into the provision. It is not probable, however, that such a deduction from the sum ultimately to be received by the French Government, will be permitted without some equivalent accommodation to its interests, at the expense of the United States. The claims of Mr. Beaumarchais, and several other French individuals, on our Government. founded upon antiquated or irrelevant grounds, although they may be attempted to be included in this negotiation, have no connexion with it. The American Government is distinguished for its just regard to the rights of foreigners, and does not require those of individuals to become subjects of treaty, in order to be admitted. Besides, their discussion involves a variety of minute topics, with which you may fairly declare yourselves to be unacquainted. Should it appear, however, in the course of the negotiation, that so much stress is laid on this point, that without some accommodation, your success will be endangered; it will be allowable to bind the United States for the payment of one million of livres tournois, to the representatives of Beaumarchais, heretofore deducted from his account against them; the French Government declaring the same never to have been advanced to him on account of the United States. Article 7th is suggested by the respect due to the rights of the People inhabiting the ceded territory, and by the delay which may be found in constituting them a regular and integral portion of the Union. A full respect for their rights, might require their consent to the act of cession; and if the French Government should be disposed to concur in any proper mode of obtaining it. the provision would be honorable to both nations. There is no doubt that the inhabitants would readily agree to the proposed transfer of their allegiance. It is hoped that the idea of a guarantee of the country reserved to France, may not be brought into the negotiation. Should France proprose such a stipulation, it will be expedient to evade it if possible, as more likely to be a source of disagreeable questions, between the parties concerning the actual casus foederis, than of real advantage to France. It is not in the least probable that Louisiana, in the hands of that nation, will be attacked by any other, whilst it is in the relations to the United States, on which the guarantee would be founded; where of as nothing is more probable than some difference of opinion as to the circumstances and the degree of danger necessary to put the stipulations in force. There will be less reason in the demand of such an article, as the United States would set little value on a guarantee any part of their territory, and, consequently, there would be no just reciprocity in it. Should France, notwithstanding these considerations, make a guarantee an essential point, it will be better to accede to it, than to abandon the object of the negotiation; mitigating the evil as much as possible, by requiring for the casus fœderis a great and manifest danger threatened to the territory guarantied, and by substituting for an indefinite succor, or even a definite succor, in military force, a fixed sum of money payable at the Treasury of the United States. It is difficult to name the proper sum, which is in no posture of the business to be exceeded, but it can scarcely be presumed that more than about dollars, to be paid annually, during the existence of the danger, will be insisted on. Should it be unavoidable to stipulate troops in place of money, it will be prudent to settle the details with as much precision as possible, that there be no room for controversy, either with France or with her enemy, on the fulfilment of the stipulation. The instructions thus far given, suppose that France may be willing to cede to the United States the whole of the island of New Orleans, and both the Floridas. As she may be inclined to dispose of a part or parts, and of such only, it is proper for you to know that the Floridas, together, are estimated at one-fourth the value of the whole island of New Orleans, and East Florida at half that of West Florida. In case of a partial cession, it is expected that the regulations of every other kind, so far as they are onerous to the United States, will be more favorably modified. Should France refuse to cede the whole of the island, as large a portion as she can be prevailed on to part with, may be accepted; should no considerable portion of it be attainable, it will still be of vast importance to get a jurisdiction over space enough for a large commercial town, and its appurtenances, on the bank of the river, and as little remote from the mouth of the river as may be. A right to choose the place would be better than a designation of it in the treaty. Should it be impossible to procure a complete jurisdiction over any convenient spot whatever, it will only remain to explain and improve the present right of deposite, by adding thereto the express privilege of holding real estate for commercial purposes, of providing hospitals, of having Consuls residing there, and other agents, who may be authorized to authenticate, and deliver all documents requisite for vessels, belonging to and engaged in the trade of the United States, to and from the place of deposite. The United States cannot remain satisfied, nor the Western People be kept patient under the restrictions which the existing treaty with Spain authorizes. Should a cession of the Floridas not be attainable, your attention will also be due to the establishment of suitable deposites at the mouths of the rivers, passing from the United States through the Floridas, as well as of the free navigation of those rivers by citizens of the 94 United States. What has been above suggested in relation to the Mississippi, and the deposite on its banks, is applicable to the other rivers; and additional hints relative to them all may be derived from the letter, of which a copy is enclosed from the Consul at New Orleans. It has been long manifest, that, whilst the injuries to the United States, so frequently occurring from the Colonial Officers, scattered over our hemisphere, and in our neighborhood, can only be repaired by a resort to their respective Governments in Europe, that it will be impossible to guard against the most serious inconveniences. The late events at New Orleans strongly manifest the necessity of placing a power somewhere nearer to us. capable of correcting and controlling the mischievous proceedings of such officers towards our citizens, without which a few individuals, not always among the wisest or best of men, may at any time threaten the good understanding of the two nations. The distance between the United States and the old continent, and the mortifying delays of explanations and negotiations across the Atlantic, on emergencies in our neighborhood, render such a provision indispensable, and it cannot be long before all the Governments of Europe, having American colonies, must see the necessity of making it. This object, therefore, will likewise claim your special attention. It only remains to suggest, that, considering the possibility of some intermediate violences between citizens of the United States and the French or Spaniards in consequence of the interruption of our right of deposite, and the probability that considerable damages will have been occasioned by that measure to citizens of the United States, it will be proper that indemnification in the latter case be provided for, and that in the former, it shall not be taken on either side as a ground or pretext for hostilities. These instructions, though as full as they could be conveniently made, will necessarily leave much to your discretion. For the proper exercise of it, the President relies on your information, your judg ment, and your fidelity to the interests of your country. JAMES MADISON. 1 No. 472. [TRANSLATION.] The Minister of Exterior Relations to Mr. Livingston, dated PARIS, 19th Ventose. year 11, SIR: The First Consul, in remitting to me the memoir which you have presented to him, has ordered me to assure you that he had taken into serious consideration the objects you therein treat upon, and the divers demands which you have addressed to him. He has, at the same time, caused a report to be made of all the affairs which have relation to these demands, and to the clauses of the last Convention between France and the United States, to which you refer them. The intention of the First Consul, (and he has charged me to declare it to you,) is that this Convention, in all its clauses, be punctually and scrupulously executed. The reflections, which in your memoir refer to the difficulties of this execution in regard to France, do not apply, with any sort of foundation, either to the dispositions of the Government of the Republic, or to the situation of its finances. The First Consul is persuaded that the presumptions, which have deceived you on this point, were suggested to you by benevolent disquietude; these presumptions, however, do not agree with the facts. There are no financial embarrassments in France; the French Government has the means as well as the desire to be just and were they to find themselves so placed, that the discharge of their engagements would be to them a painful duty to fulfil, they can rise above difficulties, and satisfy all legitimate claims against them. As to the subject of American debts, an estimate whereof you give in the memoir addressed to the First Consul. I must acknowledge that it is quite new to us that by any estimate they could amount to the sum of twenty millions. The First Consul charges me to ask of you an exact, full, complete, and verified statement of those debts. The perfect confidence wherewith you have inspired him, does not permit him to doubt that you will give to the discussion of the principles which. should form this statement, all the discernment of your mind and all the frankness of your character; you must be persuaded, sir, that, upon such a statement, every thing will be promptly and accurately settled. As regards the twelfth question, which you have treated of in your memoir, and which relates to Louisiana, the First Consul was desirous that you should have made it the object of a distinct and separate official note. Affairs of so different a nature ought not to be brought near each other, and still less should they be blended together. It is entirely against the maxims of the Government of the Republic. to mix important and delicate political relations with calculations of balances and with pecuniary concerns. However, the First Consul, appreciating the motives that have led you to insist upon the explanation of the new relations which may exist between the two Republics, charges me to inform you, that, being previously acquainted with the interest, premature perhaps, but at bottom natural and plausible, which the United States seem to give to this discussion, he has taken steps to send immediately a Minister Plenipotentiary to America, in order that he may be able, as soon as possible, to send him a report, which will put him in a condition of elucidating every thing before he makes his determination upon this object. Besides, in this circumstance, as in all those which can present an object of discussion between the two Governments, the First Consul desires me to give you, upon his dispositions with regard to the United States, the most positive and the most formal assurances of his attach ment to your Republic, his personal esteem, and personal consideration for the First Magistrate who presides over it, from a natural sentiment, that as a Frenchman, and as the chief of a nation the most constant and the most ancient friend of the American nation, he takes a pleasure in professing, and of which, he will look upon it as a pleasing obligation, to afford proofs. In congratulating myself as being, at this moment, the instrument of the sentiments of the First Consul, permit me to renew to you, sir, the assurance of my high consideration. CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. No. 473. [EXTRACT.] Mr. Livingston to Mr. Madison, Secretary of State of the United States, dated PARIS, 11th March, 1803. "I have, a few days since, written to you, transmitting you a letter which I addressed to the First Consul, for tho' I had got various notes and observations under his eye, in an informal way, yet I have reason to fear that what I wrote to the Minister particularly on the subject of the debt, had not reached him; besides, that I believe that he could not pass over a more direct address to him personally. I found, upon conversing with the Ministers here, that they consider any direct address as improper, and likely to offend the Minister if not the Consul. But our situation was such as to require something decisive; and, as I daily found the dispositions of Mr. Talleyrand more friendly to our views, probably for a reason I hinted at in my last; and as I had taken measures to render every person with whom the Consul should advise I promised to the Minister to write, and offered to submit my letter to him before I sent it. He was pleased with this mark of confidence, and promised, not only to deliver it, but to support my application. When I shewed him the letter, he seemed to think that all that related to the debt was hopeless. I, however, could not abandon this important object; but, immediately upon sending it, took care to have that part of it supported by Consul Le Brun, who has the principal direction of the Affairs of Finance; and with whom I am upon a very friendly footing and between whom and my friend Marbois there is a family connection, strengthened by the marriage of their children. I have the pleasure of enclosing you the answer to that letter; you will find in it such strong and such satisfactory assurances on the subject of the debt, as I think gives us the firmest prospects of their speedy payment. I have thought it necessary to communicate this to the Americans here, in order to prevent their parting with their claims at |