of the other party, shall succeed to their said personal goods, whether by testament or ab intestato, and may take possession thereof, either by themselves, or by others acting for them, and dispose of the same at will, paying to the profit of the respective governments such dues only as the inhabitants of the country wherein the said goods are, shall be subject to pay in like cases. And in case of the absence of the representative, such care shall be taken of the said goods as would be taken of the goods of a native of the same country in like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for receiving them. And if a question should arise among several claimants as to which of them said goods belong, the same shall be decided, finally, by the laws and judges of the land wherein the said goods are. And where, on the death of any person holding real estate, within the territories of one of the high contracting parties, such real estate would, by the laws of the land, descend on a citizen or subject of the other party, who, by reason of alienage, may be incapable of holding it, he shall be allowed the time fixed by the laws of the country, and in case the laws of the country actually in force may not have fixed any such time, he shall then be allowed a reasonable time to sell such real estate and to withdraw and export the proceeds without molestation, and without paying to the profit of the respective Governments any other dues than those to which the inhabitants of the country wherein said real estate is situated shall be subject to pay in like cases. But this article shall not derogate, in any manner, from the force of the laws already published, or which may hereafter be published, by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, to prevent the emigration of his subjects. ARTICLE XI. If either party shall, hereafter, grant to any other nation any particular favour in navigation or commerce, it shall, immediately, become common to the other party, freely, where it is freely granted to such other nation, or on yielding the same compensation, when the grant is conditional. ARTICLE XII. The present treaty, of which the effect shall extend, in like manner, to the kingdom of Poland so far as the same may be applicable thereto, shall continue in force until the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine; and if, one year before that day, one of the high contracting parties, shall not have announced to the other, by an official notification, its intention to arrest the operation thereof, this treaty shall remain obligatory one year beyond that day, and so on, until the expiration of the year which shall commence after the date of a similar notification. ARTICLE XIII. The present treaty shall be approved and ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the said States, and by his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the city of Washington within the space of one year, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty, in duplicate, and affixed thereto the seal of their arms. Done at St. Petersburg, the th December, in the year of Grace one thousand eight hundred and thirtytwo. JAMES BUCHANAN. [L. S.] CHARLES COMTE DE NESSELRode. [L. S.] SEPARATE ARTICLE. and by the other to that of the Grand Duchy of Finland, shall not, in any case, be invoked in favour of the relations of commerce and navigation, sanctioned between the two high contracting parties by the present treaty. The present separate article shall have the same force and value as if it were inserted, word for word, in the treaty signed this day, and shall be ratified at the same time. Certain relations of proximity, and anterior engagements, having rendered it necessary for the Imperial Government to regulate the commercial relations of Russia with Prussia, and the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, by special stipu lations, now actually in force, and which may be renewed hereafter; which stipulations are, in no manner, connected with the existing re. gulations for foreign commerce in general; the two high contracting parties, wishing to remove from their commercial relations every kind of ambiguity or subject of discussion, have agreed that the special stipulations granted to the com-th of December, in the year of merce of Prussia, and of Sweden Grace one thousand eight hundred and Norway, in consideration of and thirty-two. equivalent advantages granted in these countries, by the one to the commerce of the kingdom of Poland, In faith whereof, we the undersigned, by virtue of our respective full powers, have signed the present separate article, and affixed thereto the seals of our arms. Done at St. Petersburg, the JAMES BUCHANAN. [L. S.] CHARLES COMTE DE NESSELRode. [L. S.] CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE CLAIMS OF CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES ON FRANCE. Extracts from the General Instructions of John Quincy Adams, Secre. tary of State of the United States, to James Brown, dated at Wash ington, 23d December, 1823. "The subjects of immediate concern in the relations between the United States and France, which will require your attention, are, "1. The claims of many citizens of the United States upon the French government for indemnity. last, [the turning away of the Congress frigate from Cadiz,] have been discussed between the two go. vernments during the missions of your predecessors; most of them so fully, that a renewal of the dis. cussion can scarcely be expected to adduce any novelty of argument or of illustration. All the correspondence concerning them will be before you, and you will, immediately after your reception, earnest. ly call the attention of the French government to the claims of our "All these subjects, except the citizens for indemnity. "2. The pretension raised by the French government to special and exclusive privileges in the ports of Louisiana, by virtue of the 8th article of the Louisiana cession convention, &c. &c. &c. * * "You will, at the same time, explicitly make known that this go. vernment cannot consent to connect this discussion with that of the pretension raised by France on the construction given by her to the 8th article of the Louisiana cession treaty. The difference in the nature and character of the two interests is such, that they cannot, with propriety, be blended together. The claims are for reparation to individuals for their property taken from them by manifest and undisputed wrong. The question upon the Louisiana treaty is a question of right upon the meaning of a contract. It has been fully, deliberate ly, and thoroughly investigated; and the government of the United States are under the entire and solemn conviction, that the pretension of France is utterly unfounded. We are, nevertheless, willing to resume the discussion, if desired by France: but to refuse justice to individuals, unless the United States will accede to the construction of an article in a treaty, contrary to what they believe to be its real meaning, would be not only incom. patible with the principles of equity, but submitting to a species of compulsion derogatory to the honour of the nation. SIR, Mr. Adams to Mr. Brown. Department of State, I HAVE had the honour of receiving your despatches to No 4, inclusive, dated 28th May, with their enclosures. The subject which has first claimed the attention of the president, has been the result of your correspondence with Viscount de Chateaubriand in relation to the claims of numerous citizens of the United States upon the justice of the French go. vernment. I enclose herewith a copy of a report of the committee of foreign relations of the house of representatives upon several petitions addressed to that body at their last session by some of those claimants, and of a resolution of the house adopted thereupon. The president has deliberately considered the purport of Mr. de Chateaubriand's answer to your S note of the 28th April upon this subject; and he desires that you would renew, with earnestness, the application for indemnity to our citizens for claims notoriously just, and⚫ resting upon the same principle with others which have been admitted and adjusted by the government of France. In the note of Viscount de Chateaubriand to you, of 7th May, it is said that he is authorized to declare a negotiation will be opened with you upon the American claims if this negotiation should also include French claims, and particularly the arrangements to be concluded concerning the execution of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty. You are authorized, in reply, to declare that any just claims which subjects of France may have upon the government of the United States will readily be included in the negotiation, and to stipulate any suite able provision for the examination, adjustment, and satisfaction of them. But the question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, is not only of a different character it cannot be blended with that of indemity for individual claims, with. out a sacrifice, on the part of the United States, of the principle of right. The negotiation for indemnity presupposes that wrong has been done; that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of any treaty stipulation concerning it, can only be to ascertain what is justly due, and to make provision for the payment of it. By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana convention, the United States would abandon the principle upon which the whole discussion concerning it depends. The situation of the parties to the negotiation would be unequal. The United States, asking reparation for admitted wrong, are told that France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce their own sense of right, to admit and discuss with it a claim, the justice of which they have constantly denied. The government of the United States is prepared to renew the discussion with that of France, relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty, in any manner which may be desired, and by which they shall not be understood to admit that France has any claim under it whatever. A change having taken place in the French department of foreign affairs, it is hoped that a new appli cation in behalf of the claims will be more successful than those which have hitherto been urged in vain. It may, perhaps, be proper to offer to discuss further the Louisiana treaty question before entering upon the negotiation for the claims; but you will not fail to press "seriously upon the French government, that, as the United States cannot see in the result of the discussion hitherto, any just claim of France arising from the article of the treaty, so, in the persevering refusal of France to discuss and adjust the well-founded claims of the citizens of the United States to indemnity for wrongs, unless in connexion with one which they are satisfied is unfounded, the United States could ultimately perceive only a determination of France to deny justice to the claimants altogether. From the tenor of the resolution of the house of representatives, a copy of which is enclosed, you will discern the necessity of obtaining a positive and ultimate answer, in season to be communicated to congress at an early period of their next session. Mr. Clay to Mr. Brown. Department of State, Washington, 28th May, 1827. JAMES BROWN, Envoy Extraordinary, and Minister Plenipotentiary to France. SIR, from this department to the house of representatives, made at the last session of congress, in pursuance of a resolution of the house, containing a schedule of claims of citizens of I TRANSMIT herewith, a report the United States on foreign govern ments, arising out of spoliations committed on our commerce during the wars of the French revolution. The schedule is as comprehensive as the materials in the possession of the department would admit: but it is not to be taken as by any means exhibiting the full amount of the just claims of our citizens. The common casualties incident to human nature, have probably prevented the transmission to the department of many claims. Some did not come in until after the expiration of the period fixed in the resolution of the house of representatives for their being forwarded to the department, and others were received subsequently to the presentation of the schedule to the house. The claims which are excluded ought not to be considered as affected in the least degree by their omission. The design of the house of representatives, in requiring a statement of the amount of claims upon foreign governments, was to obtain a general and proximate view of their extent, without any purpose of impairing the valid. ity of those which, from whatever cause, should not be forwarded. Although, for the reasons just mentioned, the schedule ought to be received as an imperfect exhibit of the total number and amount of the claims which it was intended to include, the aggregate sum which it, in fact, presents is sufficient to enlist the best exertions of the government to procure for the claimants the indemnity to which they are justly entitled. Whether we regard the enormity of the agressions out of which those claims spring, the numerous persons interested in the liquidation of them, or the vast amount at issue, the government of the United States can never be indifferent to their satisfactory adjust ment; and however unpromising appearances may, from time to time be, it will preserve to the last, until indemnity be obtained. The schedule was referred, by the house of representatives, to its committee on foreign affairs, which, on the 23d of February last, made a report, of which a copy is herewith transmitted. The committee conclude their report by observing that the confidence which they entertain "that the measures within the competence of the executive will eventually prove successful, is measured by the reliance which is felt in the justice and honour of foreign governments. Till those measures shall have been exhausted and found inadequate, the time will not have arrived for legislative interference." It is the expectation of the claimants, of congress, and of the country, that a renewed appeal shall be made, through the executive, to the justice of France. The committee properly remark in their report, that "justice could not, perhaps, with propriety be enforced from other powers before, nor dispensed with after, it shall have been done to our citizens by this powerful, prosperous, and magnanimous state, of whose elevated and liberal policy the people of the United States have had too many proofs to fear a final difference of sentiment on this subject." It should be added that France may be properly considered as the parent source of all the wrongs inflicted by the continental powers during the revolutionary wars, on the commerce of the United States; and both for that reason, and on account of the greater magnitude of the claims upon France, which, according to the schedule, is nearly double the amount of those upon all the other continental governments together, there is an evident fitness in that nation's taking the lead in equitable reparations, which took the lead in the original agression. |