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the preceding article may be fairly investigated, the ministers plenipotentiary of the United States shall name three persons, who shall act from the present and provisionally, and who shall have full power to examine, without removing the documents, all the accounts of the different claims already liquidated by the bureau established for this purpose by the French republic, and to ascertain whether they belong to the classes designated by the present convention, and the principles established in it; or if they are not in one of its exceptions, and on their certificate, declaring that the debt is due to an American citizen, or his representative, and that it existed before the 8th Vendemiaire, 9th year, (30th September, 1800,) the creditor shall be entitled to an order on the Treasury of the United States, in the manner prescribed by the third article.

ART. 7. The same agents shall likewise have power, without removing the documents, to examine the claims which are prepared for verification, and to certify those which ought to be admitted by uniting the necessary qualifications, and not being comprised in the exceptions contained in the present convention.

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dent pourra donner lieu, puissent être convenablement examinées, les ministres plénipotentiaires des Etats Unis nommeront trois personnes qui dès à présent et provisoirement, auront tout pouvoir d'examiner, sans déplacement de pièces tous les comptes des différentes créances déjà liquidées par les bureaux établis à cet effet par la république Française, et de reconnaître si elles appartiennent aux classes désignées dans la présente convention, et aux principes qui y sont établis, ou si elles ne sont pas dans l'une des exceptions, et sur leur certificat portant que la créance est due à un citoyen Américain, ou à son représentant, et qu'elle existait avant le 8 Vendémiaire, an 9, (30 Septembre, 1800,) le créancier aura droit à un mandat sur le trésor des Etats Unis, expédié conformément à l'article 3.

ART. 7. Les mêmes agens pourront également, et dès à présent, prendre connaissance, sans déplacer des pièces relatives aux réclamations dont le travail et la vérification sont préparés, et délivrer leurs certificats sur celles qui réuniront les caractères nécessaires pour l'admission, et qui ne seront pas comprises dans les exceptions exprimées par la présente convention.

ART. 8. A l'égard des autres réclamations dont les travaux n'ont pas encore été préparés, les mêmes agens en prendront aussi successivement connaissance, et déclareront par écrit celles qui leur paraîtront susceptibles d'être admises en liquidation.

ART. 9. A mesure que les créances mentionnées dans les dits articles auront été admises, elles seront acquittées avec les intérêts à six pour cent, par le trésor des Etats Unis.

ART. 10. And that no debt which shall not have the qualifications above mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand may be admitted, the commercial agent of the United States at Paris, or such other agent as the minister plenipotentiary of the United States shall think proper to nominate, shall assist at the operations of the bureau, and co-operate in the examination of the claims; and if this agent shall be of opinion that any debt is not completely proved, or if he shall judge that it is not comprised in the principles of the fifth article above mentioned; and if, notwithstanding his opinion, the bureau established by the French Government should think that it ought to be liquidated, he shall transmit his observations to the board established by the United States, who, without removing documents, shall make a complete examination of the debt and vouchers which support it, and report the result to the minister of the United States. The minister of the United States shall transmit his observations, in all such cases, to the Minister of the Treasury of the French republic, on whose report the French Government shall decide definitively in every case.

The rejection of any claim shall have no other effect than to exempt the United States from the payment of it, the French Government reserving to itself the right to decide definitively on such claim so far as it concerns itself.

ART. 11. Every necessary decision shall be made in the course of a year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no reclamation shall be admitted afterwards.

ART. 12. In case of claims for debts contracted by the Government of France with citizens of the

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ART. 10. Et afin qu'aucune dette qui n'aura pas les caractères ci-dessus mentionnés, et qu'aucunes demandes injustes ou exhorbitantes ne puissent être admises, l'agent commercial des Etats Unis à Paris, ou tel autre agent que le ministre plénipotentiaire des Etats Unis jugera propos de nommer, pourra assister aux opérations des dits bureaux, et concourrir à l'examen de ces créances, et si cet agent n'est pas d'avis que la dette est completement prouvée, ou s'il juge qu'elle n'est pas comprise dans les dispositions du 5me article ci-dessus mentionné, et que non obstant son avis les bureaux établis par le Gouvernement Français estiment que la liquidation' doit avoir lieu, il transmettra ses observations au bureau établi de la part des Etats Unis, qui fera, sans déplacer, l'examen complet de la créance et des pièces au soutien, et fera son rapport au ministre des Etats Unis. Ce ministre transmettra ses observations à celui du trésor de la république Française, et sur son rapport le Gouvernement Francais prononcera définitivement.

Le rejet qui pourra avoir lieu n'ayant d'autre effet que de constater que le payement demandé ne doit pas être fait par les Etats Unis, le Gouvernement Français se réserve de statuer définitivement sur la réclamation, en ce qui pourra le concerner.

ART. 11. Toutes les décisions necessaires seront rendues dans le cours d'une année, à dater de l'échange des ratifications, et aucune réclamation ne sera admise ultérieurement.

ART. 12. Dans le cas où il y aurait des réclamations des Etats Unis à la charge du Gouvernement Fran

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Mr. Madison to Mr. Charles Pinckney, Minister to Spain, dated

[EXTRACT.]

February 6, 1804.

"Your last letter, not already acknowledged, is that of August 2d, continued on August 30th.

The Senate having resumed at the present session the convention with Spain, postponed at the last, have thought proper to ratify it; and the President has completed the act on the part of the United States.

The instrument is now returned to you with these sanctions, in order to be exchanged for the ratification of his Catholic Majesty. You will hasten this formality as much as possible, and forward the result to the Government here, that no time may be lost in procuring to our citizens the benefit stipulated to them. To favor despatch, as well as to guard against casualties, duplicates, and even triplicates, will be proper.

In concurring in this partial provision for the indemnities due from Spain, it is to be particularly understood that it proceeds from no other considerations than a wish to shorten the delay of relief to that portion

of the claimants who are included in the provision, and a determination to avail the residue of the reserve expressly made in behalf of their claims by the article of the convention. When the decision of the Senate was postponed at the last session, it was justly hoped that, before the succeeding one, the Spanish Government would have yielded to the reasonableness and justice of giving to the provision the extent required by the United States; in which case, the arrangements would have been simplified, and a foundation laid at once for closing all controversies on the subject. The final refusal of Spain to concur in these views has been thought to give a preference to the course now adopted.

None of the pleas urged by the Spanish Government can in the least invalidate the justice of the claims for injuries committed by French citizens or agents within her jurisdiction.

If his Catholic Majesty be sovereign in his own dominions, aliens within them are answerable to him for their conduct, and he, of course, is answerable for it to others. This is a principle founded too evidently in reason and usage, to be controverted. As well might Spain say that a theft or robbery, committed in the streets of Madrid by a Frenchman on an American, is to be redressed by France, and not by her, as pretend that redress is to be sought for spoliations committed by cruisers from, or condemnations within, Spanish ports. Nor is there any room for the distinction between the injuries proceeding from the French cruisers and the French consuls. With respect to the consuls, their acts were either authorized or not authorized by Spain; if authorized by Spain, Spain is answerable for giving them the authority; if not authorized by Spain, they could not be authorized at all, the law of nations giving them no such authority, and France having no right to give it; and being acts without authority, they are not to be regarded as consular acts, but as much the acts of private individuals as the cruisers, or any other irregularities committed or instituted by French citizens within the jurisdiction of Spain. To say that the consuls derive their authority from the sanction given by Spain to the authority derived from France, without which sanction, positive or permissive, it is clear that the authority of France. within the jurisdiction of Spain would be a nullity, is still to rest the condemnations by the consuls on authority of Spain, and to leave her responsible for them.

Under every aspect, therefore, Spain is bound to do justice in this case to the citizens of the United States, unless she not only pleads a duress, suspending her free agency, and prostrating her national honor, but proves the reality of this duress; and not only proves this duress, but proves, moreover, first, that she did every thing in her power to prevent the evil; next, that she did every thing in her power to obtain reparation for it; and, lastly, that, in tolerating the evil, she did not deliberately and wilfully surrender the neutral rights under her protection, to advantages, positive or negative, obtained or expected by herself from France.

The suggestion that France was resorted to for redress is unfounded. It does not appear that any such resort was authorized by the Government of the United States, whilst the claims against Spain have been uniform and pressing. Nor is it believed that any interpositions have proceeded from the American legation at Paris. Had, indeed, such in

terpositions taken place, they would in no respect lessen the obligations of Spain.

Individuals may have made their applications to the French Government; but it will not be pretended that the merits of the question can be affected by that circumstance.

The plea on which it seems that the Spanish Government now principally relies, is the erasure of the second article from our late convention with France, by which France was released from the indemnities due for spoliations committed under her immediate responsibility to the United States. This plea did not appear in the early objections of Spain to our claims. It was an afterthought, resulting from the insufficiency of every other plea, and is certainly as little valid as any other. The injuries for which indemnities are claimed from Spain, though committed by Frenchmen, took place under Spanish authority; Spain, therefore, is answerable for them. To her we have looked, and continue to look, for redress. If the injuries done to us by her resulted in any manner from injuries done to her by France, she may, if she pleases, resort to France as we resort to her. But whether her resort to France would be just or unjust, is a question between her and France; not between either her and us, or us and France. We claim against her, not against France. In releasing France, therefore, we have not released her. The claims, again, from which France was released were admitted by France, and the release was for a valuable consideration in a correspondent release of the United States from certain claims on them. The claims we make on Spain were never admitted by France, nor made on France by the United States; they made, therefore, no part of the bargain with her, and could not be included in the release."

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