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parte, late ambaffador of the French republic at Rome, and counsellor of state; Charles Peter Claret Fleurieu, member of the national inftitute, and of the board of longitude, counsellor of ftate, and prefident of the fection of marine; and Peter Lewis Roederer, member of the national inftitute, counfellor of ftate, and prefident of the fection of the interior; and the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and confent of the Senate of the faid States, has nominated, as their plenipotentiaries, Oliver Elfworth, chief juftice of the United States; William Richardfon Davie, late governor of South Carolina, and William Vans Murray, refident minister of the United States at the Hague :

Who, after having exchanged their credentials, and long and maturely difcuffed the refpective interests of the two states, have agreed to the following conditions:

I. There fhall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true and fincere friendship between the French republic and the United States of America, as well as between their countries, territories, cities, and towns, and between their citizens and inhabitants, without exception of perfons or places.

II. The minifter plenipotentiary of the two parties not being able, for the prefent, to come to an agreement with regard to the treaty of alliance of the 6th February 1778, the treaty of friendship and commerce of the fame date, and the convention. under date of the 14th November 1778; nor, likewife, with regard to the indemnities mutually due or reclaimed; the parties will negotiate ulteriorly upon thofe points at a convenient time; and till they have come to a definitive agreement, the faid treaties and conventions fhall have no effect, and the relations of the two states shall be regulated as follows:

III. The veffels belonging to government which have been taken on both fides, or which may be taken before the exchange of the ratifications, fhall be restored.

IV. The property captured and not yet definitively condemned, or which may be captured before the exchange of the ratifications, except contraband merchandise deftined for an enemy's port, fhall be mutually reftored, upon the following proofs of property, viz.

On both fides the proofs of property, with regard to merchantveffels, armed or not armed, fhall be a paffport in the following form:

"To all thofe to whom these prefents may come, be it known, that freedom and permiffion have been granted to

or commander of the fhip called, of the city of

of the burden of

port and harbour of

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that after his fhip has been vifited, and before his departure, he fhall make oath before the officers authorized for that purpose, that the faid fhip belongs to one or more of the fubjects of whofe agreement fhall be fubjoined at the bottom of the paffport; likewife, that he will obferve and make be obferved by his crew, the maritimme ordinances and regulations; and he thall deliver a lift figned and attefted by witneffes, containing the names and furnames, the births, places, and refidences, of the perfons compofing the crew of his fhip, and of all thofe who fhall einbark with him, whom he fhall not receive on board without the permiffion of the authorized officers; and in every port or harbour he fhall enter with his fhip, he fhall fhow the prefent permiffion to the officers authorized for this purpofe, and fhall give them a faithful account of what has happened during his voyage; and he fhall carry the colours, arms, and enfign [of the French republic, or of the United States] during his faid voyage. In witnefs whereof we have figned this paper, have made it be counterfigned by and have affixed to it feals bearing

our arms.

"Given at

the year of our Lord

And this paffport fhall of itfelf be fufficient, notwithstanding all regulations to the contrary. It fhall not be required that this palfport be renewed or revoked, whatever number of voyages the veffel may make, at leaft if the has not touched at her own port during the courfe of a year.

With regard to the cargo, the proofs fhall be certificates containing an account of the place from which the veffel has failed, and that to which fhe is bound; fo that prohibited and contraband goods may be diftinguifhed by certificates, which certificates fhall have been made by the officers of the place from which the veffel fhall have failed, in the ufual form of the country; and if thefe paffports, or certificates, or either of them, have been deftroyed by accident, or feized by violence, the want of them may be fupplied by all the other proofs of property admiflible according to the general ufage of nations.

For other than merchant-hips the proofs fhall be the commiffion which they bear.

This article fhall take effect from the date of the fignature of the prefent convention; and if, after the date of the faid fignature, property fhall be condemned, contrary to the fpirit of the faid convention, before this ftipulation is known, the property thus condemned fhall, without delay, be restored, or paid for.

V. The debts contracted by one of the two nations to individuals of the other, or by individuals of the one to individuals of the other, fhall be paid, or their payment fhall be fued for, as if there had been no mifunderftanding between the two ftates;

but

but this claufe fhall not extend to indemnities claimed for captures or condemnations.

VI. The commerce between the two parties fhall be free; the reffels of the two nations, and their privateers, as well as their prizes, fhall be treated, in the refpective ports, as thofe of the moft favoured nations; and in general the two parties fhall enjoy in the ports of each other, in what respects commerce and navigation, all the privileges of the most favoured nations.

VII. The citizens and inhabitants of the United States fhall be allowed to dispose, by teftament, gift, or otherwise, of their property, real and perfonal, poffeffed in the European territories of the French republic; and the citizens of the French republic fhall have the fame power with regard to real and perfonal property poffeffed in the territories of the United States, in favour of fuch perfons as to them fhall feem good. The citizens and inhabitants of one of the two ftates who fhall be heirs to property, real or perfonal, fituated in the other, fhall fucceed ab inteftato, without there being occafion for letters of naturalization, and without it being poffible for the effect of this ftipulation to be denied or difputed under any pretext whatfoever; and the faid heirs, whether by will or ab inteftato, fhall, in both nations, be free from every tax. It is ftipulated that this article fhall, in no wife, infringe the laws which are now in force in the two nations, or which may hereafter be enacted against emigration; and likewife, that, in cafe the laws of one of the two ftates fhould limit the rights of foreigners to real property, it fhall be lawful to fell fuch property, or to difpofe of it otherwife, in favour of the inhabitants or citizens of the country in which it is fituated; and the other nation thall be at liberty to eftablish fimilar regulations.

VIII. In order mutually to promote the operations of commerce, it is agreed, that if (which the Lord forbid!) war fhould break out between the two countries, there fhall be allowed, mutually, to the merchants and other citizens, or refpective inhabitants, fix months after the declaration of war, during which period they will have the permiffion to retire with fuch goods and effects as they may be able to carry off, or to fell the whole, agrecably to their own option, without the interpofition of any reftrant. Not only their goods, much lefs their perfons, can be feized on, during the prefcribed period of fix months. On the contrary, they fhall be furnished with paffports, to fecure their fafe return home. Thefe paffports fhall avail them as guarantees against every infult and feizure on the part of privateers, who may attempt to capture their goods, or their perfons; and if, within the term above mentioned, they fhould fuftain from any of the parties, their fellow-citizens, or abettors, any damage or in

jury,

jury, either in their perfons or property, they fhall receive complete fatisfaction thereof.

IX. The debts due by the individuals of one or the other nation to the individuals of the other, fhall not, in any cafe of hoftility or national difagreement, be fequeftrated or confifcated, no more than the depofits that are placed in the public funds, or in the houfes of public or private bankers.

X. The two contracting parties may appoint, for the protection of commerce, commercial agents, who shall refide in France and in the United States. Each party may point out the fpot where they may with their agents to be placed. Before any agent can exercife his functions, he muft be received in the nfual forms by the party among whom he is to refide; and when he is received, and provided with his exequatur, he thall enjoy the rights and privileges that are to be enjoyed by the moft favoured nations.

XI. The citizens of the French republic fhall not pay in the ports, harbours, creeks, iflands, diftricts, or in any part of the United States, any higher impofts on entries of what foever nature or denomination than thofe that are or must be paid by the most favoured nation's; and they fhall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and exemptions, as far as regards trade, navigation, and commerce, whether in paffing from any one of the ports to the other of the faid United States, or in going thither or coming from thence, or whether they be deftined for any other part of the world, provided the above-mentioned powers are participants, or may, participate therein. And, reciprocally, the citizens of the United States fhall enjoy within the territory of the French republic in Europe, the fame privileges, immunities, &c. &c. not only with regard to their perfons and property, but alfo as to what relates to trade, navigation, and commerce.

XII. The citizens of the two nations may convey their fhips and merchandife, excepting always contraband goods, into any port belonging to the enemy of the other country. They may navigate and trade, in full freedom and fecurity, with their merchandife and fhips in the country, ports, &c. of the enemies of either party, without encountering any obftacle or control; and not only pafs directly from the ports and fortreffes of the enemy above mentioned into neutral ports and fortrelles, but, moreover, from any place belonging to an enemy into any other appertaining to another enemy, whether it be or be not fubjected to the fame jurifdiction, unlefs thefe ports or fortreffes he actually befieged, blockaded, or invefted.

And in cafe, as it often happens, that veffels fail for a fortress or port belonging to an enemy, without knowing that they are

belieged,

befieged, blockaded, or invefted, it is provided, that every fhip that fhall be found in fuch circumftances fhall veer off from fuch harbour or fortrefs, without being expofed to be detained or confifcated in any part of its cargo (unlefs it be contraband, or that it be proved that the faid fhip, after having been apprized of the faid blockade, &c. had attempted to enter into fuch harbour), but it fhall be empowered to go into any other port or harbour it may deem convenient. No fhip belonging to either nation, that enters into a port or fortrefs before it be really put in a state of fiege or blockade by the other, fhall be prevented from failing out with its cargo.

XIII. In order to regulate what is underftood by contraband during war, under that head are to be comprised gunpowder, faltpetre, petards, matches, balls, bullets, bomb-fhells, piftols, halberds, cannon, harneffes, artillery of all forts, and, in general, all kinds of arms and implements for the equipment of troops. All the above-mentioned articles, whenever they shall be found deftined for an enemy's port, fhall be declared contraband, and justly expofed to confifcation. But the fhip with which they were freighted, as well as the reft of the cargo, fhall be regarded as free, and in no manner fhall be vitiated by the contraband goods, whether they belong to many, or to one and the fame proprietor.

XIV. It is ftipulated by the prefent treaty, that free ships fhall likewife enfure the freedom of goods, and that all things on board fhall be reckoned free belonging to the citizens of one of the contracting parties, although the cargo, or part of it, fhould belong to the enemies of the two; it being underfood, neverthelefs, that contraband goods will always be excepted. It is, kewife, agreed, that this freedom fhall extend to the perfons of hofe who fhall be found on board the free thips, although they hould be enemies to one of the two contracting parties; and it thall not be lawful to take them from the faid free fhips, at leaft if they are not foldiers, and actually in the fervice of the caemy.

XV. It is agreed, on the other hand, that all goods found put by the respective citizeps on board fhips belonging to the enemy of the other party, or to their fubjects, fhall be confifcated, without diftinction of prohibited or non-prohibited, and, likewife, if they belong to the enemy, to the exception always of effects and merchandifes which fhall have been put on board the taid fhips before the declaration of war, or even after the above declaration, if it could not be known at the moment of lading; lo that the merchandifes of the citizens of the two parties, whether they are contraband or otherwife, which, as has been faid, fhall have been put on board a veffel belonging to an enemy befure the war, or even after the declaration of war, when it was

not

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