cution of the war. General Pinckney faid there was a difference between the cafes; that fuch prizes were now actually in the power of the French, without our confent; we could not prevent it, or get them out; but the granting or not granting a loan was in our power. He repeated his obfervation; and General Mar fhall faid, that the property for which money was due to American citizens from the French government, was taken into the poffeffion of that government without any co-operation on the part of the United States.

No act of any fort was performed by our government, which in any degree contributed to place thofe funds in the hands of France, nor was there any confent towards it; but in the cafe propofed, the act would be the act of the government: the government could itfelf place funds in the hands of France, and thereby furnish means which might be employed in the profecution of the war. This was the diftinction between the cafes; and in a queftion of neutrality it appeared to us to be all important. The minifter then proceeded to ftate the cafe of our affuming the debt of our citizens, and of paying the money in that manner; but General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry told him we were pofitively forbidden to affume the debt to our own citizens, even if we were to pay the money directly to them. He feemed furprifed at this. General Pinckney obferved, that, contrary to ufage, we had deemed it proper, in the exifting ftate of things, to ftate candidly our powers to him, that he might know certainly that we could not fecretly, or under any difguife whatever, inake a loan which might be ufed during the war.

M. Talleyrand faid, he muft refume his pofition, that there was a difference which he must infift upon, between a loan payable immediately and a loan payable in future; and he still infifted there was no difference between a loan payable in future and a credit for the money which might be due to our citizens. Mr. Gerry obferved, that his colleagues had justly stated the dif tinction between the debt which will be due to the citizens of the United States from France, in cafe of her recognifing the claims which we fhall make in their behalf, and a debt which might arife from a loan by the government of the United States to that of France, during the war. The one is the refult of an arreft of their property, without their confent; the other would be a voluntary act of the United States, and a breach of their neutrality. There is an additional objection to the latter; if the United States fhould make fuch a loan, it would give too much reafon to fuppofe that their govèrnment had confented, in a collufive manner, to the capture of the veffels of their citizens, and had thus been furnishing France with fupplies to carry on the war. Our infructions are exprefs, not to ftipulate for any aids to France, either directly or indirectly, during the war.

VOL. VIL

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With refpect to a fecret ftipulation, a loan cannot be made without an act of the legislature: but if the executive were adequate to it, we have had an inftance of an injunction of fecrecy on the members of the Senate, on an important fubject, which one of the members thought himfelf warranted in publishing in the newspaper; and of frequent inftances of fecrets which have otherwife efcaped: fecrecy, in this inftance, might therefore be confidered, if the meafure was in itself admiffible, as being impracticable. General Marshall obferved, that we had confidered the fubject with great folicitude, and were decidedly of opinion, that we could not, under any form, make a loan which could be ufed during the war; that we could not tell what our government would do, if on the fpot; but were perfectly clear, that, without additional orders, we could not do what France requested. Mr. Gerry obferved, that the government and nation of the United States, as well as ourselves, were earnestly folicitous to restore friendship between the two republics; that, as General Marshall had stated, we could not fay what our government would do, if on the fpot; but if this propofition met the wishes of the government of France, General Marshall and himself had agreed immediately to embark for the United States, and lay before our government the exifting ftate of things here, as it refpected our nation, to enable them to determine whether any, and what other measures on their part were neceffary. M. Talleyrand made no obfervations on this propofition; but inquired whether we expected foon to receive orders. Mr. Gerry mentioned an anfwer he had received to a letter fent by him in November; and General Marshall slated, that our firft difpatches were fent on board two veffels at Amfterdam, on the 20th of November; from which M. Talleyrand could form as juft an idea as we could, when an anfwer might be expected: but he did not think it probable one would arrive before a month to come. General Marfhall told him, we knew that our government had not received our difpatches on the 8th of January; and we could not tell when they might be received. He asked whether our intelligence came through England. General Marshall answered, that it did not; and General Pinckney faid, that American papers as late as the 8th of January mentioned the fa&.

There was fome converfation about the time when thefe inftructions might be expected; and General Marshall fuggested a doubt whether our government might give any inftructions. He afked, with fome furprife, whether we had not written for inftructions? And we anfwered, that we had not: and Mr. Gerry faid that we had stated facts to our government, and conceived that nothing more was neceflary. General Pinckney obferved, that the government knowing the facts would do what was proper; and that our applying or not applying for inftructions would

not

not alter their conduct. M. Talleyrand then inquired whether we had not fent any one to the United States. General Pinckney faid, No: and Mr. Gerry added, that foon after our arrival we had made propofitions to fend one of our number, which were not accepted. And General Marshall further added, that those who had communicated with us, had told us we fhould be ordered out of France immediately; and we had fuppofed that we fhould be ordered out before our letters could reach the government. Mr. Gerry then obferved, that the government of France must judge for itself; but that it appeared to him, that a treaty on liberal principles, fuch as thofe on which the treaty of commerce between the two nations was first established, would be infinitely more advantageous to France than the trifling advantages fhe 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 folid and permanent, and produce benefits far fuperior to thofe of a loan, if we had powers to make it. To this obfervation M. Talleyrand made no reply. We parted without any fentiment delivered by the minifter on the fubject of our going home to confult our government.

As we were taking our leave of M. Talleyrand, we told him that two of us would return immediately, to receive the inftruc tions of our government, if that would be agreeable to the Direcif it was not, we would wait fome time, in the expectation of receiving inftructions.

Letter from the French Minifter of Foreign Affairs to the American

Commiffioners.

Paris, 28th Ventofe, 6th Year (18th March 1798). THE underfigned minifter of the French republic for foreign affairs has laid before the Executive Directory the memorial which he has received from the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary of the United States of America, dated the 28th of Nivofe laft. The Directory, defirous of convincing the United States of the real difpofitions with which it is animated in regard to them, has directed the underfigned to communicate to the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary the following obfervations:

The first thing with which the mind is neceffarily ftruck in the memorial of the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary is the method which they have thought proper to purfue in the statement of the points that are in controverfy between the two flates. The Executive Directory, animated with the moft conciliatory difpofitions, impreffed with a fenfe of the interefts that ought to draw the two nations towards each other, and eager to concur in the well-known wifh of the people of both countries to maintain Nn 2

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a perfect intimacy between them, had reafon to expect that the envoys would have come forward with fimilar difpofitions on the part of their government, with minds actuated with the famet views, and impreffed with the fame wishes. How great, after fuch an expectation, muft have been the furprise of the Executive Directory, when the underfigned communicated to them a memorial, in which the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary, reverfing the known order of facts, have ftudiously paffed over, as it were, in filence, the juft motives of complaint of the French government, and difguifed the real caufe of the misunderstanding which is prolonging itfelf between the two republics, fo that it fhould appear from that partial and incorrect statement, that the French republic has no real grievances to complain of, no juft reparations to require, while the United States fhould alone have a right to complain, alone be entitled to demand fatisfaction?

The motives which have induced the preference given to this mode of proceeding have not escaped the Directory. Actuated by a proper fenfe of the dignity of the republic, whose interests it is entrusted with, and wishing eventually to guard against the views that might have pointed out fuch a conduct, it has given it in charge to the underfigned to difpel thofe delufive appearances, which indeed muft vanish before a candid statement of facts, and as foon as the real intentions of the Directory fhall have been folemnly made to appear in opposition to those views which could only be unjustly attributed to them by taking advantage of their filence.

It is an inconteftable truth, which is entirely kept out of view in the memorial of the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary, that France is entitled to a priority of complaints and grievances; that those complaints and grievances were real as well as numerous long before the United States had the leaft foundation for either, and confequently before any of the facts which the envoys have fo elaborately and minutely difcuffed had taken place.

It is a no lefs inconteftable truth, that all the grievances exhibited by the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary, with fome exceptions, which the undersigned was ready to difcufs, are a neceflary confequence of the measures which the prior conduct of the United States had rendered juftifiable on the part of the French republic, and which her treaties with the faid United States authorized in certain cafes, which it depended upon the general government of the union to bring or not into existence.

It is foreign to my purpose to enumerate the complaints which the French government had reafon to make against the federal government fince the commencement of the war excited against the French republic by a power jealous of its profperity and of its regeneration. Thofe details are contained in the numerous official communications made at Philadelphia by the minifters of the

republic i

republic; they have been recapitulated by the predeceffor of the underfigned, in a note dated 19th Ventofe, 4th year, addreifed to the minifter plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, and particularly detailed in the official note of Citizen Adet, dated at Philadelphia, 25th Brumaire, 5th year. Complaint was made in the above note of the non-execution of the only claufes of the treaties concluded in 1778, in which Françe had ftipulated fome advantages in return for the efforts which he had engaged to make for the common utility, and of infults which had been offered to the dignity of the French republic.

In fact, from the commencement of the war, the American tribunals claimed the right of taking cognifance of the validity of - prizes carried by French cruifers into the ports of the United States. It refulted from this pretenfion, contrary to the letter of the treaty of commerce of 1778, that the property of the citizens of the republic was unjustly detained; that the French were entirely difcouraged from cruifing in the American feas against an enemy who was reviving the moft barbarous laws of that mode of warfare, in order to infult and annihilate the American commerce even before the eyes of the federal government.

Nor was that government fatisfied with favouring the enemies of the French republic in a point of fo much importance, a point, indeed, out of which fome abufes might have arifen, but which the French government fhowed itfelf difpofed to prevent; they went fo far as to grant to the fhips of the enemy, contrary to the plain letter of the above-mentioned treaty, an afylum in the ports of the United States after having captured property or veffels belonging to French citizens. Soon after, a national floop of war, at anchor in the port of Philadelphia, was feized, and her commander arrested by order of the government. In like manner the perfon of the ex-governor of Guadaloupe was arrested by procefs from the American tribunals, to answer a complaint founded upon facts relative to his administration ;. and the Executive Directory were obliged to threaten making use of reprifals before that affair could take the courfe which was affigned to it by the law of nations. During the whole space of time of which a review has juft now been taken, the French government endeavoured in vain to determine the government of the United States to procure to the agents of the French republic the legal means of carrying into execution the articles of the confular convention of 1788, which granted privileges to our commerce and navigation, the principle of which was established by the treaties of 1778; and nothing could be obtained in this refpect, but fruitlefs references to the tribunals. In general all matters which, with a truly conciliatory difpofition, might have been fettled in the way of negotiation, were habitually referred to the judicial authorities, who, whether they were or not under a

fecret