Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow GALLATIN TO J. Q. ADAMS. - The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 2

Return to Title Page for The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 2

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Economics
Subject Area: Political Theory

GALLATIN TO J. Q. ADAMS. - Albert Gallatin, The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 2 [1879]

Edition used:

The Writings of Albert Gallatin, ed. Henry Adams (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1879). 3 vols.

Part of: The Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


GALLATIN TO J. Q. ADAMS.

No. 164.

Paris, 23d October, 1820.

Sir,—

I had the honor on the 20th instant to receive your despatch No. 24, and addressed on the 22d to Mr. Pasquier the letter of which a copy is enclosed. Its object, Mr. Hyde de Neuville not having then yet left Paris, was to induce this government to give him rational instructions. I had the same evening a short conversation with Mr. Pasquier, in which he used conciliatory language, but said that it appeared absolutely necessary to have some explanation on the 8th Article of the Louisiana Treaty, and drew a distinction between our old discriminating and our new tonnage duty with reference to the privileges granted to France by that article. I have thought, upon reflection, that there might have been some foundation for that distinction, so far at least as our new tonnage duty exceeded that which it was intended to countervail. But the objection was not at all made on the receipt of the Act of Congress: it was thought more eligible to retaliate than to discuss; and France, after having laid her one hundred francs duty, has at least no right to complain.

Mr. de Neuville called on me since the receipt of your despatch. Nothing very interesting occurred in the course of the conversation. I discovered, however, that when he had spoken of the privileges granted to France by the Louisiana Treaty as being inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, he alluded to an argument which you had used. I cannot help thinking that there has been in that respect some misconception on his part. It is very clear that the United States could not make, now that Louisiana is a State, a treaty containing conditions similar to those in question; but I do not perceive that the Constitution prevented them from acquiring on those terms Louisiana when a foreign colony, still less that they could, without a compensation, be relieved from any obligation on the ground that the Constitution did not permit its performance. In your despatch to me, you consider as contrary to our Constitution those privileges only, claimed by France, which are founded on an inadmissible construction of the treaty. And the only argument which it seems to me can be drawn from the Constitution is that the article must remain as it is, and that the government of the United States cannot, even if so disposed, give to it a more extensive construction in favor of France than its literal and natural sense will admit.

I now beg leave to submit to your consideration an observation on the ground which you seem disposed to take, that France cannot claim the benefit of the article in her favor in the Louisiana Treaty because her present government has declared that it could not be responsible for the outrages of its immediate predecessors. There would be some danger, if we acquiesced in that doctrine, that France might then say that the whole treaty was at an end, and the cession of Louisiana a nullity. I would rather argue from their claiming the benefit of the 8th Article of the treaty, that they did consider themselves responsible for the acts of Bonaparte. But, in point of fact, this government has never declared that they were not thus responsible. It was indeed once, and but once, verbally suggested by the Duke of Richelieu in a conversation, which he has most probably forgotten. But they have not by any written act or in any official manner assumed a ground which they dare not maintain in the face of France. Even Baron Louis, in his extraordinary letter to Mr. Parish, founded his refusal not on a presumed irresponsibility, but on the ground that the order of Bonaparte to transfer the money from the caisse d’amortissement to the treasury was tantamount to a condemnation. I will add that, after raising a thousand difficulties, and very unjustly curtailing the amount, the Minister of the Marine has lately paid to the owner a large sum for the value of the American ship Ocean and cargo. This vessel, captured on her way from Canton to Philadelphia by a French frigate, was carried to the Isle of France and there condemned on some frivolous pretence. The ship and cargo were sold, and the proceeds put in the public chest of the island. The case was so gross that upon an appeal the council of prizes pronounced an acquittal in 1813. From this decision the Minister of the Marine, subsequent to the restoration, appealed to the council of state, which, in 1818, confirmed the sentence of the council of prizes. And the money has been accordingly paid, although it had been either expended by the public authorities in the island, or, [as] is asserted, had fallen in the hands of the British at the time of its capture. I think this to be a case in point, and which may be usefully quoted hereafter, to prove that this government does think itself responsible for illegal acts committed under the reign of Bonaparte.

Mr. Hyde de Neuville was to leave Paris yesterday. It is intended that he should embark at Rochefort for the United States within the ten first days of November.

I have the honor, &c.