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Subject Area: Political Theory

W. H. CRAWFORD TO THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS. - Albert Gallatin, The Writings of Albert Gallatin, vol. 1 [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.

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W. H. CRAWFORD TO THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS.

Paris, 13th May, 1814.

Gentlemen,—

. . . Expectations have been entertained by the government, and you no doubt have participated in them, that the Emperor Alexander would interest himself in the negotiation between us and our enemy. This expectation I am convinced will be wholly disappointed. Shortly after the arrival of the allies in Paris, I called upon Count Nesselrode, but was informed that he was attending the Emperor in council. I left my card, and proceeded to the hotel of the King of Prussia, and carded the person whose duty it was to present persons of distinction to the King. Some time after, I called on Count Nesselrode again, who sent me word by my valet that he was engaged at the council-table and was quite in despair at not being able to see me. Pursuant to the advice and opinion of the Danish minister, I addressed a note to the Count, requesting an interview, and, foreseeing that his engagements might prevent his compliance with this request, I desired him to communicate to the Emperor my wish to be presented to a monarch who had given such strong proofs of friendship to the United States. To this note I have received no answer. In my interviews with the Count la Forest I thought I discovered the most friendly disposition towards the United States. I asked him whether I should have to wait for new letters of credence before I could engage seriously in the discussion of our claim to indemnity with the new government. He thought there would be no necessity for this delay, but said the question would be settled immediately after the King arrived. This day week the Monitor announced that on the next day the King would receive in the hall of his throne the ambassadors near his Majesty. I had an interview with La Forest in the course of the day, who thought I ought to attend. I told him that he was the proper person to decide that question, and that I could not go without an express invitation from him. He insisted that the Grand Master of Ceremonies was the proper person to whom I ought to address myself.

He desired me to send him a note simply by way of informing him of my name and station, and that I would be presented of course. I refused to go to the palace unless I was assured in writing that I should be presented. I finally agreed to write a note to the Grand Master of Ceremonies and request an answer. This was done, and no answer was received. I mention these circumstances to show that the King and his minister do not feel the same friendly disposition to the United States. Some time since, the minister told me that Lord Castlereagh had submitted to him observations upon the difference of treatment between American and British vessels in the ports of France. He afterwards read to me a report which he intended to submit to the King, proposing that the prizes of both belligerents might be condemned and sold in the ports of France. He said he was afraid this proposition would not be acceptable to the English minister. If the proposition should be rejected, he would propose that the prizes of both belligerents should be brought in and remain without adjudication until peace. I saw him two days ago, when he informed me that every interview between him and the British minister afforded new proofs of the most extreme hostility on the part of the minister to the United States. In the course of the conversation I mentioned as wholly unworthy of credit the reports circulated in Paris of engagements on the part of the King to aid England in the prosecution of the war against the United States. He said that in an interview with the King he undertook to amplify the bad effects resulting from the fabrication of false reports by referring to the paragraph in the newspapers stating that the allied powers had by a secret convention engaged not to interfere in the affairs of the United States, and that the King of France was to make the same engagement. The King promptly replied that he came to the throne as free from all conditions from foreign powers as was the crown which he wore. The Count said that he did not care what effect these reports might have upon the minds of the few Americans in the trading cities of France, but he should deeply regret that they should reach the United States and have a tendency to depress the public mind. He is extremely anxious that the negotiation should open immediately and progress rapidly. He believes the duration of the European peace depends substantially upon the adjustment of our difference with England. After I had failed in obtaining access to the Emperor of Russia and to his minister, I requested General La Fayette to endeavor, through Colonel La Harpe, to have the proper representations made to Nesselrode or to the Emperor. Every effort to effect this object has been abortive. It seems as if there had been a settled determination to prevent the approach of every person who is suspected of an attachment to the United States. The general has, however, come in contact several times with Baron Humboldt, the Prussian minister, who has imbibed already the British misrepresentations.

The general asked him if his particular friend should have a quarrel with a man who was known to be engaged in a contest which indirectly affected his interests, and, notwithstanding this circumstance, this person should propose to make him the umpire in the case, and his friend should refuse this proposition, whether he should not, without further inquiry or knowledge of the circumstances, suspect that his friend was wrong. He replied, certainly he should. The general then said that such was the case with the United States and England. England had refused the mediation of Russia at the moment he was receiving her money. After the publication of the paragraph before alluded to, the Baron told the general that the paragraph was untrue, but admitted that they could not get England to treat until they agreed that the question of maritime rights should not be brought into discussion of the general peace. He insisted, however, that nothing had been settled in relation to the United States, and that question was entirely open. Mr. Poletica called on me yesterday, evidently for the purpose of contradicting the same statement, but he spoke of it as though we had conversed upon the subject before. I had not seen him since Saturday, and the paragraph did not appear until Sunday. I took no notice of this mistake; admitted that it might be incorrect, but stated what I believed to be the fact, which he seemed disposed to admit. I stated to Count la Forest, in my last interview with him, my conviction that this statement was not without foundation, and that its publication in the Monitor was something like an official declaration of the policy which the French government intended to pursue. He said, by way of repelling this idea, that the Monitor consisted of three parts; that under the interior head it was official, but under the foreign and literary heads the editor acted on his own responsibility. I have discovered no change in the character of the Monitor, except that it now eulogizes Louis the Eighteenth instead of the Emperor Napoleon; and everybody knows that nothing ever appeared under the foreign head without authority. These details will, I think, convince you that there is no reason to expect any interference on the part of the Emperor of Russia. . . .