graciously pleased to approve of the zeal and intelligence with which you have endeavoured to give effect to the Instructions you were charged with upon this most important subject. In referring to Mr. Adams's Note of the 30th December last, His Majesty's Government have perceived, with the deepest regret, the inability avowed by the American Government to contract mutual engagements for the suppression of the illicit trade in Slaves of the effectual character which you are directed to propose to them. The Counter-Proposal which you have transmitted from the American Secretary of State, will I fear be in its operation wholly inefficient as to the object, and can never be considered in the light of a substitute for that system which was proposed by His Majesty's Government, and which is founded upon the principle of rendering the Shipsof-war of the several Maritime Nations, when cruizing on the Coast of Africa, one common force for the protection of its population against this most inhuman traffick. The King my Master, however, true to those benevolent principles which invariably actuate his Councils upon this subject, and anxious to co-operate with the Government of The United States in whatever may, in the slightest degree, mitigate this great evil, is ready to avail himself, even of this very limited opening to a concert between the two Powers. In this view you will receive herewith Copies of the several Instructions under which the British Naval Force, stationed in those Seas for the extinction of the Slave-trade is now directed to act. You will lose no time in communicating these Papers for the information of the American Government; and though I cannot but express my conviction, that the measure proposed will tend but little to further the object we have in view, yet, you will acquaint them that an Additional Instruction will be immediately sent to the British Vessels on the Coast of Africa, to co-operate, by every means in their power, with such American Ships as shall be employed in those Seas for the extinction of the traffick. I send you a Copy of the Letter in which I have signified to the Lords of the Admiralty His Majesty's pleasure upon this subject. I am, &c. The Rt. Hon. Stratford Canning. CASTLEREAGH. CORRESPONDENCE between The United States and General Instructions of the Secretary of State to Mr. Gallatin. (Extracts.) Department of State, Washington, 15th April, 1816. IT has, at all times, since our Revolution, been the sincere desire of this Government to cultivate a good intelligence with France. The changes which have taken place in her Government have never produced any changes in this disposition. The United States have looked to the French Nation, and to the existing Government, as its proper organ, deeming it unjustifiable to interfere with its interior concerns. The existing Government has, in consequence, been invariably recognized here, as soon as known. Should you find, that unfounded prejudices are entertained on this subject, which a frank explanation may remove, you are authorized to make it. Cherishing these sentiments towards the French Nation, under all the Governments which have existed there, it has not been less a cause of surprise, than of regret, that a corresponding disposition has not, at all times, been reciprocated by the French Government towards The United States. The history of the last 10 years is replete with wrongs, received from that Government, for which no justifiable pretext can be assigned. The property wrested, in that space of time, from our Citizens, is of great value, for which reparation has not been obtained. These injuries were received, under the administration of the late Emperor of France, on whom the demand of indemnity was incessantly made, while he remained in power. Under the sensibility * Laid before the Congress of The United States, on the 2d of February, 1824; accompanied by the following Message. To the Speaker of the House of Representatives of The United States. I transmit to the House of Representatives a Report from the Secretary of State, agreeably to a Resolution of that House of the 11th of December last, with the Papers which accompanied that Report. JAMES MONROE. Washington, 2d February, 1824. Department of State, Washington, 2d February, 1824. The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred the Resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 11th of December last," requesting the President of The United States to communicate to that House, Copies of such parts of the Correspondence of the late Minister of The United States at the Court of France with the French Government, and such parts of the Correspondence of said Minister with the Secretary of State, relative to claims of Citizens of The United States for spoliations upon our lawful Commerce, as, in his opinion, may not be inconsistent with the public interest;" has the honour of submitting to the President the Papers required by that Resolution. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. thereby excited, and the failure to obtain justice, the relations of the two Countries were much affected. The disorder which has, of late, existed in France, has prevented a repetition of this demand; but now that the Government appears to be settled, it is due to our Citizens, who were so unjustly plundered, to present their Claims, anew, to the French Government. A gross sum will be received, in satisfaction of the whole claim, if the liquidation and payment of every Claim, founded on just principles, to be established, cannot be obtained. The management of this important interest is committed to your discretion, as to the moment and manner of bringing it under consideration, in which the prospect of obtaining a satisfactory reparation will necessarily have its due weight. You will be furnished with a Letter of Instruction, authorizing you to provide for it, by Convention, should that mode be preferred. Mr. Gallatin. SIR, JAMES MONROE. The Secretary of State to Mr. Gallatin. Department of State, Washington, 7th May, 1816. On the presumption that His Most Christian Majesty may be disposed to provide, by special Convention, for the just Claims of the Citizens of The United States against France, as, also, for the like Claims of French Subjects against The United States-this Letter is given to you by direction of the President, as an authority and instruction to negotiate a Convention for that purpose, with such Person or Persons, as may have a like authority from His Most Christian Majesty. I have the honour to be, &c. Mr. Gallatin. (Extract.) JAMES MONROE. Mr. Gallatin to the Secretary of State.-(No. 10.) Paris, 11th November, 1816. I HAVE the honour to inclose the Copy of my Note, of the 9th instant, to the Duke de Richelieu, on the subject of indemnities due to Citizens of The United States, on account of the illegal and irregular sequestrations and condemnations made under the authority of the former Government of France. I had some difficulty in collecting, from scattered Documents, the information necessary to present a correct view of the subject, and adapted to existing circumstances. The Hon. James Monroe. ALBERT GALLATIN. Mr. Gallatin to the Duke de Richelieu. MONSIEUR LE DUC, Paris, 9th November, 1816. I HAD already the honour, in some preliminary conversations, to present to your Excellency a general view of the losses sustained by American Citizens, under various illegal Acts of the former Government of France; and, for which, The United States claim an indemnity from the justice of His Most Christian Majesty. The right to an indemnity, being founded on the Law of Nations, extends to all cases, where there has been an evident infraction of that Law, such as it is recognized by civilized Nations. Of the Acts of the former French Government, openly violating that Law; those issued on the 21st November, 1806,* at Berlin, and on the 17th December, 1807,* at Milan, were promulgated in the shape of publick Decrees, applicable, at least nominally, to other Nations, as well as to The United States. Other Acts were, exclusively directed against America; appearing, also, sometimes under the form of Decrees, as that of Bayonne, of the 17th April, 1808,* and that of Rambouillet, of the 23d March, 1810;* and, at times, being only special Orders for seizing or selling certain American Vessels and Cargoes. To these various Acts, must be added, the wanton destruction, at different times, of American Vessels on the High Seas. That the Berlin and Milan Decrees, so far as they declared liable to capture and condemnation, Neutral Vessels, pursuing an innocent Commerce, and contravening no municipal Laws, were an evident violation of the Law of Nations, has not been, and cannot be, denied. The plea of retaliation, grounded on a supposed acquiescence of Neutral Powers in certain Acts of Great Britain, and urged in justification of those Decrees, was unjust in its principle, and altogether inadmissible, when affecting a Neutral instead of an Enemy. And, even that pretence for plundering a friendly Power was abandoned, when the two belligerent Governments, whilst continuing to capture the Vessels of the Neutral trading with their respective Enemy, permitted a direct Commerce, by means of licenses. But that plea was, in point of fact, destitute of foundation, with respect to The United States. That they had uniformly opposed the aggressions of Great Britain, on their Neutral Rights, is notorious. It is not less true, and appears from all their Publick Acts, and from the tenor of their negotiations with both Belligerents, that it was solely owing to the Acts of France, to the Berlin and Milan Decrees, that still more decisive measures of resistance were not early adopted against Great Britain. So long as France and England equally continued to violate the Neutral Rights of America, she could not have selected either of those Nations for an Enemy, without tamely submitting to the aggressions of the other, and without deviating from that impartial course which it was her constant endeavour to pursue. And when, at last, the French Decrees had been revoked, so far as America was concerned, the perseverance of England in continuing her unlawful Orders, and in violating the Rights of The United States, produced a Declaration of War, on their part against that Country. See Page 462. Notwithstanding the intrinsic justice of the Claim of The United States, for losses sustained by their Citizens under the Berlin and Milan Decrees, it was intimated by your Excellency that those Decrees having been of a general nature, other Nations that had also experienced losses by their operation, would have had an equal right to an indemnity, and that those Acts not having been enumerated in the last Treaties and Conventions between France and the other European Powers, amongst those for which a compensation should be made by France, The United States ought not to expect to be placed on a better footing than other Nations. It would be preposterous to suppose, and it cannot have been intended to suggest, that The United States can in any case be bound by Treaties to which they were not Parties, and in which no attention whatever could have been paid to their interest. Nor can, by any correct analogy, the principles therein adopted, be applied to America. The Allied Powers naturally sought to obtain indemnity in those cases in which they were most interested. Almost all, if not all of them, had been, during the late European Wars, either at war, or in Alliance with France, whilst The United States had never stood in either of those relations towards her. Hence, it necessarily followed, that the injuries sustained by the Subjects of those Powers, differed essentially from those inflicted by France on American Citizens. The Berlin and Milan Decrees, so far as they extended beyond prohibitory municipal Regulations, although nominally general, applied in fact almost exclusively to The United States. If there was any exception, it was in amount too small, and applied to Nations whose weight was too inconsiderable, to be taken into consideration. Of the other Powers, many had no interest that indemnities should be obtained on that account, whilst several of them, namely, England, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and Naples, had a direct interest that the principle should not be admitted. It will, of course, appear, that, by the Convention between France and Great Britain, compensation is to be made by France for all the property of English Subjects confiscated or sequestered, not only during the last War, but also during that which preceded the Treaty of Amiens, and including even the loss arising from the reduction of the publick debt of France, to one third of its nominal amount, with the exception of the seizures and confiscations made in consequence of the Laws of War, and of the prohibitory Laws. And the exception precisely embraces the principal classes of injuries, for which The United States are entitled to indemnity, since their grounds of complaint against France are the abuse on her part of belligerent rights, and the unlawful extension of prohibitory Laws beyond their legitimate sphere. Not only were the Berlin and Milan Decrees an evident and acknowledged violation of the Law of Nations; not only the plea of |