In President John Quincy Adams 1827 State of the Union Address, he wrote that a "fresh effort has recently been made" with France to consider the "just claims" of U.S. citizens for wrongs committed during the Napoleonic wars. That's right, more than 27 years after France had burned American merchant vessels at sea and seized their cargo, the United States was still fighting for indemnity payments. In fact, it was John Adams senior who signed the Treaty of Mortefontaine with France in 1800 after refusing to declare war in 1798 despite what he called an "unequivocal act of war on the commerce of nations". The treaty opened negotiations for merchants whose cargo was destroyed, captured or seized. Now, in 1827 John Quincy expressed hope that what his father began could now be finished. After all, the two countries were of friendly spirits, whose memory "is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national existence". France was and always had been America's first and greatest ally. But, a deeper look into the correspondence between the United States and France shows that both Governments knew that a resolution to the indemnity claims was still a long ways off.
In 1827, Secretary of State Henry Clay gave instructions to James Brown the U.S. Minister to Paris to convey to the French government that the consideration of all claims should be turned over to arbitration by a third-party sovereign nation. James Brown arranged a meeting with Baron De Damas the French general and minister in charge of the negotiations to discuss this at length and reported back to the Secretary that there was no immediate answer from the French Government. President Adams conveyed a message of optimism to Congress, when he wrote to them that while no definitive answer had yet been received he had confidence that the "gallant and honorable spirit which has at all times been the pride and glory of France" would not permit France to go back on their commitment and reject the claims. For the sake of peace, John Quincy Adams like his father urged for peaceful negotiations over war.
"The origin of the political relations between the United States and France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it can by us never be forgotten, and we should hail with exultation the moment which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in spirit on the part of France.
A fresh effort has recently been made by the minister of the United States residing at Paris to obtain a consideration of the just claims of citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long since committed, many of them frankly acknowledged and all of them entitled upon every principle of justice to a candid examination. The proposal last made to the French Government has been to refer the subject which has formed an obstacle to this consideration to the determination of a sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer no definitive answer has yet been received, but the gallant and honorable spirit which has at all times been the pride and glory of France will not ultimately permit the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished in the mere consciousness of the power to reject them."Despite the optimism that Adams conveyed, the Minister James Brown who had met with Baron de Damas was not as hopeful. In a letter dated September 8th, 1827 to Secretary of State Clay, Brown described in great detail his meeting with Damas. The two men discussed the claims including France's continued pressure to tie the claims to the requests made during the Louisiana Purchase negotiations, where France requested exclusive privileges in the port of New Orleans. During their discussions, Damas told Brown, that the U.S. demands would not be accepted by France because they produced no beneficial result. To which, Brown retorted: "the decision would settle a question upon which, after an elaborate discussion between the ministers of the respective nations, and a candid consideration of all the arguments on both sides, the two Governments had found it impossible to agree; that this question had, for several years, arrested the progress of a negotiation, having for it's object the adjustment of the claims of individuals to a large amount; and that, by removing this obstacle out of the way, negotiations would probably result in the amicable settlement of all the differences between the two nations." In other words, by settling this long dispute between the two nations, all other negotiations such as reciprocal trade could also be resolved. But, France was not yet ready to budge. It was clear to Damas, that the United States was ready to send the matter to arbitration, but France was not. Damas told Brown that the just as the Government of the United Sates believed that France had no just claim under the Louisiana treaty, so to the French believed that the United States had no just claims of indemnity on the present Government of France. According to Damas, since the injuries were committed under the authority of Napoleon, the United States had no reason to complain about treatments received from the "Imperial Government", but rather injuries that were sustained ruing a time of anarchy and war. Damas called Napoleon an usurper and argued that France was neither able or bound to pay for damages under his reign, especially given that American merchants had profited so much from trade with Europe during and after the wars. This was an irreconcilable difference that in the view of the United States had to be sent for arbitration, and like Adams, Brown appealed to the greater good in France when he added that he was "convinced the Government of France was too magnanimous and just to wish to set off the fair and legitimate acquisitions of our commerce against our claims of indemnity for property taken from us in violation of the laws of nations." Yet while, Brown tried to appeal to the greater good, he ended his letter to Secretary Clay with the following words:
"I confess, from the time at which I received the Baron de Damas's letter of the 11th of November, 1825, I have not been very sanguine in my hopes of a satisfactory arrangement with France."
Unfortunately, I could not find the letter from Baron de Damas, but clearly it was troublesome. In a letter from James Brown to Henry Clay on September 13, 1827. Brown wrote "I am unable to say but I have feared ever since his letter of 11 Novr. 1825 that he (Baron De Damas) had irrevocably made up his mind to adhere to the principle stated in that letter." Nevertheless, it is clear that Brown, Clay and Adams all understood that France was not ready to agree to arbitration of the indemnity claims, yet Adams conveyed a message of hope to Congress. I am not saying that Adams lied, but just that he conveyed a message of hope, that he himself had doubts of. In that same letter, Brown gives us some idea as to why. In that letter, Brown wrote to Clay, "It is with you to judge what will be done in that event. Your claimants will ask for vigorous measures, perhaps for war or for something that will end in an appeal to hostilities. The first effect of war will as I think be the entire loss of their claims" Thus, for the sake of peace, John Quincy Adams like his father urged for peaceful negotiations over war and appealed to the greater good in both the French Government and American citizens. In the end, it neither Adams would complete the negotiations for indemnity payments with France. It would have to wait until during the Jackson administration that the French Government would sign a treaty to pay 25 million francs to the United states to be distributed according to rules established by the United States Government.
In Adams' final State of the Union address, he expressed sentiments that nothing had changed between the relations of the two countries, commerce had continued to increase, but indemnity claims had remained unadjusted.
"The state of our particular relations with France has scarcely varied in the course of the present year. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has continued to increase for the mutual benefit of both. The claims of indemnity to numbers of our fellow citizens for depredations upon their property, heretofore committed during the revolutionary governments, remain unadjusted, and still form the subject of earnest representation and remonstrance. Recent advices from the minister of the United States at Paris encourage the expectation that the appeal to the justice of the French Government will ere long receive a favorable consideration."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Third Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29469 [Accessed 2 May 2018].Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2018). John Quincy Adams: Fourth Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29470 [Accessed 26 Jun. 2018].
Clay, H. (1827). The Papers of Henry Clay: Secretary of State 1827. p.1027.
Register of Debates in Congress: Register of Debates in Congress: Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the second session of the twenty-second Congress. (1833). Washington: Gales and Seaton, pp.224-225.
Wagner, D. (2018). 1823 James Monroe - Just Indemnity from the French Government. [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2017/08/1823-james-monroe-just-indemnity-from.html [Accessed 2 May 2018].
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coronation_of_Charles_X_of_France_by_Fran%C3%A7ois_G%C3%A9rard,_circa_1827.jpg
No comments:
Post a Comment