The mutual coquetry which characterized the two Governments during the mission of Mr. Monroe gave way to mutual recrimination and repulsion, where France took the lead. M. Adet was recalled from Philadelphia. Mr. Pinckney was sent away from Paris. Besides the earlier decree, announcing that the Republic would treat all neutrals in the same manner as they suffered the English to treat them, other fatal blows were now dealt at our commerce, letting loose a new brood of spoliations destined to swell the catalogue of our claims, by a decree pronouncing the stipulations of the treaty of 1778 which concerned the neutrality of the flags altered and suspended in their most essential points by the treaty with England, greatly enlarging the list of contraband, declaring Americans in the service of England pirates, and authorizing the seizure of all American vessels without a rôle d’équipage, which, notoriously, no American vessel ever carried, so that practically our flag was delivered over to the depredations of every French cruiser.[177]
Then came that plenipotentiary triumvirate, Messrs. Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, who were particularly instructed by our Government, while urging the multiplied claims of our citizens, already valued at “more than twenty millions of dollars,” to propose “a substitute for the reciprocal guaranty,” or, “if France insists on the mutual guaranty, to aim at some modification of it,”—“instead of troops or ships of war, to stipulate for a moderate sum of money or quantity of provisions, at the option of France: the provisions to be delivered at our own ports, in any future defensive wars; the sum of money, or its value in provisions, not to exceed two hundred thousand dollars a year, during any such wars.”[178] Here was recognition of the “guaranty,” and a sum offered for release from its requirements. But the French Republic, drunk with triumph and maddened with anger, was in no mood for negotiation. It met our plenipotentiaries with an intrigue already mentioned as unparalleled in diplomacy, and, after tolerating their presence for a while at Paris, without conceding an official reception, sent them away, disappointed and dishonored. Even in the informal relations which were permitted, Talleyrand, in the name of the Republic, advanced and vindicated the counter-claims of France. Without dwelling at length on his argument, it is enough to quote certain words in a letter to Mr. Gerry, of June 10, 1798: “The French Republic desires to be restored to the rights which its treaties with your Republic confer upon it, and through those means it desires to assure yours. You claim indemnities; it equally demands them; and this disposition, being as sincere on the part of the Government of the United States as it is on its part, will speedily remove all the difficulties.”[179] Thus plainly was the case stated. It was not denied that indemnities were due to the United States, but it was insisted that they were also due to France.
The two countries, once allies, were now in the most painful relations. Washington was no longer President; but his Farewell Address, in some of its most important parts, was evidently inspired by the counter-claims of France, especially when he warned his fellow-countrymen “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so far as we are now at liberty to do it,”—“to have with foreign nations as little political connection as possible,”—“to be constantly awake against the insidious wiles of foreign influence,”—and then asked in well-known words, “Why quit our own, to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?”[180] In these remarkable words, where the same tone, if not the same lesson, recurs, we discern the undissembled anxieties of the hour. By the guaranty and other stipulations of 1778, our peace and prosperity had been entangled, even if our destiny had not been interwoven, in distant toils. France was urgent and brutal. War seemed impending. At last another triumvirate of plenipotentiaries, Messrs. Ellsworth, Davie, and Murray, was commissioned to attempt again the adjustment of complications that had thus far baffled the wisdom of Washington; but compensation for the “individual” claims of American citizens was required as an indispensable condition.
Such are the counter-claims of France in origin and history. And now again we are brought to the very point where the Committee had arrived in exhibiting the claims of our citizens. The plenipotentiaries on each side have met to negotiate, while the First Consul has gone to Marengo. On each side they are equally tenacious. There is a dead-lock. How this was overcome belongs to the next chapter.
III.
ADJUSTMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE BY THE SET-OFF AND MUTUAL RELEASE OF CLAIMS AND COUNTER-CLAIMS.
The rules of duty and of conduct between individuals are applicable also to nations, and the proceedings on this occasion illustrate this principle. The two parties could not agree. Clearly, then, for the sake of harmony, it was essential to postpone both claims and counter-claims, for some future negotiation, or, if this were not done, to treat them as a set-off to each other. Such, unquestionably, would have been the action between individuals. But the history of this negotiation shows the adoption of these two modes successively. Postponement was first tried, but it gave way at last to set-off, by virtue of which the international controversy was closed. This conclusion was reached slowly and by stages, as is seen in a simple narrative of the negotiation.
The plenipotentiaries on each side evinced a disposition to provide for reciprocal claims; but the claims specified by the American plenipotentiaries were those of “citizens of either nation,” while those specified by the French plenipotentiaries were those which “either nation may make for itself or for any of its citizens.”[181] In this difference of specification was the germ of the antagonism soon developed, especially when the American plenipotentiaries proposed to recognize the treaties and Consular Convention as existing only to July 7, 1798,[182] the date of the statute by which Congress undertook to annul them. This distinction seems to have been unnecessary, for the French spoliations were clearly as much in contravention of the Law of Nations as of the treaties. But it furnished the French plenipotentiaries opportunity of declaring, under date of May 6, 1800, that “the mission of the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the French Republic has pointed out to them the Treaties of Alliance, Friendship, and Commerce, and the Consular Convention, as the only foundations of their negotiations”; that “upon these acts has arisen the misunderstanding, and it seems proper that upon these acts union and friendship should be established.”[183] Thus were the treaties put forward by France; and our plenipotentiaries, writing to their own Government, May 17, 1800, represent her as persistent: “Our success is yet doubtful. The French think it hard to indemnify for violating engagements, unless they can thereby be restored to the benefits of them.”[184] But on this point our Government was inexorable.
The return of the First Consul from Italy was signalized by fresh instructions to the French plenipotentiaries, who proceeded to declare, under date of August 11, 1800, that “the treaties which united France and the United States are not broken,” and that their first proposition is “to stipulate a full and entire recognition of the treaties, and the reciprocal engagement of compensation for damages resulting on both sides from their infraction.” Here, again, the “individual” claims of citizens of the United States were doomed to encounter the “national” claims of France. And this communication concluded with a formal proposition in these words: “Either the ancient treaties, with the privileges resulting from priority and the stipulation of reciprocal indemnities, or a new treaty, assuring equality without indemnity.”[185] Thus it stood: Claims and Counter-Claims.