The Convention, after declaring in its first article that “there shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true and sincere friendship, between the French Republic and the United States of America,” proceeds to stipulate as follows.
“Art. II. The Ministers Plenipotentiary of the two parties not being able to agree at present respecting the Treaty of Alliance of 6th February, 1778, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce of the same date, and the Convention of 14th of November, 1788, nor upon the indemnities mutually due or claimed, the parties will negotiate further on these subjects at a convenient time; and until they may have agreed upon these points, the said treaties and convention shall have no operation, and the relations of the two countries shall be regulated as follows.”[196]
Here the disagreement with regard to the early treaties and the indemnities mutually due or claimed is specifically declared, and it is then provided that “the parties will negotiate further on these subjects at a convenient time,”—meaning, of course, that hereafter, at a more auspicious moment, and with other plenipotentiaries, “the parties” will attempt to reconcile this disagreement. The whole subject, with its seven years of controversy and heart-burning, was postponed. Claims and counter-claims were left to sleep, while the spirit of peace descended upon the two countries.
The Convention was signed at Morfontaine, the elegant country home of Joseph Bonaparte, and the occasion was turned into a festival,—illustrated afterwards by the engraving of Piranesi,—where nothing was wanting that hospitality could supply. The First Consul was there, with his associates in power; also Lafayette, rescued from his Austrian dungeon and restored to France; and there also were the plenipotentiaries of both sides, with American citizens then in France, all gathered in brilliant company to celebrate the establishment of concord between the two republics.[197] The First Consul proposed as a toast, “To the manes of the French and the Americans who died on the field of battle for the independence of the New World”; so that even at this generous festival, to grace a reconciliation founded on the postponement of claims and counter-claims, the youthful chief, whose star was beginning to fill the heavens, proclaimed the undying obligations of the United States to France. This strain has been adopted by M. Thiers, who, after referring to this convention as the first concluded by the Consular Government, says: “It was natural that the reconciliation of France with the different powers of the globe should begin with that republic to which she had in a measure given birth.” The great historian, while thus recording our obligations to France, shows how claims and counter-claims had been postponed. “The First Consul,” he says, “had allowed the difficulties relative to the Treaty of Alliance of the 6th of February, 1778, to be adjourned; but, on the other hand, he had required the adjournment of the claims of the Americans relative to captured vessels.”[198] In this summary the stipulations at the signature of the Convention are accurately stated. Though imperfect, it was the first in that procession of peace, embracing Lunéville, Amiens, and the Concordat, which for a moment closed the Temple of Janus, whose gates had been left open by the Revolution in France.
The ratification by the First Consul followed the celebration at Morfontaine, so that the Convention, with its postponement of mutual claims, was definitely accepted by France. It was otherwise in the United States, where the result did not find favor. The postponement of a controversy is not a settlement, and here was nothing but postponement, leaving the old cloud hanging over the country, ready to burst at the motion of England or France. It was important that the early treaties, with their entangling engagements, should cease, even as a subject of future negotiation. In this spirit, the Senate, on the submission of the Convention for ratification, expunged the second article, providing that “the parties will negotiate further on these subjects,” and limited the Convention to eight years. On the 18th of February, 1801, President Adams, by proclamation countersigned by John Marshall, as Secretary of State, published the Convention as duly ratified, “saving and excepting the second article,” which was declared “to be expunged, and of no force or validity.”[199] The precise effect of this proceeding was not explained, and it remained to see how it would be regarded in France.
Were the claims on France abandoned? This was the question which occupied the attention of our minister, Mr. Murray, when charged to exchange with France the ratifications of the Convention as amended by the Senate. Reporting to the Government at home his conference with the French plenipotentiaries, he said, “I fear that they will press an article of formal abandonment on our part, which I shall evade.”[200] He hoped, to keep still another chance for indemnities. On the other hand, the French plenipotentiaries feared that an unconditional suppression of the second article would leave them exposed to the claims of the United States without chance for their counter-claims; but they did not object to a mutual abandonment of indemnities, which Mr. Murray admitted would “always be set off against each other.”[201] At last the conclusion was reached, and on the 31st of July, 1801, the Convention was ratified by the First Consul, with the limitation to eight years, and with the retrenchment of the second article, according to the amendment by the Senate, the whole with a proviso by the First Consul “That by this retrenchment the two states renounce the respective pretensions which are the object of the said article.”[202] Such were the important words of final settlement. What had been left to inference in the amendment of the Senate was placed beyond question by this French proviso. Claims and counter-claims were not merely suspended; they were formally abandoned. The Convention, with this decisive modification, was submitted to the Senate by President Jefferson, and again ratified by a vote of twenty-two yeas to four nays. On the 21st of December, 1801, it was promulgated by the President in the usual form, with its supplementary proviso, and all persons were enjoined to observe and fulfil the same, “and every clause and article thereof.”[203]
One aspect of this result cannot fail to arrest attention. Here was a release of all outstanding obligations of the United States under those famous treaties which assured National Independence. The joy with which those heralds of triumph were first welcomed in camp and Congress has been portrayed; and now a kindred joy prevailed, when the country, anxious and sorely tried, was at last set free from their obligations, and American commerce, venturing forth again from its banishment, brought back its treasures to pour them into the lap of the people. Strange fate! There was joy at the birth of these treaties, and joy also at their death. But it was because their death had become to us, like their birth, a source of national strength and security.
Thus closed a protracted controversy, where each power was persistent to the last. Nothing could be more simple than the adjustment, and nothing more equitable, if we regard the two Governments only. The claims of each were treated as a set-off to the claims of the other, and mutual releases were interchanged, so that each, while losing what it claimed, triumphed over its adversary. But the triumph of the United States was at the expense of American citizens. Nothing is without price; and new duties, originating in this triumph, sprang into being.