Chief Justice Marshall, who was one of the plenipotentiaries that attempted to secure payment from France, and afterward, as Secretary of State, countersigned the proclamation of President Adams first promulgating the Convention of 1800, has borne testimony similar to that of Mr. Pickering. In conversation with Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, he said, that, “having been connected with the events of that period, and conversant with the circumstances under which the claims arose, he was, from his own knowledge, satisfied that there was the strongest obligation on the Government to compensate the sufferers by the French spoliations.”[208]
Hon. B. Watkins Leigh, an ancient Senator from Virginia, relates that the same eminent authority said in his presence, “distinctly and positively, that the United States ought to make payment of these claims.” This declaration made a particular impression upon Mr. Leigh, because he had been unfavorable to the claims.
7. The obligation of the United States may be inferred also from the declared justice of the claims which had been renounced. On this point the authority is equally explicit.
Of course, in urging them upon France, earnestly and most assiduously, by successive plenipotentiaries, there was a plain adoption of them as just. But even after their abandonment they continued to be recognized as just.
Hon. Robert R. Livingston, plenipotentiary at Paris, in his correspondence shortly after the abandonment, shows his discontent. In a note to the Minister of Exterior Relations he speaks compendiously of “the payment for illegal captures, with damages and indemnities on one side, and the renewal of the Treaty of 1778 on the other, as of equivalent value.”[209] And in a despatch, under date of January 13, 1802, he says he has “always considered the sacrifices we have made of an immense claim as a dead loss.”[210] But this “dead loss” fell upon “individuals,” and not upon the “nation.”
Mr. Madison, as Secretary of State, in a despatch to Hon. Charles Pinckney, our minister at the court of Spain, under date of February 6, 1804, upholds the justice of the claims in significant words:—
“The claims from which France was released were admitted by France, and the release was for a valuable consideration in a correspondent release of the United States from certain claims on them.”[211]
Thus, according to official declaration, the claims of American citizens were “admitted by France,” but they were released for a valuable consideration which first inured to the benefit of the Government of the United States. Equitably, that valuable consideration must belong to the claimants.
Mr. Clay, as Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams, made a report, which had the sanction of the latter, where he fully affirms the justice of the claims:—