Mobile register and journal., 1845-02-15

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 FRENCH SPoLIATIoNs PRIOR TO 1900 Some lopes are entertained that Congress al this session will act definitely upon ihe long pending claims o | American citizens for spolatons committed by the French prIor To the year 1s00. The annual Tecur- renee of this subject has mnde it painfully familiar it has become well nigh proverb of national njus
 tice. From the Senate to the House; from the | House 10 the Senate; now in the hands of Commit | tees then reposing upon the table; embodied in bills; discussed in reports-these claims have been banded to and fro in every variety of legislative
 ercitation For five and forty years successive Congresses have amused themselves with this game o
 parliamentary batledoie, until now the hopes of the poor expectants, exhausted of elasticity, have no
 longer the power of rebound; and the sport has be- come somewhat flat nW. ai teH''
 The case of Mr. Pde Pe,biss imthe Scottish courts is lAe fiji prototype of this. But Peter 7ed to decision of his su, while the plaintiffs in this plea
 for legislative justice have mostly departed this life
 leaving 1t to future generation to discover how far a prospective reliance upon the national faith was | preferable to immediate beggary. .. | In the Merchants Magazine for this present month article will be found the subject of these claims The history of them is brief During the adminis- traiion of Washington, while the French revolution in its early stages of violence and disorder, vessels and cargoes to the number of six seven hundred were captured and confscated by the crus. of France under certain decrees of the revolutions ary government. France promised ndemDhcation the innocent aeulras who should suffer under these decrees and if the claims of our despoiled citizens had renamed in their original position the French Government would have done justice in the premises lorg ago. But in the of the negotaion which took place between our Government and that of France on these and other matters agreed that France should be relieved from all responsibility account of these claims provided the United States were freed from certain guarantees in which we were houad to France by previous treaty. Our Govern
 ment, for example, was pledged 10 hold France se- in ihe possession of her West India Islands-a stipulation which might have involved us in war with Great Britain at any moment. To be eleased from ths pledge matter of great importance i; and cons iteration to induce France to set us free from it, government proposed to let France go from the claims of our plundered citizrns As thing of course our Government then became liable for these claims--a liability which has been dis charged. ..r- .. .aD
 A report on this suhject with resolutions append ed was recently adopted by the Legislature of Rhode lsland,--drawn up by the late Hon J. L.. Filling hast. Afier a recital of the facts of the case, Mr.. 1ilpgbasi presents the question at issue in clear and iorcble manner. "The owner of these claims, D he remarks, s'then held them in 1900 as property, recognized and protected by the principles and reme
 dies ul pubic law; absolutely propery.to all in- tents and purposes as is property in any vested right damages, property in any chose in action, or any other property in title, which, as between citizen and citizen, is recognized and protected by the pro- visions and remedies of municpalaw- As property, they could be transferred for valuable consideration, assigned for security they descended from ances- 10 heir, and were administered by executors and administrators. In 1901. the Government of the United States took the whole of this private proper tv for public use It took lhs property and appro- praed il to, and for the and benefit of the hole nation. arranged for aud designated in, the raf cations of a convention with France, commenced in IS00 and finally ratified in 1901. In tbe negotiation which ended in that convention. these claims were the prominent subject of demand on part; while on the part of France, aside from comparatively few claims in behalf of individuals the demands were of different characters they were for performance thereafter, and for reparaiion for non-perfornl nee theretofore of treaty slpuatons that had been found be very onerous to the government and people of the United States, and were likely to become still more so. In that negotiation our government took the control of the claims of It's citizens, and de- lil,eratey, and no doubt wise, extinguished them as against France, by releasing that nation therefrom, for the consideration of release from France 10 the United States of matters of most critical interest, and os Llcalcuable importance to whole country"