The republic., 1851-01-31
HE UBLIC.
SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD,

| THE r EP u BLIC.
SPEECH OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
On the Claims Of .anerican Merchants for IN
deninities for French SpOliations. Deliuered
IN the Senate Of the United States. January
Ma. PaEsIDENr: While no lawful public en-
| gagement ought ever to be broken. debts founded
[ on the appropriation of private property to the
general and especially to the discharge of obli
cations incurred in the war Of the Revolution,
practically guaranteed by the Constitution, and
stamped with peculiar equity They ought.
therefore. to be held sacred the safety Of the
State itself The claims before fall within that
class of inviolabc obligations
The peace Of Paris, in 1853, reduced the broad
possessions of France in America TO Cayenne on
the continent, and the islands OF st. Domingo,
Martinique, Guadaloupe, st. Lucia, ST. Vincent,
Tobago, Deseada, Marigalantc, st. Pierre, Miquc-
elon. Grenada and Dominica, In the Atlantic ocean.
Great Britain, at the same tme acquired the Cana
das, together with the vast region of New France,
and thus secured to herself an empire extending
from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic circle.
In February, 1778, the new thirteen American
States were struggling to disengage themselves
from that empire. 1t was conflict ripened and
final between Great Britain to retain supreme do
minion, and the United States to acquire absolute
Isovereignty and independence. Great Britain, SO
lately victorious her great continental rival,
was now confessed mistress of the The United
states u0O tnen, q Tree populatl0n ECarCely sur
passing their present number Of slaves. Their
sovereignty had been assumed only nineteen
months before, and had not yet been recognised
by any foreign nation. nor even by the least Of
the hundred savage tribes whom the wilderness
protected within and around their borders. They
bad no navy, mercantile marine, Notifications,
constitution, nor even confirmed confederation.
The hopes which had been kindled by carly sue
cesses were almost cxtinguished by recent and
successive disasters. Boston had, indeed, been
regained, and Burgoyne had given back the
passes of the North; but the enemy yet retained
New York, and now victorious over Washington
in successive pitched battles, on fields chosen by
himself, on the Brandywine and at Germantown,
was marching unobstructcd towards Philadelphia,
then the American capital. The precious metals
| seemed to have hidden themselves again in the
earth, and paper credits had everywhere collapsed.
The Chaplain Of Congress implored Washington
'to give over the ungodiy war in which he was
gagged" The discounted army, without recruits,
pay, or sufficient food had tracked their way with
bleeding feet into winter quarters the Schuylkill
Two hundred officers had resigned and retired; the
hospitals and the neighboring farmers firesides
were crowded by soldiers without blankets shoes;
and the great leader, in the midst Of discontcnts
fast growing into mutiny, announced to the loosely
constituted Legislature, which was now convulsed
with distrust and faction, that "unless great
and capital change should occur, the troops under
his care must starve, dissolve, or disperse."
great and capital change did occur. Allied ar
mics, fresh, vigorous. and well appointed, coope-
| rating with gallant fleet, met the invader, and
his surrender at Yorktown opened the way to peace
sovereignty, and independence. An auspicious star
had led Franklin Deanc, and Lee, the first of Ame-
rican ambassadors, to Paris; and il was alliance
with France, hereditary foe, but thcnceforth a
fraternal nation, that wrought out this great and
capital change, and effected that triumphant
summation.
The courses Of the allies Immediately separated
and thenceforward widely diverged. The United
States completed their Union in peace and tran
quillity, and established their Constitution the
unremovable foundations on which loyal citizens
1 hopc, and wise men throughout the world believe
that it stands firmly fixed forever; while by well.
directed devotion of the national revenues to the
payment of their debts and the establishment O
/ credit, and wise cultivation of arts and industry
they prepared the way for permanent and extended
empire.
| France, en- the contrary, began the descent to.
wards revolution in the very year when the United
States emerged from its dangerous labyrinths; and
thereafter, distracted herself for thirteen years shs
convulsed all Europe.
/ II was during this period that these claims 70,
indemnities for spoliations arose.
The political and commercial relations between
France and the United States had been defined by
trsaties.
First The Treaty of Amify and Commerce, the
most ancient treaty of the United States, executed
| on the 9th of February, IT'S. II stipulated Art
peace. IArt 2 That all commercial privileges RSe
to be granted by either party to any State should
| become common to the other contracting party
(Arts. and Al The most favored footing Tor each
party in the others ports. ARTS. and 81 Re-
ciprocal protection to vessels in their respective
Jurisdictions. [Art.S The aid of France in ne.
gotiations by the United States with the Barbary
powers. TART. IL The mutual exhibition Of
passports and certificates of cargo in cases Of
pcious vessels making the porte Of an enemy Of
one of the parties. Art l4.] That goods of either
party should be forfeited if laden in ships of an
my Of the other. [Art. III That armed vessels
of one party might freely carry prizes into the
others ports, without paying duties to courts and
might freely depart to the places designated in
their commissions, and that neither party should
give shelter TO captors Of prizes from the other.
should not be allowed to be fitted out or to sell
prizes in the ports of the other. TART. 23l That
free ships should make free goods Art. "a. De-
fined articles contraband of war, and excepted from
that class many articles not free by the law of
tons. TART. 25l In case one party should be at
war, the'vessels Of the other should be furnished
with sea letters or passports, and with certificates
containing the particulars Of the cargo so as to re-
| licyc the rigors of search.
Secondly. The Treaty Of Alliance, concluded on
the same day, February 8, IT'S. In this treaty,
the parties recited the execution OF the treaty OF
| nmity and commerce, declared that they had con-
| sidered the means of strengthening their engage
nlents, particularly in case Great Britain, in re-
sentiment against those engagements, should
break the peace with France, either by direct
hostilities or by hindering her commerce and navi
gation contrary to the rights Of nations and the
peace subsisting between those Countries; and
that therefore they had agreed, that lArt. u if
war should break out between France and Great
Britain, during the continuance of the existing
war between the United States and England, that
then his majesty and the United States would
make it common cause, and aid each other mutu-
ally with their good offices, their counsel, and
their forces, as was becoming to good and faith
full allies. fart. g. That the essential and direct
end Of their defensive alliance was TO maintain
effectually the liberty, sovereignty, and inde-
pendence, absolute and unlimited, Of tho United
States of America, as well in matters Of govern
ment as of commerce, IArts. and a. That
each party should make every effort to attain that
end and that they should, in overy possible wav-
act in concert, aud with .promptn~ss -;
faith. [Arts, s, 9, and 7 /, re... and good
of the United States, conquests that might
be made by the allied armies, except the British
islands in or near the the Gulf of Mexico. [Arts.
and 81 That neither party should conclude truce
or peace without the others consent; and that nei
ther party should demand any compensation from
the other. TART. H. The two parties guaranteed
mutually, from the date of the treaty forever
against all othor powers, to wit--the United States
n, hrsc -