The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-06-20
FRENCH SPOLIATIONS-PRIOR TO 1901

on Its private Calender-haVe reHai kaoie
history. They were first reported to the U. 5.
House of Representatives by "a special COM
| mittee on February 5, 1902; then again IN
1907. On both occasions they were not
pressed owing to the unfortunate condition OF
| the finances. 1t was not till 1926 that all the
evidence touching them was gathered, from
documentary history as we'll as ample material
sources. From that time the bill has been
almost perpetually before congress and has
never been unfavorably reported upon by
either House. The claims were applied by
our government to its use in the settlement
with France of grievances growing out of our
Revolutionary troubles. Our government had
failed on its part in a reciprocity treaty with
France through which, by her heroic inter-
vention Just at the hour when Washington de-
clared that the Army must "starve; dissolve
or disperse," she rescued the American Revo-
luton from failure. The Senate committee in
its report through Mr.. Frye, says:
There have been made to both houses forty
favorable reports, among which are one by
Mr. John Holmes, three by Edward Everett,
three by Edward Livingston, one by Daniel
Webster, three by Caleb Gushing, three by
Rufus Choate, four by Truman Smith, one by
Hannibal Hamlin, and three by Charles Sum-
ner. Twice bill for the relief of these claim
ants has passed both houses, one vetoed by
President Polk as a senate bill, and IN the
veto the senate voted yeas Fl, nays I5 and
one vetoed by President Pierce as house
bill, and the house voted on the vote yeas II3,
nays So; in neither case twothirds.
The Legislature of the thirteen original
states have all at various times passed resolu-
tons directing their senators and asking their
Representatives to take favorable action in be-
half of these claimants
We do not see that the report cites the
grounds of the vetos, but believe they were
identical in the two cases, to-wit that there
were no funds in the treasury out of which
these claimants could be paid. President
Polk observed that conscientious care of gov
eminent money which would be rated eccen-
tricity now. President Pierce regarded Presi-
dent Folks veto as a precedent. On the
question of passing the bill over the veto the
negative vote, in each case, embraces friends
of the bill who considered the grounds of the
veto proper cause of postponement.
The committee further adopt the report of
Hon. Chas. Sumner made January II, $780,
in which the questions were fully discussed.
The following succinct view of these super
extraordinary CLAIMS by that able senator
should be accepted by our congress as they
have been, long since, by all the world.
Ofall claims in our history, these are most
associated with great events and great sacri-
fees. First in time. they are also first in char
acter, for they spring from the very cradle of
the republic and the trials of its infancy. To
comprehend them, you must know first, how
independence was won; and, secondly, how,
at later day, peace was assured. Other
claims have been merely personal or litgious;
these are his ORIG. Here were ''ndividual'
losses, felt at the time most keenly, and con-
stitutng an unanswerable claim upon France,
which were employed by our government at
critical moment like credit or cash in hand,
to purchase release from outstanding "nation-
ap' Obligations SO that the whole country be-
came, at once, the trustee of these sufferers,
bound, of course, to gratitude for the
means thus contributed, but bound a.
so to indemnify them against these los
ses. And yet these sufferers, thus unique
in situation, have been compelled to see all
other claims for foreign spoilations satisii, d
while they alone have been turned away AS
early as 1894 our plundered fellow citizens OBJ
tanned compensation, to the amount of more
than ten million dollars, on account of British
spoilations. Similar indemntieS have been
n Since from Spain NaDlac Depmarl
Mexico, and the South American states, while,
by the famous convention of 1897, France
contributed five million dollars to the salts
faction of spoilations under the continental
system Of Napoleon. Spain stipulated to pay
for every ship or cargo taken within Spanish
Yates even by the French, SO tina, the French
spoilations on our commerce within Spanish
waters have been paid for, but French spoila-
tons on our commerce elsewhere before 1880
are still unredeemed. Such has been the for
tune of claimants the most meritorious of all.
In all other cases there has been simply a
claim for foreign spoiations, but without
any superadded obligation on the part of our
government. Here is a claim for foreign
spoliations, the precise counterpart Of all
other Claims but with superadded obligation,
on the part of our government, in the nature
of debt, constituting an asSnmbsit, or implied
promise to pay; SO that these sufferers are not
merely claimants on account of French spolia-
tons, but they are also creditors on account
of plain assumption by the government of
the undoubted liability of France. The APP
peal of these cLaimant-creait0rS is enhanced
beyond the pecuniary interests involved when
we consider the nature IF this assumption,
and especially that, in this way, our country
| obtained final release from embarrassing