Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-21
JACKsON'S FIRMNEsS.
How He Dealt with an ERete European
Monarch.


When Gen. Jackson became President,
says Ben: PeTley POore in Boston Budget,
he found that France owed the United
States 100000 francs, which he re-
solved, shy the Eternal,' should be
paid. Andrew Stevenson and William S.
Archer, both of Virginia, were candi-
dates for the French mission, but it was
given to another applicant from the same
State, William c. Rives. Mr.. Stevenson
afterwards received the mission to Lon
don; and Mr.. Archer, rather piqued,
joined the ranks of the opposition.
Mr.. Rives made but little Roadway I'M
til Louis Philippe came into power, when
the treaty was signed. Great was the
rage of whiskered Frenchmen, who as
serted that Louis Philippe had bought up
a large portion of the claims, and thus
robbed the French treasury in order to
fill his own pockets. Mr.. Rives, on the
contrary, was in high spirits, and It is as
serted that only eight days after the
treaty was signed, he wrote dispatch to
Mr.. Forsyth, Secretary of State, in which
he boosted that he had effected treaty
which all his predecessors had failed to
accomplish, and by which he had gulled
and Out-generaled the French Ministry,
and induced it to ''pay not only every
just and legal claim, but many claims
that were considered desperate and doubt
ful.''
This was, perhaps, pardonable in a
young and ardent man, but MIR. Forsyth
did very wrong in permitting the letter to
be made public, as subsequent events
proved. By the condition of the treaty
the indemnity of p. COZ. 900 francs was to
be paid in instalments, and Mr.. Wood
bury, Secretary of the Treasury, was in
structed to draw Immediately for one of
the installments. He did draw, and the
draft came back dishOnered and protested,
and for the reason that the French Cham
Der of Deputies had refused to make an
appropriation to fulfill the treaty which
LOUISE Philippe had signed and sanctioned.
And the reason assigned by the Cham
bers for their refusal was that the AmeIi-
can Minister in his dispatches to his gov
eminent had boosted that he s":1dled the
King and the Due de BrOglie. In the
meantime Mr.. Rives came home, and the
late Edward Livingston was dispatched
to the Court of st. Cloud, instructed to
demand the immediate fulhllment of the
conditions of the treaty of July 4, 1881,
and, in the event OF his meeting with any
obstacles to the object of his mission, to
demand his passports and retire to Eng
land. He was cOldly received; the Cham
and Mr.. Livingston, as instructed, de-
manded his passports and retired to Lon
don. Thus stood the case until the month
of January, 1885, when Gen. jackson
issued a special message recommending
the issue of letters of marque and reprisal
againt French commerce. The message
was referred to the Committee of Foreign
Affairs, Mr.. Edward Everett, Chairman,
in the House, and to the Corresponding
Committee Of the Senate, of which Mr..
Clay was the head. The Committee of
the House reported in accordance with
the message of the President; but that of
the Senate unanimously reported that
nothing should be done until further in
formation was received from France.
Louis Philippe managed to have the in.
demnity paid, though the French nation
was almost unanimously opposed to 1t,
and certainly there was anything but af-
lection manifested.