capable of
translating it at all, much less of giving to all its terms, legal
and technical, their exact equivalent in the laws and language of
that country. Should any translation which Congress would undertake to
publish, for the use of our courts, be conceived on any occasion not to
render fully the idea of the French original, it might be imputed as an
indirect attempt to abridge or extend the terms of a contract, at the
will of one party only. At no place are there better helps than here,
for establishing an English text equivalent to the French, in all its
phrases; no persons can be supposed to know what is meant by these
phrases, better than those who form them; and no time more proper to
ascertain their meaning in both languages than that at which they are
formed. I have, therefore, the honor to propose, that the convention
shall be faithfully expressed in English as well as in French, in two
columns, side by side, that these columns be declared each of them to be
text, and to be equally original and authentic in all courts of justice.

This, Sir, is a general sketch of the alterations, which our laws and
our manner of thinking render necessary in this convention, before the
faith of our country is engaged for its execution. Some of its articles,
in their present form, could not be executed at all, and others would
produce embarrassments and ill humor, to which it would not be prudent
for our government to commit itself. Inexact execution on the one part,
would naturally beget dissatisfaction and complaints on the other; and
an instrument intended to strengthen our connection, might thus become
the means of loosening it. Fewer articles, better observed, will better
promote our common interests. As to ourselves, we do not find the
institution of consuls very necessary. Its history commences in times of
barbarism, and might well have ended with them. During these, they were,
perhaps, useful, and may still be so in countries not yet emerged from
that condition. But all civilized nations at this day understand so
well the advantages of commerce, that they provide protection and
encouragement for merchant strangers and vessels coming among them.
So extensive, too, have commercial connections now become, that every
mercantile house has correspondents in almost every port. They address
their vessels to these correspondents, who are found to take better care
of their interests, and to obtain more effectually the protect