s intimated his willingness to give to the consideration of these
claims the President indulges the hope that they will be taken into view
upon their own merits, and in that hope the representative of the United
States at Paris will at an early day be instructed to present them again
to the undivided and unconditional sense of the justice of France.

I pray you, sir, to accept the renewed assurance of my distinguished
consideration.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

[Extract of a letter from Mr, Sheldon (No. 2) to Mr, Adams, dated
Paris, October 16, 1823.]

I took an early occasion after the receipt of your dispatch No. 1, of
the 10th August, to communicate the subjects of it in a conversation
I had with Viscount de Chateaubriand. His observations in relation to
that of the claims, as connected with the pretensions of France under
the Louisiana treaty, were of a very general nature and amounted to
little more than a repetition of his readiness to enter upon the
consideration of whatever subjects of discussion might exist between the
two countries and the expression of his satisfaction at the prospect of
being soon relieved from the labor which the affairs of Spain had thrown
upon him, and having thus more time to devote to those of the United
States and others not of the same pressing nature. He avoided any
intimation of a disposition to take up the claims by themselves, and
it can hardly be expected that the French Government will at this time
relax from the ground they have so lately taken upon that point. I
informed him that I should communicate in writing an answer to the
overture made by Count de Menou at Washington for uniting in a new
negotiation this subject with that of the Louisiana treaty, in substance
the same as that gentleman had already received there, and should again
press upon the French Government the consideration of the claims by
themselves; to which he replied that any communication I might make
would be received and treated with all the attention to which it was
entitled on his part.

_Mr. Sheldon to the Viscount de Chateaubriand_.

PARIS, _October 11, 1823_.

SIR: Mr. Gallatin, during his residence as minister of the United
States in France, had upon various occasions called the attention
of His Majesty's Government to the claims of our citizens for the
reparation of wrongs sustained by them from the unjust seizure,
detention, and confiscation of their property by officers and agents
acting u