of the
Louisiana treaty, I have been instructed to declare that any just claims
which the subjects of France may have upon the Government of the United
States will readily be embraced in the negotiation, and that I am
authorized to stipulate any suitable provision for the examination,
adjustment, and satisfaction of them.

The question relating to the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty is
viewed by my Government as one of a very different character. It can
not be blended with that of indemnity for individual claims without
a sacrifice on the part of the United States of a principle of right.
Every negotiation for indemnity necessarily presupposes that some wrong
has been done, and that indemnity ought to be made; and the object of
every treaty stipulation respecting it can only be to ascertain the
extent of the injury, and to make provision for its adequate reparation.
This is precisely the nature of the negotiation for American claims
which has been for so many years the subject of discussion between
the Governments of the United States and of France. The wrongs done to
our citizens have never been denied, whilst their right to indemnity
has been established by acts done by the French Government in cases
depending upon the same principles under which they derive their claim.
By consenting to connect with such a negotiation that relating to the
eighth article of the Louisiana treaty the United States would abandon
the principle upon which the whole discussion depends. When asking for
reparation for acknowledged wrong the United States have been told that
France will not discuss it with them unless they will first renounce
their own sense of right and admit and discuss in connection with it a
claim the justice of which they have hitherto constantly denied. In any
negotiation commenced under such circumstances the situation of the
parties would be unequal. By consenting to connect the pretensions of
France under the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty with claims for
indemnity for acknowledged injustice and injury the United States would
be understood as admitting that those pretensions were well founded;
that wrong had been done to France for which reparation ought to be
made. The Government of the United States, not having yet been convinced
that this is the case, can not consent to any arrangement which shall
imply an admission so contrary to their deliberate sense of right.

I am authorized and prepared on be