ion of the United States.

By the fifth article of this treaty the citizens of these States are
declared exempt from the tonnage duty imposed in France on foreign
vessels, and they are not subject to that duty but in the coasting
business. Congress has reserved the privilege of establishing _a duty
equivalent to this last_, a stipulation founded on the state in which
matters were in America at the time of the signature of the treaty.
There did not exist at that epoch any duty on tonnage in the United
States.

It is evident that it was the nonexistence of this duty and the motive
of a perfect reciprocity stipulated in the preamble of the treaty that
had determined the King to grant the exemption contained in the article
fifth; and a proof that Congress had no intention to contravene this
reciprocity is that _it only reserves a privilege of establishing on the
coasting business a duty equivalent to that which is levied in France_.
This reservation would have been completely useless if by the words of
the treaty Congress thought themselves at liberty to lay _any_ tonnage
they should think proper on French vessels.

The undersigned has the honor to observe that this contravention of
the fifth article of the treaty of commerce might have authorized
His Majesty to modify proportionately the favors granted by the same
article to the American navigation; but the King, always faithful to
the principles of friendship and attachment to the United States, and
desirous of strengthening more and more the ties which subsist so
happily between the French nation and these States, thinks it
more conformable to these views to order the undersigned to make
representations on this subject, and to ask in favor of French vessels
a modification of the act which imposes an extraordinary tonnage on
foreign vessels. His Majesty does not doubt but that the United States
will acknowledge the justice of this claim, and will be disposed to
restore things to the footing on which they were at the signature of
the treaty of the 6th February, 1778.

L.G. OTTO.

[Translation.]

_L.G. Otto to the Secretary of State_.

NEW YORK, _January 8, 1791_.

His Excellency M. JEFFERSON,

_Secretary of State_.

SIR: I have the honor herewith to send you a letter from the King to
Congress, and one which M. de Montmorin has written to yourself. You
will find therein the sincere sentiments with which you have inspired
our Government, and the regret of t