this question
by the only possible expedient; that is, the designation of a precise
date. This being done, the remaining parts of the second article became
superfluous and useless, for as all the provisions of the convention
would expire in eight years, it would necessarily follow that
negotiations must be renewed within that period, more especially as the
operation of the amendment which covered the whole convention was that
even the stipulation of peace in the first article became temporary and
expired in eight years, whereas that article, and that article alone,
was permanent according to the original tenor of the convention.

The convention thus amended, being submitted to the First Consul, was
ratified by him, his act of acceptance being accompanied with the
following declaratory note:

The Government of the United States having added in its ratification
that the convention should be in force for the space of eight years, and
having omitted the second article, the Government of the French Republic
consents to accept, ratify, and confirm the above convention with the
addition importing that the convention shall be in force for the space
of eight years and with the retrenchment of the second article:
_Provided_, That by this retrenchment the two States renounce the
respective pretensions which are the object of the said article.

The convention, as thus ratified by the First Consul, having been again
submitted to the Senate of the United States, that body resolved that
"they considered the convention as fully ratified," and returned the
same to the President for promulgation, and it was accordingly
promulgated in the usual form by President Jefferson.

Now it is clear that in simply resolving that "they considered the
convention as fully ratified" the Senate did in fact abstain from any
express declaration of dissent or assent to the construction put by the
First Consul on the retrenchment of the second article. If any inference
beyond this can be drawn from their resolution, it is that they regarded
the proviso annexed by the First Consul to his declaration of acceptance
as foreign to the subject, as nugatory, or as without consequence or
effect. Notwithstanding this proviso, they considered the ratification
as full. If the new proviso made any change in the previous import of
the convention, then it was not full; and in considering it a full
ratification they in substance deny that the provi