fifth articles of the convention of the 8th
Vendemiaire, an 9 (30th September, 1800), relative to the rights claimed
by the United States in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid the
27th of October, 1795, between His Catholic Majesty and the said United
States, and willing to strengthen the union and friendship which at the
time of the said convention was happily reestablished between the two
nations, have respectively named their plenipotentiaries, ... who ...
have agreed to the following articles.

Here is the most distinct and categorical declaration of the two
Governments that the matters of claim in the second article of the
convention of 1800 had not been ceded away, relinquished, or set off,
but they were still subsisting subjects of demand against France. The
same declaration appears in equally emphatic language in the third of
these treaties, bearing the same date, the preamble of which recites
that--

The President of the United States of America and the First Consul of
the French Republic, in the name of the French people, having by a
treaty of this date terminated all difficulties relative to Louisiana
and established on a solid foundation the friendship which unites the
two nations, and being desirous, in compliance with the second and fifth
articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the
French Republic (30th September, 1800), to secure the payment of the
sums due by France to the citizens of the United States, have appointed
plenipotentiaries--

who agreed to the following among other articles:

ART. I. The debts due by France to citizens of the United States,
contracted before the 8th of Vendemiaire, ninth year of the French
Republic (30th September, 1800), shall be paid according to the
following regulations, with interest at 6 per cent, to commence from
the periods when the accounts and vouchers were presented to the
French Government.

ART. II. The debts provided for by the preceding article are those whose
result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present
convention, and which, with the interest, can not exceed the sum of
20,000,000 francs. The claims comprised in the said note which fall
within the exceptions of the following articles shall not be admitted
to the benefit of this provision.

* * * * *

ART. IV. It is expressly agreed that the preceding art