all have no other effect than to exempt
the United States from the payment of it, the French Government
reserving to itself the right to decide definitively on such claim so
far as it concerns itself.

Now, from the provisions of the treaties thus collated the following
deductions undeniably follow, namely:

First. Neither the second article of the convention of 1800, as it
originally stood, nor the retrenchment of that article, nor the proviso
in the ratification by the First Consul, nor the action of the Senate of
the United States thereon, was regarded by either France or the United
States as the renouncement of any claims of American citizens against
France.

Second. On the contrary, in the treaties of 1803 the two Governments
took up the question precisely where it was left on the day of the
signature of that of 1800, without suggestion on the part of France that
the claims of our citizens were excluded by the retrenchment of the
second article or the note of the First Consul, and proceeded to make
ample provision for such as France could be induced to admit were justly
due, and they were accordingly discharged in full, with interest, by the
United States in the stead and behalf of France.

Third. The United States, not having admitted in the convention of
1800 that they were under any obligations to France by reason of the
abrogation of the treaties of 1778 and 1788, persevered in this view of
the question by the tenor of the treaties of 1803, and therefore had no
such national obligation to discharge, and did not, either in purpose
or in fact, at any time undertake to discharge themselves from any such
obligation at the expense and with the property of individual citizens
of the United States.

Fourth. By the treaties of 1803 the United States obtained from France
the acknowledgment and payment, as part of the indemnity for the cession
of Louisiana, of claims of citizens of the United States for spoliations,
so far as France would admit her liability in the premises; but even then
the United States did not relinquish any claim of American citizens not
provided for by those treaties; so far from it, to the honor of France be
it remembered, she expressly reserved to herself the right to reconsider
any rejected claims of citizens of the United States.

Fifth. As to claims of citizens of the United States against France,
which had been the subject of controversy between the two countries
prior to the s