Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

576 ABRIDGMENT OF THE SENATE.] French Spoliations prior to 1800. [JAueARY, 1835. of the treaty of 1800, it seems to me that the war, enabled them to assume a position of strict duty of endeavoring to protect the commerce and unqualified neutrality. of the Union; of asserting the rights, public This quasi war had given rise to direct taxes, and individual, and maintaining them. against excises, and loans, to increased armies and naforeign powers, were duly respected and ob- vies. The whole community were made to bear served. The means of fulfilling that duty were large contributions to maintain our neutral prudently selected, diligently prosecuted, and rights, including redress for injuries which are faithfully conducted. If those means did not the objects of this bill. Having done so much, command the full measure of protection and the obligations of duty and regard for the priindemnity for injuries inflicted by foreign pow- vate rights of our citizens involved in those ers, the fault is not with our Government. Our measures were fulfilled. Individual rights and negotiations were conducted with very great interests are held in subjection to the common ability. Our military and naval establishments good. No citizen has the right to require his were increased, munitions of war were provid- Government to prosecute his claims upon a ed, the physical powers of the country were put foreign Government to open war. That is a in requisition, and the sinews of war were pro- question of policy and regard for the general vided. If our rights were not completely and welfare. The extremities of the commonwealth fully protected, if full compensation to our citi- are unanswerable exceptions to all sorts of prizens for wrongs committed was not obtained, vate rights and privileges. It is a contradiction the failure must be attributed to the peculiar to pretend to be a citizen under the protection temper of the times, to the gigantic struggles of a Government, and yet to claim a right and peculiar character and desolations of this wholly inconsistent with the common safety. wide-spread warfare. If the efforts of the Whatever losses these claimants have susAmerican Government did not obtain success, tained, they flow from the injuries inflicted by they deserved it. If our negotiators, strength- a foreign Government. The principles of moral ened by our preparations by sea and land, by jurisprudence and politics make a distinction non-intercourse, by the maritime war, by the between the rights of a citizen when his properthunders of our cannon, with the capture of ty is taken by his own, and when taken by a eighty-three French armed vessels, could not foreign Government. In the first case, the citicompel France to terms satisfactory, in all re- zen has a perfect right to demand, and have, of spects, to our desires, there is no just cause of his own Government, compensation for the loss; complaint against our Government as having and this obligation subsists until payment is done too little; the public sentiment of that made. Nor is the State acquit by present inaday was, the Government had done too much. bility; whenever she possesses the means, the The United States had proceeded so far in pros- claim must be respected and paid. But for ecution of satisfaction for these claims, and damages caused by a foreign Power, no right for protecting our maritime rights, that a single accrues to the citizen to demand and have comadvance beyond would have plunged them into pensation from his own Government. In such the open and general war then raging upon case the sovereign ought to interpose, as far as the European continent and upon the ocean. the situation of affairs, and the common interAll Europe was convulsed; republican France, ests and safety will permit, to aid the citizen in with gigantic strength, invigorated by a devo- demanding and receiving satisfaction from such tion to liberty, was contending with the coali- foreign Power. The Government ought to show tion of the most formidable powers and poten- an equitable regard for such suffering of the tates. In this mighty warfare ancient laws citizen; but the extent to which that regard and usages respecting the rights of neutrals shall be indulged is a question of sound policy, were disregarded by the belligerents: new to be judged by the State. The right of the principles of maritime law were proclaimed. citizen in this behalf, belongs to the class of Great Britain and France each made war upon imperfect obligations. the rights of neutrals, for the purpose of weaken- When we consider the conduct of the Goving the resources of the adversary; even pro- ernment from 1793 down to the ratification of visions, belonging to neutrals, on board of neu- the treaty of 1800-the condition of the United tral vessels, were treated as articles contraband States, (not then recovered from the exhaustion of war, under a pretence of starving thirty of the Revolution,) the assiduity and good faith millions of Frenchmen into submission. The with which these claims were pressed upon the duration and issue of the war was then beyond consideration of the French Government, the the ken of mortals. It only terminated with want of success, the cause of that quasi war, the battle of Waterloo. The soundest policy, the great expenditures of the Government, the the best interests of the United States, public dangers of being drawn into the vortex of the sentiment, forbid them from proceeding to an European war as a belligerent, the great losses open and general war, which would have en- to flow from the community from persisting, dangered even our Union and independence. and the prospect then presented to the view of The councils of the United States preferred the' that generation-we may well conclude that treaty of 1800 to the hazards of the war, and the Government would have been well justified ratified it, which, putting an end to the quasi in abandoning these claims for the purpose of

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Title: Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.
Author: United States. Congress.
Canvas: Page 576
Publication: New York, [etc.]: D. Appleton and company [etc.]; 1857-61.
Subject terms: United States -- Politics and government

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Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856.

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