SIR, Extracts-Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Rives. Department of State, Your despatches to No. 38, inclusively, have been received at this department. Conformably with the existing state of things in France, I have the pleasure to transmit to you, herewith, the credential letter of the president accrediting you to the new government of that country, in the character of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States, addressed to his M. C. Majesty, Louis Philippe, king of the French, &c. &c. It is greatly to be regretted that circumstances should have prevent ed you, at the time, from taking advantage of, or Prince Polignac from giving effect to, the favourable dispositions evinced by him towards the close of his carcer as minister of foreign affairs under the late king, with regard to the claims of our citizens upon the government of France, for bringing that important concern to a satisfac. tory conclusion: but it is confidently expected by the president, that, under dispositions equally, or still more favourable, upon the part of the present government, that that important business will be speedily and satisfactorily terminated. You will accordingly press the subject upon that government by all the arguments and suggestions which you know so well how to employ advantageously to that end; and, in doing this, you will, if you should deem it prudent to present the subject in this point of view to its consideration, explicitly state that the known sympathies of the people of the United States, as far as they have been exemplified in the short space of time that has elapsed since intelligence was received here of the establishment of that government upon the ruins of the late one, are universally and enthusiastically in favour of that change, and of the principle upon which it was effected; that in proportion to the extent of these sentiments, and of the degree of their confidence in the enlightened wisdom and equitable councils of those who have been called to the administration of that government, their disappointment would be so much increased by further unnecessary procrastination in the adjustment of the claims referred to. ** * WILLIAM C. RIVES, Esq., &c. &c. &c. Extracts-Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Rives. Department of State, Washington, 16th Oct. 1830. Sir, Your despatch No. 40 has been received. The assurances of the king, although general in their terms, when taken in connexion with the confidence which the president reposes in the justice and libe rality of his majesty, and the reli. ance he places upon the sympathies of regenerated France, inspire him with a lively hope that the long standing and vexatious subject of our reclamations will now be speedily and satisfactorily adjusted. It is the wish of the president to take upon himself all the responsibility in the negotiation which can be assumed without endangering either its success abroad, or that of his exertions to bring it to a conclusion which will prove satisfactory to those of our citizens who are directly and individually interested in its results. It is in pursuance of this disposition, that, in regard to our claims upon France, the instructions already given to you are far more specific than any which have heretofore proceeded from this government upon the same subject. The only restraint which, in this regard, he feels it to be his duty to respect, arises from the consideration that if, which is now more probable than ever, the settlement should ultimately take the form of the allowance of a gross sum by France, the various rights and claims to precedence which may be urged by our own citizens, will have to be settled by congress, either directly, or through the agency of a tribunal to be organized by them for that purpose; and from the expediency that that body should, in the discharge of this duty, be left at liberty to exercise a free discretion, as far as practicable, unfettered by any opinions previously and unnecessarily expressed by the executive in the course of the negotiations, as to what will, in that event, become conflicting claims advanced by our citizens. Upon a careful re-examination and re-consideration of the instructions which have been already given to you, as well in regard to that por. tion of the claims which is for property not condemned, as those of all other descriptions, it is found that they are sufficiently full and explicit to enable you to carry into effect the wishes of this government in this respect, as far as the dispo sitions of that of France may allow you to do. If, however, upon a review of the subject, you should still think otherwise, and so inform this department, such further directions as you may desire will be promptly and explicitly given. It is not apparent from your last despatch whether you expect that the proposition submitted by you to Prince Polignac, in regard to the reciprocal reduction of duties upon the wines of France and the cottons of the United States, will again come up for consideration. The president has, however, submitted your views upon that subject to an intelligent merchant and practised statesman for his opinion, and, when it is received, I shall communicate further with you upon that point. We hope, however, without at all meaning to intimate an opinion un favourable to the expediency or fit. ness of the measure referred to, that you will be able to satisfy the French government of the injustice of continuing the use which has heretofore been made of the con struction given by it to the eighth article of the Lousiana treaty, and of the superior fitness of an inde pendent adjustment of the matter of reclamations. I have already alluded to the increased confidence of the people of this coun try in the justice and amity of the present ruling power in France, and to their expectations, conse. quent thereon, in regard to the speedy and liberal settlement of our claims. This government is well aware, that, in this respect, due weight is not given to the ob stacles which you will yet have to Department of State, Washington, 8th November, 1830. SIR, I received some time ago, and laid before the president, your despatches Nos. 28 and 30, with their enclosures; and, according to the intimation in my despatch to you of the 16th of October, I now proceed to give you, under direction of the president, such instructions as are called for by those despatches, upon the propositions submitted by you to Prince Polignac, in your note to him of the 20th of May, a copy of which note came subjoined to the first mentioned of them. There would be cause of regret and disappointment, if the French government should still persist in connecting with the negotiation for a settlement of the claim of our citizens upon it a negotiation concerning its pretensions under the eighth article of the Louisiana convention; thus keep. ing united two subjects of totally distinct characters, and bearing no sort of affinity to each other: one exclusively and entirely appertaining to bona fide private claims of our citizens for the proceeds of a large amount of property, many years ago wrested from them in violation of all acknowledged principles of public law, under thority of the then existing government of France, and carried into the treasury, or applied to the public purposes of that government; and the other appertaining to a national contract, in the interpretation Y au of which there may exist an honest difference of opinion between the parties; the first looking to the recovery and liquidation of uncontroverted and incontrovertible private claims, the other to the establishment of a doubtful national one, about which the parties entertain an irreconcileable difference of opinion. If this, however, should prove to be the case, the president sees no objection to your concluding a convention with the French government upon the basis of the propositions contained in your note to Prince Polignac above referred to, stipulating a reciprocal and reasonable reduction of the duties upon French wines on their importation into the United States, taking proper care, however, that the stipulation for this reduction of duties does not conflict with our engagements to other nations, by which we are bound to impose no higher duties upon articles the produce of the soil or industry of those nations, than upon similar articles of other nations, when imported into the United States, and a correspondent reduction of the duties upon our cottons, when imported into France; but he would not be willing to con sent to a longer period than years for the continuance of such a convention, though there would be no objection to its containing a provision for the further continuance of it, indefinitely, unless one or other of the parties should give notice to the other, as in the case of the con vention with Prussia of the 1st of May, 1828, of its intention to arrest the operation of it. P. S. Since the foregoing was prepared, your despatches to No. 48, inclusively, have been received at this department. It is perceived with the deepest concern, from these despatches, particularly that numbered 43, that the new French government is actuated by a policy, with regard to the claims of our citizens, at variance with all the anticipa. tions entertained and cherished here upon the subject; that the mere amount of indemnities demandable, or of that which we might be will ing to accept in satisfaction of them, without reference to the justice or validity of the claims themselves, is now made an obstacle to their adjustment! You will take care to make that government acquainted with the extent of the disappointments which the president has already experienced in the multiplied postponements of that adjustment upon professedly other grounds than this, and that the avowal of such an one, in such a quarter, both surprises and disappoints him. M. V. B. WILLIAM C. RIVES, &c. &c. &c. SIR, Extract.-Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Rives. Department of State, Washington, 22d Dec., 1830. I took occasion in my despatch to you numbered 21, to acknowledge the receipt of your several communications to No. 49, inclusively, and to state that no time would be lost in making you acquainted with the views of the president respecting the various points to which the last of those communications more particularly refers. These have received his earnest attention, and, although we are not yet in possession of the promised answer of Count Molé to your note to him of the 25th Sep tember last, yet, the account giver by you of your interview with that minister, of the 15th October, is so far indicative of the sentiments then entertained by the French cabinet in relation to the pending negotiation respecting our claims on France, as to justify our anticipating the contents of the promised communi cation, by apprising you of the views of your government upon the subject, for the purpose of enabling you promptly to avail yourself of any favourable advance in the negotiation to bring it to a speedy and satisfactory termination. The hopes entertained by the president, that this desirable object will, without much longer delay, be accomplished, have been increased by the indications contained in your last despatches, of a disposition, on the part of the French government, to bring the negotiation to such a turn as will enable the parties to come to a final understanding upon all the points of controversy which have arisen in the course of their discus. sions upon the subject of claims. Although he does not flatter himself that the government of France is yet fully impressed with the jus tice of our demands in their whole extent, yet he cannot deny himself the satisfaction of believing that its professed desire of effecting an adjustment of this subject, will lead to some decisive step on its side in relation to it; and that the liberal priciples which now animate the French nation and her councils, will secure to the United States a fair hearing, and a just settlement of their demands. The first subject which recommends itself to our consideration, is the report presented by Count Molé to the king, and approved and signed by his majesty, the conclusions of which were submitted for your perusal. Of the character of that report, nothing can now be said, as its premises are yet unknown here; but the president considers, as an advance in the negotiation, the recommendation contained in the conclusions of that report, that the negotiation be resumed with you. With respect to the commission of investigation, to consist of members of the two chambers, the formation of which is likewise recommended by the conclusions of the report referred to, the president cannot regard it in any other light than as a preliminary step on the part of the French government to arrive at a more correct understanding of the whole subject, nor consider its decisions as precluding any portion of the claims of our citizens to indemnity, or affecting the obligations of France to do justice to their demands. The president, ever disposed to listen, and, as far as it is competent for the executive branch of the government, to do full justice to any fair demands which may be preferred against it, sees with satisfaction the proposed reference to the same commission of the alleged claims which the French government has, at various times in the course of the negotiations, brought forward against the United States, as an offset to those of our citizens. It is hoped that, after such an investigation, that government will, in a spirit of justice, discriminate between those which can in its opinion be sustained upon principle, and those resting upon grounds which the United States cannot admit; and that the pretensions of France, when thus separated from all matters foreign to the subject, will, like those of the United States, present simple questions, on which it will be more easy for the two governments to arrive at an amicable understanding. Owing to the uncertain character and inadequacy of the information possessed by this government respecting the claims which it may be the intention of that of France to submit to the investigation of the proposed commission, and to bring forward on the renewal of the negotiation, it is found impracticable to state precisely what views it will ultimately take of them: some of these claims being now mentioned for the first time, and finding us entirely unprovided with the means of ascertaining even their general character. If by "claims for supplies," he meant that which has several times been presented to congress in the name of the heirs of Caron de Beaumarchais, its official presentation by the French government to the executive of the United States, before whom it never has been presented in that form, would undoubtedly claim in its behalf that degree of attention, on the part of this government, to which all demands emanating from a similar source must ever be entitled; and if, upon examination by a competent authority, it should be found to constitute a fair claim upon the United States, the president would feel it his duty to consent to its being em |