Volume III Part 24 (2/2)
The second article of the treaty of commerce between the United States and France says:
”The most christian king and the United States engage mutually, not to grant any particular favour to other nations in respect of commerce and navigation that shall not immediately become common to the other party, who shall enjoy the same favour freely, if the concession was freely made, or on allowing the same compensation if the concession was conditional.”
All the concessions, therefore, made to England by Jay's treaty are, through the medium of this second article in the pre-existing treaty, made to France, and become engrafted into the treaty with France, and can be exercised by her as a matter of right, the same as by England.
Jay's treaty makes a concession to England, and that unconditionally, of seizing naval stores in American s.h.i.+ps, and condemning them as contraband. It makes also a concession to England to seize provisions and _other articles_ in American s.h.i.+ps. _Other articles are all other articles_, and none but an ignoramus, or something worse, would have put such a phrase into a treaty. The condition annexed in this case is, that the provisions and other articles so seized, are to be paid for at a price to be agreed upon. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, as President, ratified this treaty after he knew the British Government had recommended an indiscriminate seizure of provisions and all other articles in American s.h.i.+ps; and it is now known that those seizures were made to fit out the expedition going to Quiberon Bay, and it was known before hand that they would be made. The evidence goes also a good way to prove that Jay and Grenville understood each other upon that subject. Mr. Pinckney,(1) when he pa.s.sed through France on his way to Spain, spoke of the recommencement of the seizures as a thing that would take place.
1 Gen. Thomas Pinckney, U. S. Minister to England.-- _Editor._
The French government had by some means received information from London to the same purpose, with the addition, that the recommencement of the seizures would cause no misunderstanding between the British and American governments. Grenville, in defending himself against the opposition in Parliament, on account of the scarcity of corn, said (see his speech at the opening of the Parliament that met October 29, 1795) that _the supplies for the Quiberon expedition were furnished out of the American s.h.i.+ps_, and all the accounts received at that time from England stated that those seizures were made under the treaty. After the supplies for the Quiberon expedition had been procured, and the expected success had failed, the seizures were countermanded; and had the French seized provision vessels going to England, it is probable that the Quiberon expedition could not have been attempted.
In one point of view, the treaty with England operates as a loan to the English government. It gives permission to that government to take American property at sea, to any amount, and pay for it when it suits her; and besides this, the treaty is in every point of view a surrender of the rights of American commerce and navigation, and a refusal to France of the rights of neutrality. The American flag is not now a neutral flag to France; Jay's treaty of surrender gives a monopoly of it to England.
On the contrary, the treaty of commerce between America and France was formed on the most liberal principles, and calculated to give the greatest encouragement to the infant commerce of America. France was neither a carrier nor an exporter of naval stores or of provisions.
Those articles belonged wholly to America, and they had all the protection in that treaty which a treaty could give. But so much has that treaty been perverted, that the liberality of it on the part of France, has served to encourage Jay to form a counter-treaty with England; for he must have supposed the hands of France tied up by her treaty with America, when he was making such large concessions in favour of England. The injury which Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton's administration has done to the character as well as to the commerce of America, is too great to be repaired by him. Foreign nations will be shy of making treaties with a government that has given the faithless example of perverting the liberality of a former treaty to the injury of the party with whom it was made.(1)
1 For an a.n.a.lysis of the British Treaty see Wharton's ”Digest of the International Law of the United States,” vol.
it, -- 150 a. Paine's a.n.a.lysis is perfectly correct.-- _Editor._.
In what a fraudulent light must Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton's character appear in the world, when his declarations and his conduct are compared together! Here follows the letter he wrote to the Committee of Public Safety, while Jay was negotiating in profound secrecy this treacherous treaty:
”George Was.h.i.+ngton, President of the United States of America, to the Representatives of the French people, members of the Committee of Public Safety of the French Republic, the great and good friend and ally of the United States.
”On the intimation of the wish of the French republic that a new Minister should be sent from the United States, I resolved to manifest my sense of the readiness with which _my_ request was fulfilled, [that of recalling Genet,] by immediately fulfilling the request of your government, [that of recalling Morris].
”It was some time before a character could be obtained, worthy of the high office of expressing the attachment of the United States to the happiness of our allies, _and drawing closer the bonds of our friends.h.i.+p_. I have now made choice of James Monroe, one of our distinguished citizens, to reside near the French republic, in quality of Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. He is instructed to bear to you our _sincere solicitude for your welfare, and to cultivate with teal the cordiality so happily subsisting between us_. From a knowledge of his fidelity, probity, and good conduct, I have entire confidence that he will render himself acceptable to you, and give effect to your desire of preserving and _advancing, on all occasions, the interest and connection of the two nations_. I beseech you, therefore, to give full credence to whatever he shall say to you on the part of the United States, and _most of all, when he shall a.s.sure you that your prosperity is an object of our affection_.
”And I pray G.o.d to have the French Republic in his holy keeping.
”G. Was.h.i.+ngton.”
Was it by entering into a treaty with England to surrender French property on board American s.h.i.+ps to be seized by the English, while English property on board American s.h.i.+ps was declared by the French treaty not to be seizable, _that the bonds of friends.h.i.+p between America and France were to be drawn the closer?_ Was it by declaring naval stores contraband when coming to France, whilst by the French treaty they were not contraband when going to England, that the _connection between France and America was to be advanced?_ Was it by opening the American ports to the British navy in the present war, from which ports the same navy had been expelled by the aid solicited from France in the American war (and that aid gratuitously given) (2) that the grat.i.tude of America was to be shewn, and the _solicitude_ spoken of in the letter demonstrated?
1 The italics are Paine's. Paine's free use of this doc.u.ment suggests that he possessed the confidence of the French Directory.--_Editor._
2 It is notable that Paine adheres to his old contention in his controversy with Deane. See vol. i., ch. aa of this work; and vol. i., ch. 9 of my ”Life of Paine.”--_Editor._.
As the letter was addressed to the Committee of Public Safety, Mr.
Was.h.i.+ngton did not expect it would get abroad in the world, or be seen by any other eye than that of Robespierre, or be heard by any other ear than that of the Committee; that it would pa.s.s as a whisper across the Atlantic, from one dark chamber to the other, and there terminate. It was calculated to remove from the mind of the Committee all suspicion upon Jay's mission to England, and, in this point of view, it was suited to the circ.u.mstances of the movement then pa.s.sing; but as the event of that mission has proved the letter to be hypocritical, it serves no other purpose of the present moment than to shew that the writer is not to be credited. Two circ.u.mstances serve to make the reading of the letter necessary in the Convention. The one was, that they who succeeded on the fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity; the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange conduct of Morris had occasioned in France.
When the British treaty, and the ratification of it by Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, was known in France, all further declarations from him of his good disposition as an ally and friend, pa.s.sed for so many cyphers; but still it appeared necessary to him to keep up the farce of declarations. It is stipulated in the British treaty, that commissioners are to report at the end of two years, on the case of _neutral s.h.i.+ps making neutral property_. In the mean time, neutral s.h.i.+ps do _not_ make neutral property, according to the British treaty, and they _do_ according to the French treaty. The preservation, therefore, of the French treaty became of great importance to England, as by that means she can employ American s.h.i.+ps as carriers, whilst the same advantage is denied to France. Whether the French treaty could exist as a matter of right after this clandestine perversion of it, could not but give some apprehensions to the partizans of the British treaty, and it became necessary to them to make up, by fine words, what was wanting in good actions.
An opportunity offered to that purpose. The Convention, on the public reception of Mr. Monroe, ordered the American flag and the French flags to be displayed unitedly in the hall of the Convention. Mr. Monroe made a present of an American flag for the purpose. The Convention returned this compliment by sending a French flag to America, to be presented by their Minister, Mr. Adet, to the American government. This resolution pa.s.sed long before Jay's treaty was known or suspected: it pa.s.sed in the days of confidence; but the flag was not presented by Mr. Adet till several months after the treaty had been ratified. Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton made this the occasion of saying some fine things to the French Minister; and the better to get himself into tune to do this, he began by saying the finest things of himself.
”Born, sir (said he) in a land of liberty; _having_ early learned its value; _having_ engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it; _having_, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent establishment in my own country; _my_ anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and _my_ best wishes are irresistibly excited, whenever, in any country, I see an oppressed people unfurl the banner of freedom.”
Mr. Was.h.i.+ngton, having expended so many fine phrases upon himself, was obliged to invent a new one for the French, and he calls them ”wonderful people!” The coalesced powers acknowledged as much.
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