CONGRESS. (FBENCH SPOLIATION CLAIMS.) 



243 



by the French prior to July 31, 1801, was taken 

 up in the Senate and passed, as follows : 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represent- 

 atives of the United States of America in Congress 

 assembled, That such citizens of the United States, or 

 their legal representatives, as had valid claims to in- 

 demnity upon the French Government arising out ot 

 illegal captures, detentions,, seizures, condemnations, 

 ana confiscations prior to the ratification of the con- 

 vention between the United States and the French 

 Republic concluded on the 30th day of September, 

 1800, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 

 31st day of July following, may apply by petition to the 

 Court of Claims, within two years from the passage 

 of this act, as hereinafter provided : Provided, That 

 the provisions of this act shall not extend to such 

 claims as were embraced in the convention between 

 the United States and the French Republic concluded 

 on the 30th day of April, 1803 ; nor to such claims 

 growing out of the acts of France as were allowed 

 and paid, in whole or in part, under the provisions of 

 the treaty between the United States and Spain con- 

 cluded on the 22d day of February, 1819 ; nor to such 

 claims as were allowed, in whole or in part, under the 

 provisions of the treaty between the United States and 

 France concluded on the 4th day of July, 1831. 



SECTION 2. That the court is hereby authorized to 

 make all needful rules and regulations, not contra- 

 vening the laws of the land or the provisions of this 

 act, for executing the provisions hereof. 



SEC. 3. That the court shall examine and determine 

 the validity and amount of all the claims included 

 within the description above mentioned, together 

 with their present ownership, and, if by assignee, the 

 data of the assignment, with the consideration paid 

 therefor: Provided, That in the course of their pro- 

 ceedings they shall receive all suitable testimony on 

 oath or affirmation, and all other proper evidence, 

 historic and documentary, concerning the same ; and 

 they shall decide upon the validity ot said claims ac- 

 cording to the rules of law, municipal and interna- 

 tional, and the treaties of the United States applica- 

 ble to the same, and shall report all such conclusions 

 of fact and law as in their judgment may affect the 

 liability of the United States therefor. 



SEC. 4. That the court shall cause notice of all 

 petitions presented under this act to be served on the 

 Attorney-General of the United States, who shall bo 

 authorized, by himself or his assistant, to examine 

 witnesses, to cause testimony to be taken, to have 

 access to all testimony taken under. this act, and to 

 be heard by the court. He shall resist all claims pre- 

 sented under this act by all proper legal defenses. 



SEO. 5. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of 

 State to procure, as soon as possible after the passage 

 of this act, through the American minister at Paris 

 or otherwise, all such evidence and documents relat- 

 ing to the claims above mentioned as can be obtained 

 from abroad ; which, together with the like evidence 

 and documents on file in the Department of State, or 

 which may be filed in the Department, may be used 

 before the court by the claimants interested therein or 

 by the United States, but the same shall not be re- 

 moved from the files of the court ; and after the hear- 

 ings are closed the records of the proceedings of the 

 courts and documents produced before them shall be 

 deposited in the Department of State. 



SEO. 6. That on the first Monday of December in 

 each year the court shall report to Congress, for final 

 action, the facts found by it, and its conclusions in all 

 cases which it has disposed of and not previously re- 

 ported. Such finding and report of the court shall 

 be taken to be merely advisory as to the law and facts 

 found, and shall not conclude either the claimant or 

 Congress ; and all claims not finally presented to said 

 court within the period of two years limited by this 

 act shall be forever barred ; and nothing in this act 

 shall be construed as committing the United States to 

 the payment of any such claims. 



Jan. 14, 1885, the measure was taken up in 

 the House and passed. In the debate which it 

 occasioned, Mr. Phelps made this brief expla- 

 nation of the tedious history of the claims: 

 " This is certainly a piece of ancient history, 

 but none the worse for its age, if it be a true 

 piece. We are now, at the end of the nine- 

 teenth century, providing for the debts of the 

 eighteenth. If they are just, this delay is the 

 strongest reason for our action ; and that they 

 are just I honestly believe, and to that conclu- 

 sion public opinion has at last settled. Fortu- 

 nately, the origin of these claims is so simple 

 that the obscurity of the past can not becloud it. 



" In our Revolutionary War we very gener- 

 ously but very foolishly guaranteed to France 

 the security of her West Indian power. When 

 the war grew fierce between France and Eng- 

 land, we of course did not make good our guar- 

 antee. We could not; so we were not to 

 blame for this. 



"But we went further: we said we would 

 not, and in an official document we declared that 

 our status should be one of absolute neutrality 

 between the two contesting powers. For this 

 we were to blame, and the French marine, 

 hostile before to the English-speaking sailors 

 who came from Great Britain, grew hostile to 

 the English-speaking sailors from America. 

 In their fury they set out on a career of de- 

 struction against every craft that was manned 

 by Anglo-Saxon men. They destroyed many 

 merchant- vessels. The owners of these are 

 the claimants in this case. Their Government 

 promptly demanded redress of the French Re- 

 public. We talked of $20,000,000. We were 

 met by a counter-claim of two hundred and 

 eighty millions damage which the French Re- 

 public had suffered because we had broken 

 our treaty of guarantee. 



" Twenty millions against two hundred and 

 eighty millions! The gentleman from Wis- 

 consin would have hesitated. Not so our com- 

 missioners. They jumped at the bargain, and 

 were too happy to call it quits. And their 

 treaty was ratified more quickly than will be 

 any of those now pending in the Senate. 



" By this convention the United States be- 

 came the debtor in place of France to all who 

 suffered from French spoliation. Nor did 

 these claimants sleep on their claims. They 

 followed down the centuries I beg pardon, 

 the century, although they may need to follow 

 down the centuries. They followed the differ- 

 ent Congresses down the century, and got 

 what? Forty reports, of which thirty-eight 

 were favorable and the other two decidedly 

 unfavorable. They got committed in the re- 

 ports which they prepared the greatest law- 

 yers of the age Webster, Clayton, Choate, 

 Everett, Sumner, Gushing, each preparing one 

 or more reports indorsing the legality of the 

 case. 



" But these waking claimants got no money. 

 It is time now that they did ; and our commit- 

 tee to-day are taking a first step, not a long 



