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FRANCE, 1803.

TREATY FOR THE CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES.

Concluded April 30, 1803. 21, 1803.

Ratifications exchanged at Washington, October
Proclaimed October 21, 1803.

"The President of the United States of America, and the First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of the French people, desiring to remove all source of misunderstanding relative to objects of discussion mentioned in the second and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendémiaire, an 9 (30th September, 1800) relative to the rights claimed by the United States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid, the 27th of October, 1795, between his Catholic Majesty and the said United States, and willing to strengthen the union and friendship which at the time of the said convention was happily re-established between the two nations, have respectively named their Plenipotentiaries, to wit: .

ARTICLE I." Whereas by article the third of the treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso, the 9th Vendémiaire, an 9 (1st October, 1800), between the First Consul of the French Republic and His Catholic Majesty, it was agreed as follows: 'His Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part, to cede to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other States.' And whereas, in pursuance of the treaty, and particularly of the third article, the French Republic has an incontestable title to the domain and to the possession of the said territory: The First Consul of the French Republic desiring to give to the United States a strong proof of his friendship, doth hereby cede to the said United States, in the name of the French Republic, forever and in full sovereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and appurtenances,

as fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the French Republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty, concluded with His Catholic Majesty."

ARTICLE II.-"In the cession made by the preceding article are included the adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, barracks and other edifices which are not private property. The archives, papers and documents, relative to the domain and sovereignty of Louisiana and its dependences, will be left in the possession of the commissaries of the United States, and copies will be afterwards given in due form to the magistrates and municipal officers of such of the said papers and documents as may be necessary to them."

ARTICLE III.-"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they profess."

FRANCE, 1803.

CONVENTION FOR PAYMENT OF SIXTY MILLIONS OF FRANCS BY THE UNITED STATES.

ARTICLE I. "The Government of the United States engages to pay to the French Government in the manner specified in the following article, the sum of sixty millions of francs, independent of the sum which shall be fixed by another convention for the payment of the debts due by France to citizens of the United States.

ARTICLE II." For the payment of the sum of sixty millions of francs, mentioned in the preceding article, the United States shall create a stock of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, bearing an interest of six per cent. per annum payable half yearly in London, Amsterdam, or Paris, amounting by the half year, to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand

five hundred dollars, according to the proportions which shall be determined by the French Government to be paid at either place; the principal of the said stock to be re-imbursed at the Treasury of the United States, in annual payments of not less than three millions of dollars each, of which the first payment shall commence fifteen years after the date of the exchange of ratifications: this stock shall be transferred to the Government of France, or to such person or persons as shall be authorized to receive it, in three months at most after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, and after Louisiana shall be taken possession of in the name of the Government of the United States.

"It is further agreed, that if the French Government should be desirous of disposing of the said stock to receive the capital in Europe, at shorter terms, that its measures for that purpose shall be taken so as to favor, in the greatest degree possible, the credit of the United States, and to raise to the highest price the said stock."

FRANCE, 1803.

CONVENTION FOR PAYMENT OF SUMS DUE BY FRANCE TO CITIZENS OF the United States.

ARTICLE I." The debts due by France to citizens of the United States, contracted before the 8th of Vendémiaire, ninth year of the French Republic (30th September, 1800), shall be paid according to the following regulations, with interest at six. per cent., to commence from the period when the accounts and vouchers were presented to the French Government."

ARTICLE II. "The debts provided for by the preceding article are those whose result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present Convention, and which, with the interest, cannot exceed the sum of twenty millions of francs. The claims comprised in the said note which fall within the exceptions of the following articles, shall not be admitted to the benefit of this provision."

ARTICLE III. "The principal and interests of the said debts. shall be discharged by the United States, by orders drawn by

their Minister Plenipotentiary on their treasury; these orders shall be payable sixty days after the exchange of ratifications of the treaty and the conventions signed this day, and after possession shall be given of Louisiana by the commissaries of France to those of the United States."

ARTICLE IV. “It is expressly agreed that the preceding articles shall comprehend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the United States, who have been and are yet creditors of France, for supplies, for embargoes, and prizes made at sea, in which the appeal has been properly lodged within the time mentioned in the said convention, 8th Vendémiaire, ninth year (30th September, 1800). "

ARTICLE V." The preceding articles shall apply only, 1st, to captures of which the council of prizes shall have ordered restitution, it being well understood that the claimant cannot have recourse to the United States, otherwise than he might have had to the Government of the French Republic, and only in case of insufficiency of the captors; 2d, the debts mentioned in the said fifth article of the convention contracted before the 8th Vendémiaire, an 9th, (30th September, 1800), the payment of which has been heretofore claimed of the actual Government of France, and for which the creditors have a right to the protection of the United States; the said fifth article does not comprehend prizes whose condemnation has been or shall be confirmed: it is the express intention of the contracting parties not to extend the benefit of the present convention to reclamations of American citizens, who shall have established houses of commerce in France, England or other countries than the United States, in partnership with foreigners, and who by that reason and the nature of their commerce ought to be regarded as domiciliated in the places where such houses exist. All agreements and bargains concerning merchandise, which shall not be the property of American citizens, are equally excepted from the benefit of the said Convention, saving, however, to such persons their claims in like manner as if this Treaty had not been made."

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FRANCE, 1822.

CONVENTION OF NAVIGATION AND COMMERCE.

Concluded June 24, 1822. Ratification exchanged at Washington, February 12, 1823. Proclaimed February 12, 1823.

ARTICLE I.—“ Articles of the growth, produce or manufacture, of the United States, imported into France in vessels of the United States, shall pay an additional duty, not exceeding twenty francs per ton of merchandise, over and above the duties paid on the like articles, also of the growth, produce or manufacture, of the United States, when imported in French vessels."

ARTICLE II.—“ Articles of the growth, produce or manufacture, of France, imported into the United States in French vessels, shall pay an additional duty, not exceeding three dollars and seventy-five cents per ton of merchandise, over and above the duties collected upon the like articles, also of the growth, produce or manufacture of France, when imported in vessels of the United States."

ARTICLE III.—“No discriminating duty shall be levied upon the productions of the soil or industry of France, imported in French bottoms into the ports of the United States for transit or re-exportation: nor shall any such duties be levied upon the productions of the soil or industry of the United States imported in vessels of the United States into the ports of France for transit or re-exportation."

ARTICLE V. "The duties of tonnage, light-money, pilotage, port charges, brokerage and all other duties upon foreign shipping, over and above those paid by the national shipping in the two countries respectively, other than those specified in articles I and II of the present convention, shall not exceed in France, for vessels of the United States, five francs per ton of the vessels American register: nor for vessels of France in the United States, ninety-four cents per ton of the vessels' French passport."

By ARTICLE VII. the treaty was to be in force for two years,

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