The ratifications of the treaty and conventions were exchanged at Washington on the 21st of October 1803. On May 18, 1803, Livingston and Monroe signed a Appointment of Comcommission appointing James Mercer, of Virginia; missioners and Agent. Isaac Cox Barnet, of New Jersey, commercial agent of the United States at Antwerp; and William McClure, of Richmond, Virginia, as a board for the purpose of examining claims. On the 29th of June this commission was delivered to Mercer and Barnet, McClure being temporarily in England. Fulwar Skipwith, commercial agent of the United States at Paris, was appointed as agent under Article X. of the convention to assist in the examination of claims. sioners. Messrs. Mercer and Barnet held their first meeting Difficulties of Commis- on July 5, 1803, and recognized Nathaniel Cutting, of Massachusetts, as secretary of the board. Mr. McClure, whose stay in England was unexpectedly prolonged, took his seat at the board on the 1st of September 1803. His colleagues had already fallen into difficulties. On consideration of the convention they were of opinion that no final act could be performed by them in relation to the objects embraced by it until its ratification by the competent authorities of the United States; but, while this opinion precluded all definitive decisions on claims, they deemed themselves competent to adopt certain preparatory measures which would hasten the conclusion of their labors in the event of the convention being ratified. In attempting to do so, however, they encountered serious obstacles. The "Conjectural Note." The second article of the convention declared, as we have seen, that the debts intended to be provided for were those whose result was comprised in the conjectural note annexed to it. To the copy of the convention which the commissioners received no such note was annexed. A paper purporting to be a copy of the conjectural note was presented to them by the agent of the United States, with the statement that he had received it from one of the American ministers. In order, however, to obtain for the document an official sanction it was sent to Messrs. Livingston and Monroe. It was subsequently returned by the former as a true copy of the note intended by the convention. Examination of Docu ments. The next question that arose related to the examination of documents. The convention provided that the documents should not be removed from the bureaus of the French Government, in which they were deposited. The commissioners were therefore required to perform their labors in the French offices, where other documents were deposited and where other business of the French Government was daily transacted, or else to obtain authentic copies of the various papers which it is necessary to examine. Deeming it impossible properly to conduct their business in the public offices, they consulted the French authorities, who readily undertook to aid them in obtaining copies of such documents as were required. The performance of this work was, however, necessarily attended with delay. The next question which the commissioners were reClassification of Claims. quired to consider was the order in which the claims should be examined and decided. By the convention three classes of claims were designated, those that were "liquidated,” those that were "prepared for verification," and those that were "prepared for liquidation." Claims of the first class were the only ones in which the creditors were expressly entitled to an immediate order on the Treasury of the United States on the simple certificate of the commissioners that their claims came within the convention. The commissioners, therefore, directed the agent of the United States first to attend to that class of claims. Rules of Procedure. In accordance with this view, the commissioners on the 1st of August 1803 adopted the following rules: "BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE UNITED STATES, "Present: John Mercer. Isaac Cox Barnet. "Ordered, That the following Rules and Regulations relative to the proceedings of this Board, be inserted in the Register of its transactions, viz: "1. The Claims which were at the French Bureaux for liquidation or Settlement on the 30th of April 1803, shall be the first to be examined and decided upon by this Board. "2. The decisions to be made upon the above-mentioned Claims shall be in point of priority according to their respective places on the conjectural note annexed to the Convention-unless circumstances, should occur in particular Cases, which, in the opinion of the Board may justify their delaying to give an immediate decision; in which case they will proceed to consider some other Case next upon the said Conjectural Note. "3. In every case to be determined, a summary statement of it drawn from all the material evidence in the possession of this Board, shall immediately precede their final decision and make a part of the Record in the Register. 4. No determination shall be finally made against any claim without giving a reasonable notice to the Claimant, his Attorney, Agent or Representative, if he is known to be in Paris. "5. In every case where the claim shall be rejected by the Board, a copy of their opinion as stated upon this Register, shall be furnished to the Claimant, his Attorney, Agent or Representative, if he is n Paris, and his original papers, if any, in the possession of the Board, remitted to him, his Receipt for the same being first given to the Secretary to be by him filed among the Papers of this office. "6. In every case of rejection, a similar copy may be sent to the proper Department of the French Government if required by them. 7. When any claim shall be admitted, the following shall be the form of the Certificate to be signed by the Commissioners concurring in opinion, countersigned by the Secretary and by him delivered to the Minister of the United States; each Certificate to be numbered. This form may be so varied as to suit the character of the Person in whose name it shall issue, as Principal or Representative: "The Undersigned Commissioners do certify to the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, that the claim of an American Citizen and Creditor of the French Republic, having been fully examined by them, is found to belong to the Classes of claims designated in the Convention above referred to, and embraced by the principles and qualifications established in it; and that the said (or who appears to have been regularly constituted his agent, attorney, representative or assignee, as the case may be)-is entitled to receive from the United States, under the said Convention, the sum of as principal, and the sum of as interest now due upon, and in full of, the said claim. "Given under their hands, and the seal of this Commission, at Paris, this day of "8. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a list of all the certificates by him delivered to the Minister of the United States, designating in the said list the number of each Certificate, its date, the party's name, as principal, agent, attorney, representative, or assignee, as expressed in the certificate, in whose name it has issued, the principal sum and interest for which it is granted, and the day of the month when by him delivered to the Minister of the United States. 9. When either of the Commissioners shall dissent from the opinion of the other two, he shall have the right to state upon the register, his reasons, to be signed by him. "10. Should it so happen that either Commissioner should feel himself interested in any claim that may come before the Board, he shall be at liberty to decline giving an opinion upon it; and in such case his absence from the Board may be stated in the Register, nor shall such Commissioner be required to sign the Certificate to be sent to the Minister when the Debt is admitted; or the copy of the opinion to be delivered to the claimant, when the claim shall be rejected. "11. The Secretary will keep a list of all the claims arranged according to the respective dates at which the papers relating to them were presented to this Board by the French Department. "He will also keep a regular account of the Expenses of the Board, taking and filing receipts for all sums paid for that purpose. "12. The Board will meet every day, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, from the hours of eleven in the morning till four in the afternoon whenever there shall be any case undecided before them. "JOHN MERCER. "I. Cox BARNET. "N. B.-The documents being made a part of the Record in each case, has superceded the necessity of the Rule No. 3."1 tions. The investigations of Mr. Skipwith disclosed the Erroneous Classifica- fact that the terms of the convention, and especially the phrases "liquidated," "prepared for liquidation," and "prepared for verification," bore no relation to the actual state of the claims in the French offices, and furnished no guide to the order in which they should be examined. Under these circumstances the commissioners deemed it their duty to establish some principle for the investigation of claims, whose operation would be uniform and just; and with that view they determined that the claims on the conjectural note ought first to be examined and decided upon, according to the dates at which they respectively originated. This opinion was concurred in by Mr. McClure, when he took his seat at the board; and on the 17th of August the commissioners made the following order: "17TH AUGUST 1803. "The Board having reconsidered the 2nd Article of the Rules and Regulations for its proceedings adopted under date the 1st Current as recorded Page 33, and finding by the Report of the Agent of the United States (above recorded) that the Council of Liquidation of the French Government do not consider any of the outstanding American claims as definitively liquidated, although a certain number of them have been thus denominated heretofore, as appears by the Conjectural note' alluded to in the 2nd article of the Convention under which this Board was formed; therefore “Ordered, That the 2nd article of the Rules and Regulations above mentioned be repealed so far as it relates to the order in which it was proposed to decide on the claims; and that the said claims shall in future be examined and determined upon according to the respective years in which they originated against the French Government. MSS. Dept. of State. Difficulties in Examining Claims. The difficulties of the board in respect of the examination of claims did not end with the promulgation of this new rule. No dates were entered in the conjectural note, and in order to carry the rule into effect the agent of the United States was requested to obtain from the French office a statement of the dates at which the claims respectively arose. While this statement was being prepared authenticated vouchers in certain claims belonging to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth years of the republic were presented to the board, with information that they were arranged in conformity with the principle which had been established, and that they contained the whole number of claims (independently of the embargo claims) in the first four years. These claims embraced one in the first year, four in the second, twelve in the third, and seven in the fourth. Having no reason to doubt the correctness of this information, the two commissioners, on the 26th of August, directed the liquidation of one in the second year, four in the third, and three in the fourth, intending to suspend any further proceedings on them, and to withhold their final certificate, until the ratification of the convention by the United States was known. But, by the next communication of documents from the French department, it appeared that the first information was entirely incorrect; that there were various other claims belonging to the same years as those that had been presented; and that the true number could not be ascertained until the general statement had been received. A majority of the board, therefore, the third commissioner having taken his seat, determined to confine its attention to the examination of documents, without directing the liquidation of any other claims until, by the receipt of the general statement of dates, the board should be enabled to arrange the conjectural note, and to examine and decide upon the claims according to the principle which had been established. When the statement of dates was received the claims on the conjectural note were arranged under the several years in which they originated. This arrangement, however, did not enable the board to proceed with its examination, since the documents requisite for that purpose had not been fully received. Moreover, many claims were reported upon by the agent of the United States, which were not embraced in the conjectural note. No prize cases were found upon it. Whether the claims included in it would, with interest, consume the whole fund it was impossible to say; but the commissioners declared that they would not consider it their duty to direct any liquidations to be made beyond that sum.1 Commissioners' Controversy with Livingston. While the commissioners were thus struggling on they became engaged in an acrimonious correspondence with Chancellor Livingston. Livingston had set his heart on the early liquidation of the claims, and this desire was greatly intensified by the importunities of the claimants. By the convention, the commissioners were to act "from the present and provisionally." The exchange of the ratifications of the convention took place at Washington 'Messrs. Barnet and McClure to Mr. Madison, Sec. of State, December 26, 1803, MSS. Dept. of State. Am. State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 178–180. on the 21st of October 1803, and the President's approval of the persons appointed as commissioners was made known in a letter from Madison to Livingston on the 9th of the following month. Meanwhile Livingston had been complaining of the delays of the board, and urging it finally to decide the claims as from time to time they came before it. He had informed the French Government that he would probably begin to draw in September, and he expressed to the commissioners his surprise that, if they doubted their power to act until the ratification of the treaty, they should have accepted the places which they held. The commissioners replied that since their appointment they had been constantly occupied in collecting papers to aid them in the examination of the claims; and they declared that they would execute the convention finally so soon as it became the supreme law of the United States, with the sanction of the competent authorities of that government, to whom alone they were responsible. This declaration disclosed a radical difference of opinion between the commissioners and the American minister as to the former's powers, not only before, but after the ratification of the convention. While the commissioners maintained that they were to be guided in their action solely by their own views of the meaning of the convention, Livingston thought that they should act in cooperation with him, and defer to his construction, at any rate where it coincided with that of the French Government. When Livingston demanded of them whether they would, "in every case, adhere to the sense" which they had "put upon the convention, whatever may be the decisions of the French Government in concurrence with the wish expressed by the President," they replied: "Our answer is that we will adhere, in every instance, to the sense which we have put upon the convention, except where the changes produced by the French Government, as explained above, shall alter its character in conjunction with the wishes of the American Administration, conveyed to us according to the principles of the Federal Constitution." On receiving this declaration, Livingston declared that the commissioners "must be removed." The commissioners, however, were not removed, nor would it be just to say that in all their positions they were wrong. Their differences with Livingston were sometimes due to the fact that the latter, for the purpose of accomplishing the end for which the convention was designed, was willing to go further than the commissioners in what might be called the creative interpretation of it. Defectiveness of the Though Livingston took to himself some credit for the framing of the convention, saying that he had drawn it "with particular attention," it was in reality hastily, loosely, and inaccurately constructed. The convention, as he drew it, did not, says Livingston, "exactly meet with Mr. Monroe's ideas, to whom the subject was new. He produced some modifications, and these Mr. Livingston to Messrs. Mercer, Barnet, and McClure, October 25, 1803. (MSS. Dept. of State.) An extract from this letter is printed in American State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 177. 3 2 Commissioners to Livingston, October 29, 1803. (MSS. Dept. of State.) Livingston to Madison, May 4, 1804, Am. State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 198, 195, 194. |