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 Vendemiaire, 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 9, (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. ARTICLE VI. And that the different questions which may arise under the preceding article may be fairly investigated, the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States shall name three persons, who shall act from the present and provisionally, and who shall have full power to examine, without removing the documents, all the accounts of the different claims already liquidated by the bureaus established for this purpose by the French Republic, and to ascertain whether they belong to the classes designated by the present convention and the principles established in it; or if they are not in one of its exceptions and on their certificate, declaring that the debt is due to an American citizen or his representative, and that it existed before the 8th Vendémiaire, 9th year, (30th September, 1800,) the debtor shall be entitled to an order on the Treasury of the United States, in the manner prescribed by the third article. ARTICLE VII. The same agents shall likewise have power, without removing the documents, to examine the claims which are prepared for verification, and to certify those which ought to be admitted by uniting the necessary qualifications, and not being comprised in the exceptions contained in the present convention. ARTICLE VIII. The same agents shall likewise examine the claims which are not prepared for liquidation, and certify in writing those which in their judgment ought to be admitted to liquidation. ARTICLE IX. In proportion as the debts mentioned in these articles shall be admitted, they shall be discharged with interest, at six per cent., by the Treasury of the United States. ARTICLE X. And that no debt which shall not have the qualifications above mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand may be admitted, the Commercial Agent of the United States at Paris, or such other agent as the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States shall think proper to nominate, shall assist at the operations of the bureaus, and co-operate in the examinations of the claims; and if this Agent shall be of opinion that any debt is not completely proved, or if he shall judge that it is not comprised in the principles of the fifth article above mentioned, and if, notwithstanding his opinion, the bureaus established by the French Government should think that it ought to be liquidated, he shall transmit his observations to the board established by the United States, who, without removing documents, shall make a complete examination of the debt and vouchers which support it, and report the result to the Minister of the United States. The Minister of the United States shall transmit his observations, in all such cases, to the Minister of the Treasury of the French Republic, on whose report the French Government shall decide definitively in every case. The rejection of any claim shall have no other effect than to exempt the United States from the payment of it, the French Government reserving to itself the right to decide definitively on such claim so far as it concerns itself. ARTICLE XI. Every necessary decision shall be made in the course of a year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no reclamation shall be admitted afterwards. ARTICLE XII. In case of claims for debts contracted by the Government of France with citizens of the United States since the 8th Vendémiaire, ninth year, (30th September, 1800,) not being comprised in this convention, may be pursued, and the payment demanded in the same manner as if it had not been made. ARTICLE XIII. The present convention shall be ratified in good and due form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months from the date of the signature of the Ministers Plenipotentiary, or sooner if possible. In faith of which, the respective Ministers Plenipotentiary have signed the above articles both in the French and English languages, declaring, nevertheless, that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and written in the French language; to which they have hereunto affixed their seals. Done at Paris, the tenth of Floréal, eleventh year of the French Republic, thirtieth April, 1803. [SEAL.] [SEAL.] [SEAL.] ROBT. R. LIVINGSTON. JAS. MONROE. BARBÉ MARBOIS. |