During this extended course of time, embracing periods eminently
favorable for satisfying all just demands upon the Government, the
claims embraced in this bill met with no favor in Congress beyond
reports of committees in one or the other branch. These circumstances
alone are calculated to raise strong doubts in respect to these claims,
more especially as all the information necessary to a correct judgment
concerning them has been long before the public. These doubts are
strengthened in my mind by the examination I have been enabled to give
to the transactions in which they originated.
The bill assumes that the United States have become liable in these
ancient transactions to make reparation to the claimants for injuries
committed by France. Nothing was obtained for the claimants by
negotiation; and the bill assumes that the Government has become
responsible to them for the aggressions of France. I have not been able
to satisfy myself of the correctness of this assumption, or that the
Government has become in any way responsible for these claims.
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