A convention between the United States of America and the French Republic relative to the payment for Louisiana
4/30/1803
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Convention between the French Republic & the United States of AmericaThe President of the United States of America, and the First Consul of the French Republic, in the name of French People, having by a treaty of this date terminated all difficulties relative to Louisiana, and establishes, on a solid foundation the friendship which unites the two nations, and being serious compliance with the second and fifth Articles of the Convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 9th year of the French Republic, 30th Sept 1800, to secure the payment of the sum due by France to the citizens of the United States, have respectively nominates as Plenipotentiaries, that is to say the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of their Senate, Robert A. Livingston, Minister Plenipotentiary, & James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary & Envoy extraordinary of the said States, near the Government of the French Republic, and the First Consul, in the name of the French People, the citizen Francis Barbe Marbois, Minister of the Public, Treasury, who, after having exchanged their full powers have agree to the following articles.
Art. 1st.
The debts owe by France to citizens of the United States, contracted before the 8th of Vendemiaire 9th year of the French Republic (30 Sept 1800) shall be paid according to the following regulations, with interest at six percent, to commence from the Periods when the account vouchers were present to the French Government.
Art. 2.
The debts provided for by the preceding article, are those whose results is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present Convention, & which, the interest, cannot exceed the sum of twenty million 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 their Provision.
Art. 3.
The principal and Interest of the said debts shall be discharged by the United States, by orders drawn by their Ministers Plenipotentiary, on their Treasury: These orders shall be payable sixty days after the Exchange of Ratification of the Treaty & the Convention signed this day & after possession shall be given of Louisiana, by the Commissary of France to those of the United States.
Art. 4.
It is expressly agreed that the preceeding 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 embargos & Prizes made at Sea, in which the Appeal has been properly lodged, written the time a mentioned in the said Convention of the 8th Vend. 9th year, 30 Sept 1800.
Art. 5.
The preceding articles shall apply only: 1st to
Captures
Captures of the Council of Prizes shall have ordered Restitution, it being well understood that the Claimant cannot have resource to the United States, otherwise than he might have had to the Government of the French Republic, and only in case of the insufficiency of the Captors; 2ndly the Debts mentioned in the said 5th Article of the Convention contracted before the 8th. Vend. an 9, 30th Sept. 1800, the payment of which has been heretofore claimed of the actual Government of France, & for which the Creditors have a right to the Protection of the United States. The said 5th Art. 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 that the United States, in partnership with foreigners, & who by that reason & the nature of their commerce, ought to be regarded as domicilated in the places where such houses exist. All agreements & 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 claim in like manners as if this Treaty had not been made.
Art. 6.
And that the different questions which may arise under the preceeding article may be fairly investigated, Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States shall name three persons, who shall act from the present, & provisionally,
and
This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Senate.
National Archives Identifier: 306463
Full Citation: A convention between the United States of America and the French Republic relative to the payment for Louisiana; 4/30/1803; Records Relating to Foreign Relations during the 8th Congress; Records Relating to Treaties with Foreign Countries, 1789–2000; Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/a-convention-between-the-united-states-of-america-and-the-french-republic-relative-to-the-payment-for-louisiana, March 24, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.