Without the fullest assurances upon that
point, I could not hope to acquit myself of the responsibility to be
incurred in suffering Congress to adjourn without laying the subject
before them. Those received by me were believed to be of that character.
That the feelings produced in the United States by the news of the
rejection of the appropriation would be such as I have described them
to have been was foreseen by the French Government, and prompt measures
were taken by it to prevent the consequences. The King in person
expressed through our minister at Paris his profound regret at the
decision of the Chambers, and promised to send forthwith a national
ship with dispatches to his minister here authorizing him to give such
assurances as would satisfy the Government and people of the United
States that the treaty would yet be faithfully executed by France.
The national ship arrived, and the minister received his instructions.
Claiming to act under the authority derived from them, he gave to this
Government in the name of his the most solemn assurances that as soon
after the new elections as the charter would permit the French
Chambers would be convened and the attempt to procure the necessary
appropriations renewed; that all the constitutional powers of the King
and his ministers should be put in requisition to accomplish the object,
and he was understood, and so expressly informed by this Government at
the time, to engage that the question should be pressed to a decision at
a period sufficiently early to permit information of the result to be
communicated to Congress at the commencement of their next session.
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