It is time that this unequal position of affairs should cease, and that
legislative action should be brought to sustain Executive exertion in
such measures as the case requires. While France persists in her refusal
to comply with the terms of a treaty the object of which was, by
removing all causes of mutual complaint, to renew ancient feelings of
friendship and to unite the two nations in the bonds of amity and of a
mutually beneficial commerce, she can not justly complain if we adopt
such peaceful remedies as the law of nations and the circumstances of
the case may authorize and demand. Of the nature of these remedies I
have heretofore had occasion to speak, and, in reference to a particular
contingency, to express my conviction that reprisals would be best
adapted to the emergency then contemplated. Since that period France,
by all the departments of her Government, has acknowledged the validity
of our claims and the obligations of the treaty, and has appropriated
the moneys which are necessary to its execution; and though payment is
withheld on grounds vitally important to our existence as an independent
nation, it is not to be believed that she can have determined
permanently to retain a position so utterly indefensible.
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