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In the first class of cases are arranged ;
Firstly, Those whose property has been seized under
the decree of the national convention of the 9th May,
1793.
Secondly. Those who are entitled to compensation
in consequence of the long detention of their vessels at
Bourdeaux in the years 1793 and 1794.
Thirdly. The holders of bills and other evidences of
debts due drawn by the colonial administrations in the
West-Indies.
Fourthly. Those whose cargoes have been appro-
priated to public use without receiving therefor adequate
payment; and
Fifthly. Those who have supplied the government
under contracts with its agents, which have not yet been
complied with on the part of France.
These well founded claims of american citizens, thus
originating in voluntary and important supplies, in the
forcible seizure of valuable property, accompanied with
promises of payment, and in injurious detentions, con-
stitute a mass of debt which the justice and good faith
of the French Government cannot refuse to provide for,
and which is too considerable to be unnoticed by that
of the United States. The undersigned are in-
structed to solicit your attention to this subject, and they
would persuade themselves that they do not solicit in
vain. So many circumstances concur to give force to
the application, that they leave it to your government,
in the confidence that no additional representations can
ke necessary.
They pass to complaints still more important for their
amount, more interesting in their nature, and more se-
rious in their consequences.
On the 14th Messidor, 4 th year of the French Re-
public, one and indivisible (July 2d 1796) the Execu-
tive Directory decreed, "That all neutral or allied powers
shall without delay be notified that the flag of the French
Republic will treat neutral vessels, either as to confis-
cation, as to searches or capture, in the same manner