Note 1215 — Chapter XII

Marshall to Hamilton, Jan. 1, 1801; Works: Hamilton, vi, 502-03; and see Brown: Ellsworth, 314-15. The principal American demand was compensation for the immense spoliation of American commerce by the French. The treaty not only failed to grant this, but provided that we should restore the French ships captured by American vessels during our two years' maritime war with France, which, though formally undeclared, was vigorous and successful. "One part of the treaty abandons all our rights, and the other part makes us the dupes of France in the game she means to play against the maritime power of England.... We lose our honor, by restoring the ships we have taken, and by so doing, perhaps, make an implicit acknowledgment of the injustice of our hostile operations." (Rutledge to Hamilton, Jan. 10, 1801; Works: Hamilton, vi, 511.)