TH. JEFFERSON.
APRIL 27, 1802.
_Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
The commissioners who were appointed to carry into execution the sixth
article of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between the
United States and Great Britain having differed in their construction
of that article, and separated in consequence of that difference, the
President of the United States took immediate measures for obtaining
conventional explanations of that article for the government of the
commissioners. Finding, however, great difficulties opposed to a
settlement in that way, he authorized our minister at the Court of
London to meet a proposition that the United States by the payment of a
fixed sum should discharge themselves from their responsibility for such
debts as can not be recovered from the individual debtors. A convention
has accordingly been signed, fixing the sum to be paid at L600,000 in
three equal and annual installments, which has been ratified by me with
the advice and consent of the Senate.
I now transmit copies thereof to both Houses of Congress, trusting that
in the free exercise of the authority which the Constitution has given
them on the subject of public expenditures they will deem it for the
public interest to appropriate the sums necessary for carrying this
convention into execution.
TH. JEFFERSON.
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.
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