Message, From the President to Both Houses of Congress, Monday, January 18. N.p.: The Republican, 3 February 1836. SIGNED IN TYPE BY PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON. Near-contemporary ink inscription to verso reads: "Adm. of A. Russell. These papers relate entirely to Administration of A. Russell's estate." 

An unrecorded, possibly unique broadside printing an 1836 message from President Andrew Jackson to both the Sentate and the House of Representatives regarding a political standoff between the Jackson Administration and the French Govenement, known as the French Spoilation Claims. 

During the French Revolution and subsequent Napoleonic Wars, American citizens made claims against the French Government for losses due to French confiscations and seizures of American ships and cargoes. While some complaints had been settled at the Convention of 1800, the outrages at the Napoleonic War-era seizures remained unresolved. In a treaty signed on 4 July 1831, France was obligated to pay six installments of reparations beginning in 1833. When the bill came due, however, the French balked and remitted no payment.

Andrew Jackson refused to back down, leading to increased naval tensions and the countries breaking diplomatic relations. The broadside here relates Jackson's heated message regarding the affair, writing: "They at least deserve to met by adequate preparations for the increase of the navy, and completion of our coast defences. If this array of military force be really designed to affect the action of the Government and the people of the United States on the question now pending between the two nations, then indeed would it be dishonourable to pause a moment on the alternative which such a state of things would present to us. Come what may the explanation which France demands can never be accorded and no armament however powerful and imposing at a distance, on our coast, will I trust, deter us from discharging the high duties which we owe to our constituents to our national character, and to the world." 

Interestingly, a note made after Jackson's typed signature notes that, "in both Houses the Message was referred to the Committee of Foreign Relations; and in both Houses, attempts were made to express instant and unqualified approbation of the President's conduct." 

Ultimately, Great Britain stepped in to mediate the dispute. The French acquiesced to sending four past due payments and two remaining installments. Although for less than the originally agreed amount, 1,567 American claimants received payments. 

An exceedingly scarce broadside recording an interesting and controversial foreign relations crisis during Jackson's presidency. 

UNRECORDED, POSSIBLY UNIQUE. At the time of cataloging, we found no instances of the broadside held institutionally or sold at auction. 

[Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] [Presidents, Politics, Foreign Relations, Napoleon Bonaparte]