sting the
President to make known to the representatives of the French republic,
the sincere and lively sensations which were excited by this
honourable testimony of the existing sympathy and affections of the
two republics; that the house rejoiced in an opportunity of
congratulating the French republic on the brilliant and glorious
achievements accomplished during the present afflictive war; and hoped
that those achievements would be attended with a perfect attainment of
their object, the permanent establishment of the liberty and happiness
of that great and magnanimous people.

The letter to congress having come from the committee of safety,
which, under the revolutionary system, was the department that was
charged with foreign intercourse; and a constitution having been
afterwards adopted in France, by which an executive directory was
established, to which all the foreign relations of the government were
confided, an attempt was made to amend this resolution, by
substituting the directory for the representatives of the people. But
this attempt failed; after which the resolution passed unanimously.

In the senate also a resolution was offered, expressive of the
sensations of that house, and requesting the President to communicate
them to the proper organ of the French republic. An amendment was
moved to vary this resolution so as to express the sentiment to the
President, and omit the request that it should be communicated to the
French republic. The complimentary correspondence between the two
nations, had, it was said, reached a point, when, if ever, it ought to
close. This amendment, though strenuously combated by the opposition,
was adopted.

In February, the treaty with Great Britain was returned, in the form
advised by the senate, ratified by his Britannic Majesty. The
constitution declaring a treaty, when made, the supreme law of the
land, the President announced it officially to the people in a
proclamation, requiring from all persons its observance and execution;
a copy of which was transmitted to each house on the 1st of March.

The party which had obtained the majority in one branch of the
legislature, having openly denied the right of the President to
negotiate a treaty of commerce, was not a little dissatisfied at his
venturing to issue this proclamation before the sense of the house of
representatives had been declared on the obligation of the instrument.

[Sidenote: The house of representatives ca