I take great pleasure in assuring you of the earnest desire of this
government to enter into an arrangement with that of France, with
the view to securing the reciprocal privileges referred to.
The Marquis de Motholon, &c., &c.,
&c.
Mr. McCulloch to Mr. Seward
Treasury Department,
December 11,
1866.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 13th ultimo, covering and
submitting for the views of this department thereon a
translation of the note of the same date from the Marquis de
Montholon, transmitting copy of the laws of the merchant service
published in France on the 16th of May, 1866, by the terms of
which “no foreign vessel shall, after the 1st of January, 1867,
be required to pay tonnage dues in France, and after the 19th of
May, 1869, all differential tax on flags, when covering produce
from their native country, shall be abolished; which exemption,
it appears, may be enjoyed by vessels of the United States if
reciprocal privileges be extended in the ports of the United
States to French merchant vessels.”
I have to state in reply that I have read the note of the Marquis
de Montholon, and examined the accompanying law published in
France on the 16th of May, 1866; and after carefully considering
the same I cannot but express to you my firm conviction that the
time* honored policy of our government in inviting and seconding
international efforts for the removal of all unnecessary
shackles on commerce and navigation, is the true one; and that
we should not cease to encourage and to follow any well-directed
measures to that end, so constantly cherished by us, and now so
well and wisely adopted by France in seeming response to
proposals made by the United States in their very infancy as a
nation.
In accordance with this policy differential duties on foreign
cargoes have never found favor in the United States, and such
imposts, as well as the discriminating tonnage dues imposed on
certain foreign vessels by the earlier acts of Congress, were
mainly retaliatory in their nature, and only levied to
countervail the exactions or restrictions of nations upon our
flag and productions; and the act of 7th January, 1824, repeals
all such duties whenever the President of the United States is
satisfied that the discriminating or countervailing duties of
any foreign nation, so far as they operate to the disadvantage
of the United States, have been abolished. The wisdom of this
act thus empowering the President to meet the exigencies of the
case now presented in the spirit of free navigation and trade,
has never been questioned or disturbed by succeeding
legislation. Under treaty of June 24, 1822, proclaimed February
12, 1823, and the act of 3d of March, 1823, now in force,
vessels of France pay in the ports of the United States a
tonnage duty of 94 cents per ton over and above what is required
of vessels of the United States, that being the amount levied in
France upon vessels of the United States over and above what is
exacted of national vessels.
By the proposition now made by the French government, as
understood, vessels of that country are to be admitted into the
ports of the United States on the payment of the same tonnage
tax as is paid by our own vessels; and vessels of the United
States are to be admitted into the ports of France on the same
terms as are French vessels. This reciprocal arrangement meets
with the entire approbation and concurrence of this
department.
Very respectfully,
H. McCULLOCH, Secretary of the
Treasury.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
