The Louisiana treaty was followed by diplo .matic correspondence relating to the disputed boundaries of the territory acquired and later by efforts to get the co-operation of France in the negotiations with Spain.— until the later de crees of Napoleon and reprisals on neutral com merce, opposed by the vigorous but unsuccess ful protests of General Armstrong, the Amer ican Minister at Paris, gave a new turn to dip lomatic relations.
Against the Berlin and Milan decrees of Na poleon which subjected to seizure every Amer ican vessel bound for ports of Great Britain or her colonies, American diplomatic representa tions were unavailing; and the sacrificial em bargo was doomed to disappointment. Protests against the later Rambouillet decree of March 1809 were equally unsuccessful. Finally, after the passage of the American Non-Intercourse Act, Napoleon, in order to increase American activity against England, promised that his de crees would cease and induced the American government to issue a proclamation (of 2 Nov. 1810) to restore intercourse with France, but he continued to seize American vessels under vari ous pretexts.
For a quarter century after Napoleon's over throw and the restoration of the Bourbons, Franco-American relations were comparatively unimportant. The chief questions arising for discussion were commerce, spoliation claims, the American acquisition of Florida from Spain, the French measures against liberal government in Spain, followed by the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine and policy relating to the des tiny of Cuba.
The American government endeavored to secure from France a- commercial convention which, on the basis of the Anglo-American commercial treaty of 1815, would place Ameri can vessels on an equality with the French in carrying American products to France, but the French government which, by an extra duty on cotton imported in American ships, had greatly increased the tonnage of French vessels engaged in the trans-Atlantic trade, was not anxious to surrender these benefits. Finally, after Congress passed a law imposing a tonnage tax upon French vessels, thereby depriving them of their immense advantages and profit, France speedily agreed to a convention provid ing for the equal interchange of products in the ships of both countries — an arrangement which immediately increased the American ton nage employed in the French trade. An ob stacle to the adjustment of difficulties arose from the interpretation of the eighth article of the Louisiana treaty which provided that after the expiration of 12 years the ships of France were to be treated upon the same foot ing of those of the "most favored nation.°
After long argument the matter was adjusted by a treaty of 24 June 1822.
Apparently in 1823 the French government hoped to expand in the West Indies and re garded the American recognition of the inde pendence of Latin-American states as an attempt to arrest French development. The United States was especially anxious in regard to the destiny of Cuba and in regard to European designs in connection therewith. After France, in 1825, refused to accept the British proposal to bind herself not to seek the acquisition of Cuba, the American government informed the French government that it would not permit France the occupation of either Cuba or Porto Rico either with or without the consent' of Spain.
The most important diplomatic question re maining for adjustment with France was the tiresome wrangle concerning the French Spolia tion claims. These claims for injury to Ameri can commerce after 1803, especially by the Berlin decrees and subsequent decrees of Napo leon, which had been awaiting the establish ment of a more stable government in France, began to be pressed by Secretary Adams in 1819. At the same time France claimed dam ages for alleged violation of the "favored na tion" clause of the treaty of 1803. On these subjects Adams and DeNeuville could reach no agreement. Although in 1822 they negotiated a convention of navigation and commerce greatly reducing discriminating duties, yet the spoliation claims and the "favored nation') clause both remained unsettled until by the Rives-Sebastiani treaty of 4 July 1831, France agreed to pay 25,000,000 francs ($5,000,000) for American claims and abandoned French claims under the old favored nation clause, and the United States agreed to pay 1,500,000 francs ($300,000) in satisfaction of certain French claims. The delays of the French Chamber of Deputies, and the refusal in April 1834 to appropriate the money neces sary to pay the claims, resulted in 1836 in the recall of Mr. Livingston from Paris, followed by the recall of Pageot from Washington. Al though diplomatic relations were suspended for over a year, the French government, partly through the mediation of Great Britain, soon took steps toward their restoration by providing for the payment of its obligations.