“We hope that the Government of the United States will attribute to their true cause the abuses of which you complain, as well as other violations of which our cruisers may render themselves guilty in the course of the present war. _It must perceive how difficult it is to contain within just limits the indignation of our marines, and, in general, of all the French patriots, against a people who speak the same language and having the same habits as the free Americans._ The difficulty of distinguishing our allies from our enemies has often been the cause of offences committed on board your vessels; all that the Administration could do is to order indemnification to those who have suffered, and to punish the guilty.”[116] Thus recklessly did these spoliations begin. The National Convention associated itself with this injustice, when, on the 9th May, 1793, only seventeen days after the Proclamation of Neutrality, but before it had arrived in France, a retaliatory decree was issued in response to the British attempt at starvation,--arresting all neutral vessels laden with provisions and destined to an enemy port. The decree itself did not disguise that it was a violation of neutral rights; but the necessity of the hour was pleaded, _and indemnity was promised to neutrals suffering by its operation_.[117] Unwilling to await the dilatory performance of this promise, our minister at Paris remonstrated against the application of the decree to vessels of the United States. Amidst vacillations of the National Convention, which, under the urgency of our minister, at one time seemed to relent, the decree continued to be enforced against property of American citizens. Here were spoliations, confessed at the time to be in violation of neutral rights, which still rise in judgment.