The objection that these claims were provided for in the Convention of 1803, for the purchase of Louisiana, is equally groundless. It is difficult to understand how such a pretext was ever made; but the history of this question shows the strange shifts of opposition, especially when without restraint from knowledge of the subject. The most superficial glance shows that the two Conventions related to two different classes of claims. Those abandoned in 1800 were on account of spoliations, and in the nature of “torts.” Those protected in 1803 were “debts.” When it is considered how steadfastly the French plenipotentiaries in 1800 opposed the recognition of the claim for “torts,” and how the First Consul, by his positive proviso, required their renunciation, it is most unreasonable to assume that in 1803 they were formally recognized. This assumption becomes still more unreasonable, when it is understood that only at a comparatively recent period was the idea first broached; that it is without support in the documentary history of the Convention, or in any contemporary opinion; that it escaped the attention of the Board of Commissioners appointed under the Convention, as it escaped the attention of successive Secretaries of State, and also of Congressional Committees, reporting on the subject, until thus tardily it was brought forward as a last resort of opposition. The Convention of 1800, which sacrificed the claim for “torts,” kept alive certain pending claims for “debts.” “ART. V. The _debts contracted_ by one of the two nations with individuals of the other, or by the individuals of one with the individuals of the other, _shall be paid_, or the payment may be prosecuted, in the same manner as if there had been no misunderstanding between the two states. _But this clause shall not extend to indemnities claimed on account of captures or confiscation._”[234]