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M. VAN BUREN.
[Footnote 24: Relating to the prosecution of the claim of the United
States to the bequest made by James Smithson.]

WASHINGTON, _March, 1838_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
I transmit a copy and translation of a letter from Mr. Pontois, the
minister plenipotentiary from France to this Government, addressed to
the Secretary of State, and communicating a memorial to me from the
trustees of the former house of Lafitte & Co., of Paris, complaining of
the rejection of a claim preferred in behalf of that house before the
commissioners under the convention with France of the 4th of July, 1831,
and asking redress.
The commission created by the act for carrying that convention into
effect has expired. The fund provided by it has been distributed among
those whose claims were admitted. The Executive has no power over the
subject. If the memorialists are entitled to relief, it can be granted
by Congress alone, to whom, in compliance with the request of the
trustees, that question is now submitted for decision.


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