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FRANCE.

ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

EMBASSY OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED STATES, Washington, February 1, 1906.

MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: The president of the council, minister of foreign affairs of the Republic, advises me that the Senate and Chambers of Deputies, convened on the 17th of January in a National Assembly to the end of electing the President of the Republic, in accordance with article 3 of the Constitution, have elected Mr. Armand Fallières, President of the French Republic, for the term of seven years from the moment when President Loubet's term of office expires.

By order of my Government, I have the honor to bring the decision of the National Assembly to the knowledge of the Federal Government.

I may be permitted to express on this occasion the wish, the fulfillment of which can not be doubted, that the period during which Mr. Fallières will preside over the destinies of France shall but prolong the series of years, now numbering more than a hundred, during which the friendship and sympathy of our two countries have been affirmed.

Be pleased to accept, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurances of my high consideration.

JUSSERAND.

The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 9, 1906.

SIR: I have received with pleasure your note of the 1st instant announcing the election of Mr. Armand Fallières as President of the French Republic, and I join most cordially in the wish you express for the continued strengthening, under Mr. Fallière's presidency, of the ties of friendship and sympathy that bind our two countries.

Accept, etc.,

ELIHU ROOT.

PROTECTION OF VENEZUELAN INTERESTS IN FRANCE."

No. 131.]

FRANKLIN CELEBRATION IN PARIS.

Ambassador McCormick to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN EMBASSY,
Paris, May 4, 1906.

SIR: I have the honor to report that in spite of the fall of Rouvier's government, almost immediately after my return to Paris, which made it necessary for me to await the formation of a new cabinet to complete arrangements for the participation of the French Government in the Franklin celebration; in spite of the excitement and political agitation accompanying the execution of the law with reference to the inventories of church property, and the Courrieres mines disaster, culminating in widespread, although unwarranted apprehension of serious disturbances on May 1, and, added to these untoward events, the San Francisco catastrophe, the celebration turned out to be a great success. A large audience, between 3,500 and 4,500, assembled in the palace of the Trocadero and listened with sympathetic and unflagging interest to addresses delivered by Prof. Albert Henry Smyth and Mr. Barthou, minister of public works, post and telegraph, representing the French Government.

The interest taken in the celebration all over France, the warm expressions of good will it drew forth in the provincial as well as in the Parisian press, the pleasure manifested by Government and municipal officials in a "joint celebration" fully confirmed my judg ment in taking the initiative in this matter.

The character of Professor Smyth's address was in full keeping with the occasion, and its genuine merits received full recognition from the press. More than this, at the closing of the unveiling ceremonies of the statue of Franklin given by Mr. Harjes to the city of Paris, Mr. Barthou, in the name of the French Government, conferred on Professor Smyth the Cross of the Legion of Honor, "as the representative of the Government of the United States for the Franklyn fete, as an American scholar and author, and in recognition of his services to history and literature in giving to the world the 'Life and writings of Benjamin Franklyn.""

I inclose clippings from leading newspapers which will show the interest taken in the event, as above indicated.

I have, etc.,

ROBERT S. MCCORMICK.

See correspondence with Venezuela.

Not printed.

PRESENTATION OF THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN GOLD MEDAL TO THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT.

The Secretary of State to the President.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 20, 1906.

Under your direction I had the pleasure, at Philadelphia, on April 20, 1906, of fulfilling the wish of the Congress of the United States as expressed in its act approved April 27, 1904, by presenting to the French Government, through its accredited ambassador to the United States, the impression on gold of the medal which, in pursuance of the act referred to, was struck to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin.

I have the honor to submit herewith, with a view to their transmission to the Congress for the information of that body, a copy of the remarks which I made on that occasion, a copy of the reply of the French ambassador, and a translation of a note from him showing the very appropriate disposition which the French Government had made of the medal.

Respectfully submitted.

ELIHU KOOT.

SPEECH OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE PRESENTING THE MEDAL.

EXCELLENCY: On the 27th of April, 1904, the Congress of the United States provided by statute that the Secretary of State should cause to be struck a medal to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, and that one single impression on gold should be presented, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the Republic of France. Under the direction of the President I now execute this law by delivering the medal to you as the representative of the Republic of France. This medal is the work of fraternal collaboration by two artists whose citizenship Americans prize highly, Louis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The name indicates that they may have inherited some of the fine artistic sense which makes France preeminent in the exquisite art of the medalist.

On one side of the medal you will find the wise, benign, and spirited face of Franklin. On the other side literature, science, and philosophy attend while history makes her record. The material of the medal is American gold, as was Franklin.

For itself this would be but a small dividend upon the investments which the ardent Beaumarchais made for the mythical firm of Hortalez & Co. It would be but scanty interest on the never-ending loans yielded by the steady friendship of de Vergennes to the distressed appeals of Franklin. It is not appreciable even as a gift when one recalls what Lafayette, Rochambeau, de Grasse, and their gallant comrades were to us, and what they did for us; when one sees in historical perspective the great share of France in securing American independence, looming always larger from our own point of view in comparison with what we did for ourselves.

But take it for your country as a token that with all the changing manners of the passing years, with all the vast and welcome influx of new citizens from all the countries of the earth, Americans have not forgotten their fathers and their father's friends.

Know by it that we have in America a sentiment for France; and a sentiment, enduring among a people, is a great and substantial fact to be reckoned with.

We feel a little closer to you of France because of what you were to Franklin. Before the resplendence and charm of your country's history-when all the world does homage to your literature, your art, your exact science, your philosophic thought-we smile with pleasure, for we feel, if we do not say: "Yes, these are old friends of ours; they were very fond of our Ben Franklin and he of them."

Made more appreciative, perhaps, by what France did for us when this old philosopher came to you, a stranger, bearing the burdens of our early poverty and distress, we feel that the enormous value of France to civilization should lead every lover of mankind, in whatever land, earnestly to desire the peace, the prosperity, the permanence, and the unchecked development of your national life.

We, at least, can not feel otherwise; for what you were to Franklin we would be-we are to you; always true and loyal friends.

SPEECH BY THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON RECEIVING THE FRANKLIN MEDAL, PHILADELPHIA, APRIL 20, 1906,

On behalf of the French Republic, with feelings of deepest gratitude, I receive the gift offered to my country, this masterful portrait of Franklin, which a law of Congress ordered to be made and which is signed with the name, twice famous, of Saint-Gaudens.

Everything in such a present powerfully appeals to a French heart. It represents a man ever venerated and admired in my country-the scientist, the philosopher, the inventor, the leader of men, the one who gave to France her first notion of what true Americans really were. When you were in France," the Marquis de Chastellux wrote later to Franklin, "there was no need to praise the Americans. We had only to say: Look; here is their representative."

The gift is offered in this town of Philadelphia, where there exists a hall the very name of which is especially dear to every American and every French heartthe Hall of Independence—and at a gathering of a society founded "for promoting useful knowledge," which has remained true to its principle, worthy of its founder, and which numbers many whose fame is equally great on both sides of the ocean.

I receive it at the hands of one of the best servants of the State which this great country ever produced, no less admired at the head of her diplomacy now than he was lately at the head of her army; one of those rare men who prove the right man, whatever be the place. You have listened to his words, and you will agree with me when I say that I shall have two golden gifts to forward to my Government-the medal and Secretary Root's speech.

The work of art offered by America to France will be sent to Paris to be harbored in that unique museum, her Museum of Medals, where her history is, so to say, written in gold and bronze from the fifteenth century up to now, without any ruler, any great event, being omitted. Some of the American past is also written there that period so glorious when French and American history were the same history, when first rose a nation that has never since ceased to rise.

There, awaiting your gift, are preserved medals struck in France at the very time of the events, in honor of Washington, to commemorate the relief of Boston in 1776; a medal of John Paul Jones, in honor of his naval campaign of 1779; another medal representing Washington, and one representing General Howard, to commemorate the battle of Cowpens in 1781; one to celebrate the peace of 1783 and the freedom of the thirteen States; one of Lafayette; one of Suffren, who fought so valiantly on distant seas for the same cause as Washington; one, lastly, of Franklin himself, dated 1784, bearing the famous inscription composed in honor of the great man by Turgot: “Eripuit cælo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."

My earnest hope is that one of the next medals to be struck and added to the series will be one to commemorate the resurrection of that great town which now, at this present hour, agonizes by the shores of the Pacific. The disaster at San Francisco has awakened a feeling of deepest grief in every French heart, and a feeling of admiration, too, for the manliness displayed by the population

during this awful trial. So that what will be commemorated will not be only the American nation's sorrow, but her unfailing heroism and energy.

Now, your magnificent gift will be added to the collection in Paris; it will be there in its proper place. The thousands who visit this museum will be reminded by it that the ties happily formed long ago are neither broken nor distended, and they will contemplate with a veneration equal to that of their ancestors the features of one whom Mirabeau justly called one of the heroes of mankind.

The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

EMBASSY OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED STATES,

Washington, December 15, 1906.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: When I had the honor, on the 20th of April last, to respond to the speech with which your excellency in never to be forgotten words tendered to me for transmission to the Government of the Republic the one copy of the Franklin medal struck by direction of Congress, I intimated that my Government would doubtless wish to have this memento of the FrancoAmerican friendship placed in the National Museum of Medals, where it would be surrounded by other souvenirs of this same friendship.

Referring to previous correspondence of this embassy with the Department of State, I make it my duty now to acquaint your excellency with the manner in which the intent was finally carried out.

In the center of the Hall of Honor of the Museum of Medals at Paris stand four ancient show cases of the time of Louis XVI. One of these has been selected exclusively for the Franklin medal, which has been surrounded with the medals herein below enumerated which were deemed the fittest to make up a worthy retinue, if the phrase be permissible.

First. Washington medal, struck in commemoration of the relief of Boston, March 17, 1776, bearing the inscription, "Georgio Washington Supremo duci exercituum, adserton libertatis," by Duvivier.

Second. Commemorative medal of the battle of Cowpens, recording the part of cavalry, January 17, 1781, with a portrait of William Washington, by Duvivier.

Third. Another medal, by the same, of the battle of Cowpens (part of infantry), with a portrait of Gen. J. E. Howard.

Fourth. Gen. Daniel Morgan at the battle of Cowpens, by Augustus Dupré. Fifth. Paul Jones medal, with a representation of the capture of the Serapis, September 23, 1779, on the reverse, by Dupré.

Sixth. Franklin medal, bearing the famous Latin verse written in his honor by Turgot and an inscription stating that the medal was engraved by Dupré and by him dedicated to Franklin in 1784.

Seventh. A variant of the same Franklin medal, dated in 1786.

Eighth and ninth. Medal struck in honor of General Gates and commemoration of the Saratoga capitulation, dies engraved by Gatteaux.

Tenth. A replica of the reverse of the medal offered to Maj. John Stewart for the storming of Stony Point.

Eleventh. Lafayette medal, by Duvivier, with the inscription: "Vengeur de la liberté dans les deux mondes, Major-Général dans les armées des Etats-Unis d'Amérique en 1777, Maréschal de Camp, Vice-Président de l'Assemblée Nationale le 12 Juillet, Commandant de la Garde Nationale Parisienne, 15 Juillet, 1789."

Twelfth. Another Lafayette medal with the inscription: "Objet tour à tour d'idolatrie et de haine, on ne se rappelle aujourd'hui que ses malheurs et les services qu'il a rendus à la liberté des deux Mondes."

Thirteen and fourteenth. Lafayette medals by Dumarest and by Montgomery. Fifteenth. "Bailli de Suffren" medal, 1784, by Dupré.

Sixteenth. Lafayette dollar with the busts of Washington and Lafayette (presented by the ambassador of the United States at Paris).

Lastly, in order that the occasion for bringing all these souvenirs together be for all time reminded to the visitors of the Museum, the address delivered

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