316 FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN U. STATES AND SPAIN. [1818. 



occupied by its founders : and it seemed, moreover, evident that 

 the citizens of the United States would enjoy many and great 

 advantages over all other people in the country in question, in con- 

 sequence of their superior facilities of access to it, especially since 

 the introduction of steam vessels on the Mississippi and its branches. 

 In the same year, a negotiation was carried on at Washington, 

 between the governments of the United States and Spain, in which 

 the question of boundaries on the north-west side of America was 

 likewise discussed. The Spanish minister, Don Luis de Onis, 

 began by declaring that " the right and dominion of the crown of 

 Spain to the north-west coast of America as high as the Californias, 

 is certain and indisputable ; the Spaniards having explored it as far 

 as the 47th degree, in the expedition under Juan de Fuca, in 1592, 

 and in that under Admiral Fonte, to the 55th degree, in 1640. The 

 dominion of Spain in these vast regions being thus established, and 

 her rights of discovery, conquest, and possession, being never dis- 

 puted, she could scarcely possess a property founded on more re- 

 spectable principles, whether of the law of nations, of public law, or 

 of any others which serve as a basis to such acquisitions as compose 

 all the independent kingdoms and states of the earth." Upon these 

 positive assertions, the American plenipotentiary, Mr. J. Q,. Adams, 

 secretary of state, did not consider himself required to offer any 

 comment ; and the origin, extent, and value, of the claims of Spain 

 to the north-western portion of America remained unquestioned 

 during the discussion. The negotiation was broken off in the early 

 part of the year, soon after its commencement ; it was, however, 

 renewed, and was terminated on the 22d of February, 1819, by a 

 treaty commonly called the Florida treaty, in which the southern 

 boundaries of the United States were definitively fixed. Spain 

 ceded Florida to the American republic, which relinquished all 

 claims to territories west of the River Sabine, and south of the 

 upper parts of the Red and the Arkansas Rivers ; and it was 

 agreed that a line drawn on the meridian from the source of the 

 Arkansas northward to the 42d parallel of latitude, and thence 

 along that parallel westward to the Pacific, should form the 

 northern boundary of the Spanish possessions, and the southern 

 boundary of those of the United States, in that quarter, — " His 

 Catholic majesty ceding to the United States all his rights, claims, 

 and pretensions, to any territories north of the said line." 



The provisions of this treaty, particularly those relating to limits, 

 appear to have been as nearly just as any which could have been 



