1819.] FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN THE U. S. A.ND SPAIN. 317 



framed under existing circumstances ; and as an almost necessary 

 consequence, they were not received with general satisfaction by 

 either nation. The Americans insisted that the Rio del Norte should 

 have been made the boundary of their republic in the south-west, 

 so as to secure to it the possession of the vast and fertile region of 

 Texas, which they claimed as originally forming part of Louisiana ; 

 whilst the Spaniards protested that their interests in the new world 

 had been sacrificed by the surrender of Florida to the power most 

 dangerous to them in that quarter. The Spanish government, 

 which was then in the hands of the Cortes, withheld its ratification 

 of the treaty for nearly two years ; and within a year after that 

 ratification had been given, the authority of Spain was extin- 

 guished in every portion of America contiguous to the new line of 

 boundary.* 



With regard to the extent of the territory west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the validity of the title to it thus acquired by the 

 United States, it will be convenient here to introduce some ob- 

 servations. 



* See the third article of the treaty of 1819, defining the boundary, as settled, in 

 the Proofs and Illustrations, under the Letter K, No. 6. The correspondence which 

 passed during the negotiation may be found accompanying President Monroe's mes- 

 sage to Congress of February 22d, 1819. Great skill and knowledge of the subject are 

 displayed by each of the plenipotentiaries in this correspondence ; the Chevalier de 

 Onis occasionally employing that finesse which was considered as the principal 

 weapon of the diplomatist of the last centuries, while Mr. Adams, in addition to his 

 superior acquaintance with history and national lav/, impresses upon the reader his 

 profound conviction of the justice of his cause. 



The Spanish plenipotentiary, on returning to his country, found it necessary to 

 vindicate his conduct in this negotiation, by a Memoir, published at Madrid in 1820, 

 in which he shows that he was by no means convinced of the right of Spain to the 

 territory west of the Sabine River; and he claims especial commendation from his 

 government for this part of the treaty of 1819, " which, " he says, " is improperly 

 styled a treaty of cession, whereas it is in reality one of exchange, or permutation, of 

 a small province for another of double the extent, more rich and fertile. 1 will 

 agree," he adds, "that the third article might, with greater clearness, have been ex- 

 pressed thus : ' In exchange, the United States cede to his Catholic majesty the province 

 of Texas,' &c. ; but as I had been for three years maintaining, in the lengthened cor- 

 respondence herein inserted, that this province belonged to the king, it would have 

 been a contradiction to express, in the treaty, that the United States cede it to his 

 majesty." 



The Chevalier de Onis, however, insinuates, in his Memoir, that one object of his 

 long correspondence on this subject was to gain time. In fact, during the summer 

 of 1818, while the correspondence was partially suspended, (with the same object of 

 gaining time, no doubt,) the Spanish government formally applied to that of Great 

 Britain for aid, or mediation, in the affair ; to which Lord Castlereagh immediately 

 returned a decided negative, at the same time advising the Spanish government to 

 cede Florida to the United States, and to make any other arrangement which might 

 be deemed proper, icithout delay. 



