thence to the head of the St. Mary's river; thence to the ocean; in all this coinciding with the boundary of East and West Florida, as established in 1763 by Great Britain. On the same day the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain declared an entire cession in full right of East and West Florida to Great Britain to Spain, without defining the northern boundary. From this, as was natural, and, as Pontalba asserts, as England intended, arose a dispute between the United States and Spain. The United States claimed, under its treaty with Great Britain, that its southern boundary line was the thirty-first degree. Spain, on the other hand, claimed, as part of West Florida, all of the territory south of the line running east from the mouth of the Yazoo river, which was one hundred and ten miles further north. To strengthen her title, in June, 1784, Spain made a treaty at Pensacola with the Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws inhabiting this district, by which they conceded the Spanish title, and engaged to support it. Subsequently, also, Alexander McGillivray, head chief of the Creeks and agent of the other tribes of the Muscogee confederacy, acknowledged himself subject to Spain. Spain had possession of the disputed territory, under the conquest of Galvez, and refused to surrender it to the United States. She erected forts at Nogales, now Vicksburg, and subsequently at New Madrid, and she strengthened her garrisons at Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez. Both powers had equitable titles, the dispute arising from the discrepancy in the terms of the treaty made by Great Britain with the two nations. Of course, all this occasioned great bitterness between the powers, and also individuals of each nation. The district west of the Alleghanies, now comprising the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, was rapidly filling with adventurous persons, many of whom had been in the Revolutionary armies. The severity of Indian depredations was no longer so severely felt, anċ towns were springing up. he richness of the soil was bringing forth abundant harvests of wheat and corn and tobacco, which could only with difficulty seek a market east of the mountains, and must con sume themselves in the cost of transit. The natural channei of trade was down the Ohio, Cumberland and Mississippi rivers, and the most advantageous market would be New Orleans. On account of the bitterness, however, between the nations, previous to 1787 all those who ventured on the Mississippi river had their property seized by the first Spanish vessel that was met; and little or no communication was kept up between the respective countries. The free navigation of the Mississippi river, south of the thirtyfirst degree, had been reluctantly yielded to Spain.* In 1780-81, when the preliminaries of peace were being discussed in Paris and Madrid, the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line was causing anxiety, and the British forces under Cornwallis and Tarleton were overrunning the south. There was consequently a fear on the part of the delegates in congress from South Carolina and Georgia that, if a peace was then forced by the European powers, the principle of uti possidetis would cause those states to fall into the hands of Great Britain, which occupied them then. To prevent this, and secure the important adhesion of Spain, the American ministers were instructed that, if Spain inflexibly demanded it as a condition of alliance, the concession of our claim to the free navigation of the Mississippi river, south of the thirty-first degree, should be allowed. Years had passed and peace was declared, but the United States were still under the Confederacy, and suffering from all the weakness which came from that temporary arrangement. Its seat was in New York, at a great distance from the Mississippi valley: and it was but slightly aware of, or concerned about, the consequence of that remote region. In 1785, Mr. Jay, who was conducting a negotiation with Gardoqui, the Spanish representative on this subject, having been called upon by congress to give his views on the matter, recommended that it would be expedient to conclude a treaty with Spain, limited to twenty or thirty years, and for the United States to stipulate that, during the term of the treaty they would forbear to navigate the Mississippi below their southern boundary. This view was sanctioned by the seven more northern, and opposed by the five more southern states.§ Seven states in congress authorized Jay to conclude a treaty with Gardoqui and restrict the right of the United States to the Mississippi river, while the article of the confederation expressly declared that the United States should enter into no treaty unless nine states in congress assented to it. But Spain would not even agree to this stipulation, because it implied an ultimate right in the United States to navigate the river. Naturally this apparent indifference or hostility, on the part of congress, to what was of vital importance to the western country, the free navigation of the Mississippi river, and the possibility thus of getting a market for their produce, had an irritating effect upon "Writings of Madison,' IV., p. 558. · White, Georgia,' p. 106. Butler, History Kentucky,' p. 156. the excitable population of the section. This cause of anger was intensified by the delay of congress in complying with the request of Kentucky to be received as a state in the Union. The cause of this delay, and afterwards the rejection of the overture, was the fear of disturbing the sectional balance. The eastern states, by a majority of seven to six, were not willing to give their assent to the admission of the district of Kentucky into the Union as an independent state, unless Vermont,* or the district of Maine, was brought forward at the same time. Back of this disinclination was a further cause. In the settlement of the terms of peace with Great Britain, congress had abandoned the check of a two-thirds vote on commercial questions, and substituted that of a majority. In the haste to relieve the embarrassments of trade and restore prosperous business relations, the more commercial states of the north, not waiting for Great Britain to comply with the conditions set for it, such as the surrender of slaves and the giving up of the posts on the northwestern frontier, immediately removed all restrictions from trade, and left Great Britain, with her large capital, free to compete for the business of the states. This operated to the disadvantage of Virginia and the other southern states, in handing over their tobacco to the monopoly of England. This cause would also act as a bar on the admission of any new southern state that would be likely to change the majority and disturb the existing commercial arrangements. Spain, however, was on the alert to use for her advantage the anger of the people of Kentucky, aroused by the seeming hostility of the government of the United States to the dearest interests of the west. Among those who had come to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1784, to settle, was General James Wilkinson. He was born in Maryland, marched with Arnold in 1775 through Maine to Quebec, was at the surrender of Saratoga, and had fallen into disrepute with Washington and resigned in 1778, because he had told to Lord Stirling, while under the influence of wine, the expressions used by Conway to Gates to the disparagement of the generalship of Washington. He was a wordy, officious, consequential person, who liked to make a profit, and he became engaged in the dry goods trade. In June, 1787, he descended the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, with a cargo of tobacco and flour, determined to try his enterprise and * Bancroft, History Constitution,' I., 373. address at the seats of the Spanish government in Louisiana. He was successful, and Governor Miro granted General Wilkinson permission to bring tobacco to New Orleans on favorable terms. Wilkinson also impressed the importance of his influence to such an extent upon the Spanish authorities that a monopoly and special remissions of duty were made to him, so that for some time all the trade from the Chio was carried on in his name, and a line from him sufficed to ensure to the owner of a boat every privilege and protection that he could desire. The Spanish government at this time, 1786-87, had projected a plan for colonizing Louisiana from the United States; and Gardoqui, the Spanish minister in New York, had sent several vessels to the Mississippi with colonists. In the depression that existed during the latter years of the confederacy, when the United States had not the ability to pay its old officers and soldiers,* General Steuben, Colonel George Morgan and other Revolutionary officers of rank, opened a treaty with Gardoqui for the grant of an extensive district. of country west of the Mississippi, upon the plan of establishing a military colony under particular privileges and exemptions. In pursuance of this, in the winter of 1788-89, Colonel Morgan of New Jersey, under the sanction of Gardoqui, came down the Ohio with a considerable body of colonists. Gardoqui had made to him a concession of from twelve to fifteen millions of acres on the west side of the Mississippi river, from the mouth of the St. Francis river to Point Cinq Hommes. He proposed to establish a city which, in ten years, would reach a hundred thousand inhabitants, as near the mouth of the Ohio as the nature of the land would permit, and he called the place New Madrid, in compliment to the Spaniards. To Morgan, Gardoqui gave the concession of a free post. Thus privileged and happily situated, commanding the trade of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, the place would intercept all the products of the country going south. Such a plan, however, did not suit the purposes of Wilkinson. He had his own scheme of colonization, which he broached to Governor Miro, by which he proposed the settlement of several thousand families in West Florida, or on the Arkansas and White rivers, to whom lands were to be granted in proportion to their numbers and condition, and for whom Wilkinson was to be allowed from one to three hundred dollars a family. For this purpose he presented a list of names of persons in Kentucky as emigrants, in order to *Wilkinson Memoirs,' II., 3. give consistency to his proposition. Having this scheme in view, although it was never realized, Wilkinson discouraged the plans of other colonists on the plea that trade would be diverted from New Orleans. The New Madrid concession was therefore withdrawn; the colonists scattered and a fort was erected there. Wilkinson, on his visit to New Orleans. determined also to demand for his services, for promoting the schemes of colonization into Spanish territory, the privilege of furnishing a considerable annual supply of tobacco to the Mexican market, which he thought would secure immense fortunes to himself and his friends.* As might be presumed, Wilkinson did not receive these favors from the Spanish governor without making pledges in return. He declared that there was a general abhorrence throughout the western parts against congress, because of its indifference to their interests in the matter of the navigation of the Mississippi river, and that on this account they were on the point of separating from the Union. He appealed to Spanish fears on the idea that the British, who still held the northwestern forts, could easily unite with the increasing strength of the western settlements and invade and take possession of Louisiana, and even of Mexico. Nor did Wilkinson leave New Orleans without a pledge to devote himself to the task of delivering up Kentucky into the hands of the Spanish king. Wilkinson did not make this declaration without knowing of the intense discontent which existed in that district. The grow ing population were deeply excited because they had in vain petitioned congress to secure for them the free use of the Mississippi river, without which it was useless for them to till the ground, since they had no market for their produce; and they were determined to take the matter into their own hands. They were divided up into different parties. One was for declaring themselves independent of the United States and forming a new republic in close alliance with Spain. Another was in favor of becoming a part of Louisiana and submitting to the laws of Spain. Another party desired to declare war with Spain and seize New Orleans. Another wanted to prevail on congress to extort from Spain the free navigation of the river; and still another party wished to have France recover Louisiana and extend her protection to Kentucky. As congress, on the third of July, 1788, finally decided to postpone the application of Kentucky to be received into the Union, in one Clark, 'Proofs against Wilkinson,' p. 13. Gayarré, 'Spanish Domination,' p. 182. Gayarré, 'Spanish Domination,' p. 222. |