James Monroe. APPENDIX A. VOL. VI, INSTRUCTIONS, P. 137. July 29, 1803. On the presumption . that you will have proceeded to Madrid it is thought proper to observe to you that although Louisiana may in some respects be more important than the Floridas and has more than exhausted the funds allotted for the purchase of the latter, the acquisition of the Floridas is still to be pursued, especially as the crisis must be favorable to it. You will be at no loss for the arguments most likely to have weight in prevailing on Spain to yield to our wishes. These colonies separated from her other territories on this continent by New Orleans, the Mississippi and the whole of Western Louisiana are now of less value to her than ever, whilst to the United States they retain the peculiar importance derived from their position and their relation to us through the navigable rivers running from the United States into the Gulf of Mexico. In the hands of Spain they must ever be a dead expense in time of peace, indefensible in time of war, and at all times a source of irritation and ill blood with the United States. The Spanish government must understand in fact that the United States can never consider the amicable relation between Spain and them as definitely and permanently secured without an arrangement on this subject which will substitute the manifest indications of nature for the artificial and inconvenient state of things now existing. The advantage to be derived to your negotiations from the war which has just commenced will certainly not escape you. Powerful and effectual use may be made of the fact that Great Britain meant to seize New Orleans, with a view to the anxiety of the United States to obtain it- of the inference from that fact, that the same policy will be pursued with respect to the Floridas. Should Spain be in the war it cannot be doubted that they will be quickly occupied by a British force and held out on some condition or other to the United States. Should Spain be still at peace and wish not to lose her neutrality she should reflect that the facility and policy of seizing the Floridas must strengthen the temptations of Great Britain to force her into the war. In any view it will be better for Spain that the Floridas should be in the hands of the United States than of Great Britain and equally so that they should be ceded on beneficial terms by herself than that they should find their way to us through the hands of Great Britain. . . . . By the enclosed note of the Spanish minister here you will see the refusal of Spain to listen to our past overtures, with the reasons for the refusal. The answer to that communication is also enclosed. The reply to such reasons will be very easy. Neither the reputation nor the duty of his Catholic Majesty can suffer from any measure founded in wisdom and the true interests of Spain. There is as little ground for supposing that the maritime powers of Europe, will complain of, or be dissatisfied with, a cession of the two Floridas to the United States more than with the late cession of Louisiana by Spain to France or more than with the former cession through which the Floridas themselves have passed. What the treaties are subsequent to that of Utrecht, which are alleged to preclude Spain from the proposed alienation have not been examined. Admitting them to exist in the sense put upon them, there is probably no maritime power who would not readily acquiesce in our acquisition of the Floridas as more advantageous to itself, than the retention of them by Spain shut up against all foreign commerce and liable at every moment to be thrown into the preponderant scale of Great Britain. Great Britain herself would unquestionably have no objection to their being transferred to us: unless it should be drawn from her intention to conquer them for herself, or from the use she might expect to make of them in a negotiation with the United States and with respect to France. Silence at least is imposed on her by the cession to the United States of the province ceded to her by Spain: not to mention, that she must wish to see the Floridas like Louisiana kept out of the hands of Great Britain and has doubtless felt that motive in promising her good offices with Spain for obtaining these possessions for the United States. Of this promise you will of course make the proper use in your negotiations. For the price to be given for the Floridas you are referred generally to the original instructions on this point. Although the change of circumstances lessens the anxiety for acquiring immediately a territory which now more certainly than ever, must drop into our hands and notwithstanding the pressure of the bargain with France on our treasury; yet for the sake of a peaceable and fair completion of a great object you are permitted by the president, in case a less sum will not be accepted, to give $2,250,000, the sum heretofore apportioned to this purchase. It will be expected however that the whole of it, if necessary, be made applicable to the discharge of debts and damages claimed from Spain-as well those not yet admitted by the Spanish government as those covered by the convention signed with it by Mr. Pinckney on the eleventh day of August, 1802. These claims include those arising from privateers' depredations along Florida and Mississippi lines and losses arising from violation of our deposit at New Orleans. If it be impossible to bring Spain to a cession of the whole of the two Floridas a trial is to be made for obtaining either or any important part of either. The part of West Florida adjoining the territories now ours and including the principal rivers falling into the gulf will be particularly important and convenient. It is not improbable that Spain in treating on a cession of the Floridas may propose an exchange of them for Louisiana beyond the Mississippi or may make a serious point of some particular boundary to that territory. Such exchange is inadmissible. In intrinsic value there is no equality: besides the advantage, given us by the west bank of the entire jurisdiction of the river. We are the less disposed also to make sacrifices to obtain the Floridas because their position and the manifest course of events guarantee an early and reasonable acquisition of them. With respect to the adjustment of a boundary between Louisiana and the Spanish territories, there might be no objection to combining it with a cession of the Floridas, if our knowledge of the extent and character of Louisiana were less imperfect. At present any arrangement, would be a step too much in the dark to be hazarded, and this will be a proper answer to the Spanish government. . . Should no cession whatever be obtainable, it will remain only, for the present, to provide for the free use of the rivers |