spoliations on our vessels and effects within the extent of Spanish jurisdiction by sea or by land. To justice and the law of nations, this adds the force of a positive stipulation which cannot be repelled without proving what cannot be proved, that the Spanish Government used all the means in its power to protect and defend the rights of our citizens; and which cannot be resisted without pleading what self respect ought not to permit to be pleaded, that the sovereignty of His Catholic Majesty was under duress from a foreign power within his own dominions.

The sum of money to be paid by the United States is in no event to exced dollars in cash at the Treasury of the United States not in public stock; and is to be applied towards the discharge of awards to our citizens and it is hoped that a much smaller sum will be found sufficient.

If Spain should inflexibly refuse to cede the territory Eastward of the Perdido, no money is to be stipulated. If she should refuse also to relinquish the territory Westward of that river no arrangement is to be made with respect to the Territory Westward of the Mississippi, and you will limit your negotiations to the claim of redress for the cases of spoliation above described.

If Spain should yield on the subject of the Territory Westward of the Perdido and particularly if a comprehensive provision for the claims should be combined therewith, you may admit an arrangement Westward of the Mississippi on the principle of that proposed, with modifications however if attainable varying the degree of concession on the part of the United States according to the degree in which Spain may concur in a satisfactory provision for the cases of the territory westwards of the Perdido, and of the claims of indemnification.

The United States having sustained a very extensive tho' indefinite loss by the unlawful suspension of their right of deposit at New Orleans, and the Spanish Government having admitted the injury, by restoring the deposit it will be fair to avail yourself of this claim in your negotiations, and to let

Spain understand that if no accommodation should result from them it will remain in force against her.

The term of years during which the interval between the settlements of the United States and of Spain, are to be prohibited, is a consideration of great importance. A term which may appear a moment to a nation stationary or slowly advancing in its population will appear an age to a people doubling its population in little more than 20 years, and consequently capable in that time of covering with an equal settlement double the territory actually settled. This reflection will suggest the expediency of abridging the continuance of the prohibition as much as the main objects in view will permit. years are a limit not to be exceeded. Fifteen or even ten, if the space between the Mississippi and the interval territory be not enlarged, seem to be as much as Spain can reasonably expect. She cannot but be sensible, and you will make use of the idea, if you find it prudent so to do, that before a very long term will elapse, the pressure of our growing population with events which time does not fail to produce, but are not foreseen will supersede any arrangements which may now be stipulated, and consequently that it will be most prudent to limit them to a period susceptible of some certain calculations.

No final cession is to be made to Spain of any part of the Territory on this side of the Rio Bravo; but in the event of a cession to the United States of the Territory East of the Perdido and in that event in case of absolute necessity only, and to an extent that will not deprive the United States of any of the waters running into the Missouri or Mississippi, or of the other waters emptying into the Gulph of Mexico between the Mississippi and the river Colorado emptying into the Bay of St Bernard.

No guarantee of the Spanish possessions is to be admissible. This letter is intended for Mr. Pinckney as well as yourself, and as containing the instructions by which the execution of your joint commission is to be guided.

April 18-The President being absent, and it being most proper to wait his return which may be shortly expected, before any final instructions be given as to your immediate destination, after closing your mission to Spain, I recommend that you do not actually leave London until you hear again from me. The moment the President arrives I will communicate to you his views by multiplied conveyances, that you may receive them with as little delay as possible. In the meantime you will make such preparations as will enable you to come directly from Spain to the United States, in case a call for your services on this side of the Atlantic should lead him to that decision, instead of your return to London.

I have the honor to be, &c

TO JAMES MONROE AND CHARLES PINCKNEY.

GENTLEMEN:

D. OF S. MSS. INSTR.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE July 8th-1804.

Since the instructions given you on the 15th of April last, further views have been obtained with respect to the interior of Louisiana, and the value which Spain will probably put on such a limitation of our settlements beyond the Mississippi as will keep them for some time at a distance from hers. The President has accordingly become the more anxious that in the adjustment authorized by those instructions the terms may be made favorable to the United States. He does not indeed absolutely restrain you from yielding to the Ultimatum therein fixt, in case it be required by the inflexibility of the Spanish Government and particularly by the posture and prospect of affairs in Europe. But he is not a little averse to the occlusion for a very long period of a very wide space of territory westward of the Mississippi; & equally so to a perpetual relinquishment of any territory whatever Eastward of the Rio Bravo. If this river could be made the limit to

the Spanish settlements and the river Colorado the limit to which those of the United States may be extended; and if a line North West or West from the source of whatever river may be taken for the limit of our settlements, could be substituted for the ultimatum line running from the source of the Sabine to the junction of the Osages with the Missouri and thence Northward parallel with the Mississippi, the interval to be unsettled for a term of years would be defined in a manner peculiarly satisfactory. The degree however in which you are to insist on these meliorations of the arrangement must be regulated by your discretion and by the effect which the probable course of events will have on the temper and policy of Spain. Should she be engaged in the War, or manifestly threatened with that situation, she cannot fail to be the more anxious for a solid accommodation on all points with the United States; and the more willing to yield for that purpose to terms, which, however, proper in themselves might otherwise be rejected by her pride and misapplied jealousy. According to the latest accounts from Great Britain a revolution in the Ministry if not a change on the throne was daily expected, and from either of those events, an extension of the war to Spain, if not precluded by the less probable event of a speedy peace with France would be a very natural consequence. It is to be understood that a perpetual relinquishment of the Territory between the Rio Bravo and Colorado is not to be made nor the sum of dollars

paid without the entire cession of the Floridas; nor any money paid in consideration of the acknowledgment by Spain of our title to the Territory between the Iberville and the Perdido. But a proportional sum out of the dollars may be stipulated for a partial cession of territory Eastward of the Perdido. If neither the whole nor part of East Florida can be obtained, it is of importance that the United States should own the Territory as far as the Apalachicola, and have a common, if not exclusive right to navigate that stream. I must repeat that great care is to be taken that the relin

quishment by Spain of the Territory Westward of the Perdido be so expressed as to give to the relinquishment of the Spanish title, the date of the Treaty of St. Ildefonso. The reason for this was before explained, and is strengthened by recent information as you will find by the annexed extract of a letter from Governor Claiborne. Other proofs might be added. In any further cession of Territory, it may be well so to define it, as to guard as much as possible against grants irregular or incomplete, or made by Spanish Officers in contemplation of such a

cession.

On entering into conferences with the Spanish Ministry, you will propose and press in the strongest manner an agreement that neither Spain nor the United States shall during the negotiation strengthen their situation in the Territory between the Iberville and the Perdido, and that the navigation of the Mobille shall not be interrupted. An immediate order from the Spanish Government to this effect, may be represented as of the greatest importance to the good understanding between the two countries; and that the forbearance of the United States this long is a striking proof of their sincere desire to maintain it. If such an order should be declined you will not fail to transmit the earliest information of it; as well as to keep up such representations to that Government on the subject as will impress it with the tendency of so unreasonable and unfriendly a proceeding, to drive the United States into arrangements for balancing the military force of Spain in that quarter and for exerting their right of navigation thro' the Mobille. This navigation is become important or rather essential, and a refusal of Spain to acquiesce in it must commit the peace of the two nations to the greatest hazard. The posture of things there is already extremely delicate and calls for the most exemplary moderation and liberality in both the Governments. As a proof of it, I enclose a correspondence between Governor Claiborne and the Spanish Government, at Pensacola, on the same subject