Sept. 12—Wm. Moultrie, a distinguished Revolutionary soldier, died.
Measures are set on foot to purchase Florida from the Spaniards. There seemed no alternative but such a purchase or a war. Difficulties with England began to increase. Several American vessels with valuable cargoes are seized by the British.
1806.
Jan. 16—Two million dollars are voted that the President may commence negotiations with Spain for Florida. The British continue to violate our flag by impressing seamen on our vessels.
March 26—A retaliatory law was enacted by Congress forbidding the importation of certain English goods, to take effect in November in order to give time for negotiation. Provision was also made for increasing the army and navy.
The summer of this year was disturbed, in the west, by rumors of a design to separate the Louisiana Territory and Western States from the Union, by the establishment of an independent government.
Apr. 10—Gen. Horatio Gates, an officer of the Revolution, died.
Dec.—The session of Congress commencing the first of this month was largely occupied with a law forbidding the slave trade after 1808. There was much violent debate but the law was enacted early in the next year.
Robt. Morris, of Pa., on the 8th of May; Geo. Wythe, of Va., on the 8th of June; James Smith, of Pa., on the 11th of July, signers of the Declaration of Independence; and Gen. Henry Knox, an officer of the Revolution, on the 25th of Oct., died. Gen. Knox was Secretary of War during Washington’s administration.