Should Spain pretend, as has been intimated, that there was a secret article of treaty between the United States and Great Britain, agreeing, if at the close of the war the latter should retain the Floridas, that then the southern boundary of Georgia should be the completion of the 32d degree of latitude, the commissioners may safely deny all knowledge of the fact, and refuse conference on any such postulatum. Or, should they find it necessary to enter into any argument on the subject, they will of course do it hypothetically; and in that way may justly say, on the part of the United States; suppose that the United States, exhausted by a bloody and expensive war with Great Britain, might have been willing to have purchased peace by relinquishing, under a particular contingency, a small part of their territory, it does not follow that the same United States, recruited and better organized, must relinquish the same territory to Spain without striking a blow. The United States, too, have irrevocably put it out of their power to do it, by a new constitution, which guarantees every State against the invasion of its territory. A disastrous war, indeed, might, by necessity, supersede this stipulation, (as necessity is above all law,) and oblige them to abandon a part of a State; but nothing short of this can justify or obtain such an abandonment.
The southern limits of Georgia depend chiefly on,
1. The charter of Carolina to the lords proprietors, in 1663, extending southwardly to the river Matheo, now called St. John, supposed in the charter to be in latitude 31, and so west in a direct line as far as the South Sea. See the charter in 4th[27] Memoires de l'Amerique, 554.
2. On the proclamation of the British King, in 1763, establishing the boundary between Georgia and the two Floridas to begin on the Mississippi, in thirty-one degrees of latitude north of the equator, and running eastwardly to the Appalachicola; thence, along the said river to the mouth of the Flint; thence, in a direct line, to the source of St. Mary's river, and down the same to the ocean. This proclamation will be found in Postlethwayte voce "British America."
3. On the treaties between the United States and Great Britain, of November 30, 1782, and September 3, 1783, repeating and confirming these ancient boundaries,—
There was an intermediate transaction, to wit: a convention concluded at the Pardo, in 1739, whereby it was agreed that Ministers Plenipotentiary should be immediately appointed by Spain and Great Britain for settling the limits of Florida and Carolina. The convention is to be found in the collections of treaties. But the proceedings of the Plenipotentiaries are unknown here. Qu. If it was on that occasion that the southern boundary of Carolina was transferred from the latitude of Matheo or St. John's river further north to the St. Mary's? Or was it the proclamation of 1763, which first removed this boundary? [If the commissioners can procure in Spain a copy of whatever was agreed on in consequence of the convention of the Pardo, it is a desirable State paper here.]
To this demonstration of our rights may be added the explicit declaration of the court of Spain, that she would accede to them. This took place in conversations and correspondence thereon between Mr. Jay, Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States at the court at Madrid, the Marquis de La Fayette, and the Count de Florida Blanca. Monsieur de La Fayette, in his letter of February 19, 1783, to the Count de Florida Blanca, states the result of their conversations on limits in these words: "With respect to limits, his Catholic Majesty has adopted those that are determined by the preliminaries of the 30th of November, between the United States and the court of London." The Count de Florida Blanca, in his answer of February 22d, to M. de La Fayette, says, "although it is his Majesty's intention to abide for the present by the limits established by the treaty of the 30th of November, 1782, between the English and the Americans, the King intends to inform himself particularly whether it can be in any ways inconvenient or prejudicial to settle that affair amicably with the United States;" and M. de La Fayette, in his letter of the same day to Mr. Jay, wherein he had inserted the preceding, says, "on receiving the answer of the Count de Florida Blanca, (to wit: his answer, before mentioned, to M. de La Fayette,) I desired an explanation respecting the addition that relates to the limits. I was answered, that it was a fixed principle to abide by the limits established by the treaty between the English and the Americans; that his remark related only to mere unimportant details, which he wished to receive from the Spanish commandants, which would be amicably regulated, and would by no means oppose the general principle. I asked him, before the Ambassador of France, [M. de Montmorin,] whether he would give me his word of honor for it; he assured me he would, and that I might engage it to the United States." See the report sent herewith.
II.—The navigation of the Mississippi.
Our right to navigate that river, from its source to where our southern boundary strikes it, is not questioned. It is from that point downwards, only, that the exclusive navigation is claimed by Spain; that is to say, where she holds the country on both sides, to wit: Louisiana on the west, and Florida on the east.
Our right to participate in the navigation of that part of the river, also, is to be considered, under