CHAPTER XIII.
TREATY OF WASHINGTON.
The Treaty of San Ildefonso.—Ineffectual Negotiations between Spain and the United States, in 1805, respecting the Boundary of Louisiana.—Resumed in 1817.—M. Kerlet’s Memoir cited by Spain, Crozat’s Charter by the United States, as Evidence.—Spain proposes the Missouri as the mutual Boundary.—The United States propose to cross the Rocky Mountains, and draw the Line from the Snow Mountains along 41° to the Pacific.—Negotiations broken off.—Spain proposes the Columbia River as the Frontier.—Offers the Parallel of 41° to the Multnomah, and along that River to the Sea.—Error in Melish’s Map.—The United States propose the Parallel of 41° to the Pacific.—Spain proposes the Parallel of 42° to the Multnomah, and along that River to 43°, thence to the Pacific.—The 42° Parallel adopted.—Source of the Multnomah or Willamette River, in about 44°.—Wilkes’ exploring Expedition—Third Article of the Treaty.—The asserted Rights of Spain to the Californias.—Her Title by Discovery.—The United States decline to discuss them.—The asserted Rights of the United States to the Valley of the Mississippi.—Mr. Greenhow’s Remarks.—The Spanish Commissioner declines to negotiate.—Design of the President of the United States.—Question of Rights abandoned.—Object of the Spanish Concessions.—Santa Fé.—Ultimate Agreement.—Review of the Claims of the two Parties.—Principles of international Law advanced by the United States.—Possession of the Sea-coast entitles to Possession of the interior Country.—Vattel.—Inconsistency of the Diplomatists of the United States.—Treaty of Paris.—Natural Boundary of conterminous Settlements, the Mid-distance.—Vattel.—Wheaton.—Acquisition of Title from Natives barred by first Settlers against other European Powers.—Right of Pre-emption.
In the same year in which the Convention of 1818 was concluded at London between the United States and Great Britain, negotiations were being carried on at Washington between Spain and the United States, with the view of determining the effects of the Treaty of 1803, whereby Louisiana had been ceded by France to the latter power. It had been stipulated in the treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, that Spain should retrocede “the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent which it now has in the hands of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be according to the treaties subsequently made between Spain and other powers.” (British and Foreign State Papers, 1817-18, p. 267-9.) The Treaty of 1803 in its turn ceded Louisiana to the United States, “in the name of the French republic, for ever and in full sovereignty, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they have been acquired by the French republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty with his Catholic Majesty.” It thus became requisite to determine the limits of this new acquisition of the United States, both on the side of the Floridas, and on that of New Spain. An examination of the discussion regarding the eastern boundary towards the Floridas is unnecessary on the present occasion. The question respecting the western limit was, perhaps, the more difficult to settle, from the circumstance that Texas was claimed by Spain as a province of New Spain, whilst the United States insisted that it was a portion of Louisiana: whilst Spain contended that she had only ceded the Spanish province of Louisiana, the United States maintained that she had retroceded the French colony. Spain thereupon proposed a line which, “beginning at the Gulf of Mexico between the River Carecut or Cascasiu, and the Armenta or Marmentoa, should go to the north, passing between Adaes and Natchitoches, until it cuts the Red River,” on the ground that the Arroyo-Hondo, which is midway between Natchitoches and Adaes, had been, in fact, considered to be the boundary in 1763. The United States on the other hand, insisted on the Rio Bravo del Norte as the western frontier, on the ground that the settlement of La Salle in the Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda) carried with it a right to the territory as far as the Rio Bravo. Beyond the Red River Spain proposed that the boundary should be determined by commissioners, after a survey of the territory, then but little known, and a reference to documents and dates, “which might furnish the necessary light to both governments upon limits which had never been fixed or determined with exactness.” (State Papers, 1817-18, p. 321.) Such was the proposal made by Don Pedro Cevallos on the part of Spain, on April 9th, 1805. Messrs. Pinckney and Moore, in reply, proposed a compromise in connection with the western frontier, that a line along the River Colorado, from its mouth to its source, and from thence to the northern limits of Louisiana, should be the boundary; but the Spanish government declined to accept their proposal, and the negotiations were not resumed till the year 1817.
Spain had, in the mean time, during the captivity of the Spanish monarch in France, been unexpectedly deprived of the greater part of West Florida, in 1810, by the United States, without any declaration of war, or stipulation of peace, which could seem to authorise it. On re-opening the negotiation in 1817, the Spanish Government, having waived all demands on this head, proposed to cede the two Floridas to the United States in exchange for the territory which lies between the River Mississippi and the well-known limit which now separates, and has separated Louisiana, when France possessed it, before the year 1764, and even before the death of King Charles II. of Spain, from the Spanish province of Texas: so that the Mississippi might be the only boundary of the dominions of his Catholic Majesty and of those of the United States. (State Papers, 1817-1818, p. 356.)
In the course of the subsequent negotiations, the Spanish commissioner, Don Luis de Onis, in a letter of the 12th of March 1818, refused to admit the authority of the grant of Louis XIV. to Crozat as evidence of the limits of Louisiana, and referred to the memoir drawn up by M. Kerlet, for many years governor of the province before it was ceded to Spain by the Treaty of 1763, containing a description of its proper extent and limits. This memoir had been delivered by the Duc de Choiseul, minister of France, to the Spanish ambassador at Paris, as a supplement to the Act of Cession of Louisiana. (State Papers, 1817-18, p. 437.) On the other hand, the Secretary of State, on the part of the United States, maintained that “the only boundaries ever acknowledged by France, before the cession to Spain in Nov. 3, 1762, were those marked out in the grant from Louis XIV. to Crozat.” She always claimed the territory which Spain called Texas, as being within the limits, and forming part of Louisiana, “which in that grant is declared to be bounded westward by New Mexico, eastward by Carolina, and extending inward to the Illinois, and to the sources of the Mississippi, and of its principal branches.” (State Papers, 1817-18, p. 470.)
These discussions were suspended for a short time, in consequence of difficulties between the two governments respecting the Seminole Indians in Florida; but on the 24th of October Don Luis d’Onis proposed, that “to avoid all causes of dispute in future, the limits of the respective possessions of both governments to the west of the Mississippi shall be designated by a line beginning on the Gulf of Mexico, between the rivers Marmentoa and Cascasiu, following the Arroyo-Hondo, between Adaes and Natchitoches, crossing the Rio Roxo, or Red River, at 32° of latitude and 98° of longitude, from London, according to Melish’s map, and thence running directly north, crossing the Arkansas, the White, and the Osage Rivers, till it strikes the Missouri, and then following the middle of that river to its source, so that the territory on the right bank of the said river will belong to Spain, and that on the left bank to the United States. The navigation of the Mississippi and Marmentoa shall remain free to the subjects of both parties.” (State Papers, 1818-19, p. 276.)
No proposal had as yet been advanced by either party to carry the boundary line across the Rocky Mountains till October 31, 1818, when Mr. Adams offered, as the ultimatum of the United States, a “line from the mouth of the River Sabine, following its course to 32° N. L., thence due north to the Rio Roxo, or Red River, following the course of that river to its source, touching the chain of the Snow Mountains in latitude 37° 25′ north, thence to the summit, and following the chain of the same to 41°, thence following the same parallel to the South Sea.” The Spanish commissioner, in his reply, undertook to admit the River Sabine instead of the Marmentoa, on condition “that the line proposed by Mr. Adams should run due north from the point where it crosses the Rio Roxo till it strikes the Missouri, and thence along the middle of the latter to its source;” but in regard to the extension of the line beyond the Missouri, along the Spanish possessions to the Pacific, he declared himself to be totally unprepared by his instructions to discuss such a proposal. The negotiations were in consequence broken off. Subsequently, the Spanish commissioner, having received fresh instructions from his government in a letter of June 16, 1819, proposed to draw the western boundary line between the United States and the Spanish territories from the source of the Missouri to the Columbia River, and along the course of the latter to the Pacific, which Mr. Adams, on the part of the United States, rejected as inadmissible. Don Luis d’Onis thereupon, having expressly waived all questions as to the right of either power to the territory in dispute, and also as to the limits of Louisiana, proposed that the boundary line, as suggested by Mr. Adams, should follow the Sabine river to its source, thence by the 94th degree of longitude to the Red River of Natchitoches, and along the same to the 95th degree; and crossing it at that point, should run by a line due north to the Arkansas, and along it to its source, thence by a line due west till it strikes the source of the River St. Clemente or Multnomah, in latitude 41°, and along that river to the Pacific Ocean: the whole agreeably to Melish’s map. This is another very remarkable instance of the danger of referring even to the best maps, when territorial limits are to be regulated by the physical features of a country. There must have been a monstrous error in Melish’s map, which the Spanish commissioner had before him, if such a line could have been drawn upon it from the source of the Arkansas due west to the source of the Multnomah, the modern Willamette River. Mr. Adams, in reply, proposed a slightly modified line “to the source of the Arkansas in 41°, and thence due west to the Pacific along the parallel of 41° according to Melish’s map up to 1818; but if the source of the Arkansas should fall south or north of 41°, then the line should be drawn due north or south from its source to the 41st parallel, and thence due west to the sea.” This would have been an intelligible line. Don Luis d’Onis then communicated a project of a further modified line from the 100th parallel of longitude west of Greenwich along the middle of the Arkansas to the 42d parallel; “thence a line shall be drawn westward, by the same parallel of latitude, to the source of the River San Clemente, or Multnomah, following the course of that river to the 43° of latitude, and thence by a line due west to the Pacific Ocean.” Another counter project was proposed by Mr. Adams on the 13th of February, and ultimately it was agreed between the parties to admit the parallel of 42° from the source of the Arkansas westward to the Pacific Ocean, with the proviso that if the source of the Arkansas should be north or south of 42°, the line should be drawn from it south or north to the 42d parallel. It was fortunate that this proviso was adopted, for actual surveys have since determined the source of the Arkansas to be at the foot of the Sierra Verde, in about 46° 45′ north latitude. On the other hand, as an illustration of the lamentable want of information on the part of the Spanish commissioner in respect to the boundary line which he proposed to be drawn, first of all along the parallel of 41° due west to the source of the Multnomah, and secondly along the parallel of 42° due west to the same river, it may be observed, that the source of this river is ascertained to be very little further south than the 44th parallel of latitude, as may be seen in the excellent American map attached to Commander Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, though even so late as in Mitchell’s map for 1834 it is placed in about 42°.