CHAPTER I THE ATTITUDE OF SPAIN IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THE difficulties between the United States and Spain began with the advent of the former as an independent power. These difficulties, as already mentioned,' were a heritage of the peace of 1763. By the preliminary articles, dated November 3, 1762, of the definitive treaty signed February 10, 1763, a treaty which ended the great colonial wars of the middle of the eighteenth century, France yielded Canada to Great Britain and the latter took over Florida in exchange for Havana, which had fallen in 1762 to the English and colonial forces under Lord Albemarle and Admiral Pocock. On the same day, with the adoption of the preliminary articles of the treaty, the French king "ceded to his cousin of Spain and to his successors, forever, in full ownership and without exception or reservation whatever, from pure impulse of his generous heart and from the sense of the affection and friendship existing between these two royal persons, all the country known under the name of Louisiana." This act had been so unforeseen that the Spanish ambassador, who had had no instructions in the subject, accepted the gift conditionally, that is, sub spe rati, subject to the ratification of his Catholic Majesty. On the 13th of the same month the latter accepted the donation,' but it was not until by letter of April 21, 1764, to the Governor of Louisiana that the transfer was made public. Thus so easily, and apparently with no other cause than to recompense Spain for the loss of Florida, was signed away an empire. The definitive treaty gave no indication of this transfer, but proceeded in Article VII to assign limits as if it had not been made: "The limits of the British and French territories in that part of the world shall be fixed irrevocably by a line down the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, 'Introduction. 'Gayarré, History of Louisiana, II, 92. 14 CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO SPAIN [1763 and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea; and for this purpose the Most Christian King cedes in full right, and guarantees to his Britannic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and everything he possesses or ought to possess on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated, which shall remain to France; provided the river Mississippi shall be equally free, as well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole breadth or length, from its source to the sea, and expressly that part which is between the said island of New Orleans and the right bank of that river, as well as the passage both in and out of its mouth. It is furthermore stipulated that the vessels belonging to the subjects of either nation shall not be stopped, visited, or subjected to the payment of any duty whatsoever." In this clause rested later the claim of the United States to the right of navigation of the river as successor to all the rights of Great Britain under the treaty of 1763. Spain in exchange for the restitution of Havana and Cuba ceded "Florida, with Fort St. Augustin and the bay of Pensacola, as well as all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America to the east or to the south east of the river Mississippi, and in general everything that depends on said countries and lands." By this treaty all the North American continent east of the Mississippi, except the island of New Orleans, became British territory. But this was not the whole of the rearrangement of North American boundaries. By British royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, the ceded territories were divided into four governmental districts-Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada, which last included the whole of the British West Indies; a fifth district comprising the region between the Alleghany and the Mississippi was set aside for the Indians. In this last vast area British subjects were prohibited from making "any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of any of the lands above reserved, without our special leave or license." Naturally For text of this proclamation, see Annual Register, 1763, Winsor, "Narrative and Critical History," VI, ch. IX, Hart and Channing, American History Leaflets, No. 5. 1776] SPAIN'S APPREHENSIONS 15 the English colonists paid practically no attention to this attempt to set new bounds to the ancient charters, and the westward movement across the Alleghanies, already begun, went forward with constant acceleration.1 The provinces known as East Florida and West Florida were divided by the Appalachicola River; both had at first the thirtyfirst parallel of latitude as a northern boundary, but this, for West Florida, was changed the next year to 32° 28′, marking the mouth of the Yazoo, a change which later gave rise to no little discussion. Spain by the treaty came into the greatest potential heritage with which a nation was ever dowered. Her possessions included three-fourths the habitable parts of North and South America; the richest and greatest islands of the West Indies were hers; she stretched from frozen north to frozen south through 110 degrees of latitude, holding within her grasp the richest mines then known of the world, and far richer which were yet to be discovered. Never had race or nation such opportunities. But this great estate was in hands powerless to use it; the gift from France of half a continent was in itself a cause of terror and foreboding, as bringing Spain into direct and hated contact with the AngloSaxon, a contact she had hoped to avoid through the continuance of a buffer state under the dominion of France. Spain saw in the American Revolution her supposed opportunity for safeguarding her American interests, in weakening the dominion of the English race through the revolt of the colonies, and gave secretly to France 1,000,000 of the 3,000,000 francs handed by the French in 1776 to the American Commissioners. As the war progressed, "and the issue was independence, Spain was no longer inclined to help on a movement which would be a dangerous precedent to her own colonies, and which, if successful, would build up on her borders a sovereignty in its political principles very hostile to her traditions, and occupied by a people whose energy and aggressiveness would be made more formidable by a successful war. This was the second attitude assumed by Spain ' Eleven years later, in 1774, this was followed by a parliamentary act known as the Quebec bill, the passing of which was largely influenced by the revolutionary commotions of the period in Boston and which extended the jurisdiction of the Quebec government to the Ohio. The colonies affected vigorously protested against this as a violation of their ancient charters. 16 THE FRENCH-SPANISH TREATY OF 1778 [1778 to our Revolution; an attitude of annoyance, of displeasure, of anxiety, causing her to repel any advance made by us with a sullen though adroit persistence."1 The treaty of alliance, signed February 6, 1778, between France and the United States had included a secret article enabling the King of Spain to become a party to the alliance, but Spain did not move until April 29, 1779, when she made a secret convention with France to become a party to the war with Great Britain, a provision of which was that the war should continue until Gibraltar should be taken. Six days later she made proposals of alliance with England, but these being refused, she declared war May 3, 1779. Article 4 of the secret convention, notwithstanding Spain's real dislike to such an outcome, engaged the Spanish King "not to lay down his arms until" the independence of the United States "is recognized by the King of Great Britain, it being indispensable that this point shall be the essential basis of all negotiations for peace which may be instituted hereafter," an article instigated not by French altruism for the benefit of the United States but by the determination to continue the war to the completion of England's humiliation. The proposal and request of the King of France in the same article, that on the day the King of Spain should declare war against England he should recognize the "sovereign independence" of the United States ended with the proposition. The policy of Spain was moved by very different views from that of France. The latter was already disinherited of her American continental possessions; the former was potentially a great American power, and, as mentioned, there was wisdom enough in Spain to cause her ministers to dread the formation of a new and independent empire, protestant in religion and moved by a spirit of intense democracy. Said Florida Blanca, the Spanish minister of state, to the French ambassador Montmorin, "The King, my master, will never acknowledge their independence until the English themselves shall be forced to recognize it by the peace. He fears the example which he should otherwise give to his own possessions." From this attitude Spain did not move. 'Wharton, Diplom. Cor. of the American Revolution, I, 427. 2 1780] JAY, ENVOY TO SPAIN 17 Spain thus, inasmuch as she became a party to the war, had a common interest with the United States. But she was powerless to aid effectively in such a contest. Her fleet was what it always had been and continued to be ill-manned, illequipped and in bad repair. Such resources as she had were swallowed in the siege of Gibraltar, and the slight efforts she made in America were all directed to the later despoilment of the colonies. She was never an ally of the United States, morally or by treaty. In 1779 an agent, Don Juan de Miralles, was sent from Cuba, who, through the French minister, Gerard, addressed a memorial to Congress, May 19, on the subject of the seizure by American privateers of three vessels under the Spanish flag.' This was followed by a letter to Congress, November 24, 1779, stating that he "was commissioned with sufficient authority by order from his Excellency Don Diego Joseph Navarro, Governor and CaptainGeneral of the island of Cuba, dated at the Havana, the 19th and 22d of July last," to announce formally the fact of the declaration of war by Spain published in Havana July 22, 1779, and to urge upon Congress the capture of St. Augustine, Florida, in order that it might be restored to Spain and also that assault upon this place might withdraw some of the British forces from the defence of Pensacola and Mobile." This letter presents Spain in the extraordinary attitude of a suppliant for favors rather than as a friend who had come to aid in a great struggle, and it was, indeed, to this former attitude that with scarcely any exception she held throughout. Though Mr. John Jay, sent as envoy to Madrid in the hope of effecting an alliance, reached Cadiz January 22, 1780, it was not until May 10 of that year that he was able to have audience with the Count of Florida Blanca, minister of foreign affairs, who intimated that the chief difficulty in the way of any treaty laid in the pretensions of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi. This had already been made plain when a committee of Congress reported (February 2, 1780) a communication from the French government, the presentation of which was significant of the later antagonistic attitude of France herself. By this the King of Spain 'Diplom. Cor., III, 170. Diplom. Cor., III, 412–415. |