298. ALLIANCE, Dangerous.—
An alliance
[with Great Britain] with a view to
partition of the Floridas and Louisiana, is not
what we would wish, because it may eventually
lead us into embarrassing situations with
our best friend, and put the power of two
neighbors into the hands of one. Lord Lansdowne
has declared he gave the Floridas to
Spain rather than the United States as a
bone of discord with the House of Bourbon,
and of reunion with Great Britain.—
Instructions to William Carmichael. Washington ed. ix, 413.
Ford ed., v, 227.
(1790)