3048. FLORIDA, Spain and.—
Some fear
our envelopment in the wars engendering from
the unsettled state of our affairs with Spain,
and therefore are anxious for a ratification of
our treaty with her. I fear no such thing, and
hope that if ratified by Spain it will be rejected
here. We may justly say to Spain, “when this
negotiation commenced, twenty years ago, your
authority was acknowledged by those you are
selling to us. That authority is now renounced,
and their right of self-disposal asserted. In
buying them from you, then, we buy but a wartitle,
a right to subdue them, which you can
neither convey nor we acquire. This is a family
quarrel in which we have no right to med
dle. Settle it between yourselves, and we will
then treat with the party whose right is acknowledged.
” With whom that will be, no
doubt can be entertained. And why should we
revolt them by purchasing them as cattle,
rather than receiving them as fellow-men?
Spain has held off until she sees they are lost
to her, and now thinks it better to get something
than nothing for them. When she shall
see South America equally desperate, she will
be wise to sell that also.—
To M. de Lafayette. Washington ed. vii, 194.
Ford ed., x, 179.
(M.
1820)
