8038. SPAIN, Hostility of.—
Our relations
with Spain are vitally interesting. That
they should be of a peaceable and friendly character
has been our most earnest desire. Had
Spain met us with the same dispositions, our
idea was that her existence in this hemisphere
and ours should have rested on the same bottom;
should have swam or sunk together. We
want nothing of hers, and we want no other
nation to possess what is hers. But she has
met our advances with jealousy, secret malice
and ill-faith. Our patience under this unworthy
return of disposition is now on its last
trial. And the issue of what is now depending
between us will decide whether our relations
with her are to be sincerely friendly, or permanently
hostile. I still wish and would cherish
the former, but have ceased to expect it.—
To James Bowdoin.
Ford ed., viii, 351.
(W.
April. 1805)
