University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MONROE.[147]

Dear Sir,—I have received your favor of the
13th. I beg that you will not think of the pecuniary
subject until it be in every respect perfectly convenient
to you.

The real sense of the nation with respect to the

Revolutionary struggle in South America cannot,
I should suppose, be mistaken. Good wishes for
its success, and every lawful manifestation of them,
will be approved by all, whatever may be the consequences.
The nation will equally disapprove any
measures unnecessarily involving it in the danger
of a war, which might even do less good to the
Spanish patriots than harm to the United States,
or any underhand measures bringing a just stain
on the national character. Those who are most
disposed to censure the tardiness of the Executive
in acknowledging the Independence of Buenos Ayres,
which alone has the appearance of having reached
maturity, should recollect that it was never declared
until July, 1806, and that it has been rendered
uncertain whether the declaration would preclude
a modified re-establishment of a dependent State.

The account of Mr. Rush's conversation must be
founded at least in some egregious mistake. No
one who is acquainted with his good sense, his self-command,
his official habits, and his personal dispositions,
can easily believe that he would commit
either the Executive or himself in the manner stated,
and still less that he would have withheld what he
had done from you. Besides, what considerate
citizen could desire that the Government should
purchase Florida from such an adventurer as McGregor,[148]
whose conquest, if a real one, could give
no title that would he alienable, before it should

be consummated by a termination of the contest
between the parties? The purchase of such a title
from such a quarter would have exposed the United
States to the utmost odium as to the mode of gaining
the possession, without any greater security
for keeping it than would attend a direct seizure
on the plea of an obstinate refusal to pay an acknowledged
debt.