8039. SPAIN, Incitement of Indians.—
With respect to the treaties, the speech and
the letter, you will see that they undertake to
espouse the concerns of Indians within our
limits; to be mediators of boundary between
them and us; to guarantee that boundary to
them; to support them with their whole power;
and hazard to us intimations of acquiescence to
avoid disagreeable results. They even propose
to extend their intermeddlings to the northern
Indians. These are pretensions so totally inconsistent
with the usages established among
the white nations, with respect to Indians living
within their several limits, that it is believed
no example of them can be produced, in
times of peace; and they are presented to us in
a manner which we cannot deem friendly.—
To Carmichael and Short. Washington ed. iii, 366.
Ford ed., vi, 272.
(Pa.,
May. 1793)
