ns to negotiate with the French
Republic to dissipate umbrages, to remove prejudices, to rectify errors,
and adjust all differences by a treaty between the two powers.

It is in the present critical and singular circumstances of great
importance to engage the confidence of the great portions of the Union
in the characters employed and the measures which may be adopted. I have
therefore thought it expedient to nominate persons of talents and
integrity, long known and intrusted in the three great divisions of
the Union, and at the same time, to provide against the cases of death,
absence, indisposition, or other impediment, to invest any one or more
of them with full powers.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, _June 12, 1797_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I have received information from the commissioner appointed on the part
of the United States, pursuant to the third article of our treaty with
Spain, that the running and marking of the boundary line between the
colonies of East and West Florida and the territory of the United States
have been delayed by the officers of His Catholic Majesty, and that they
have declared their intention to maintain his jurisdiction, and to
suspend the withdrawing his troops from the military posts they occupy
within the territory of the United States until the two Governments
shall, by negotiation, have settled the meaning of the second article
respecting the withdrawing of the troops, garrisons, or settlements of
either party in the territory of the other--that is, whether, when the
Spanish garrisons withdraw, they are to leave the works standing or to
demolish them--and until, by an additional article to the treaty, the
real property of the inhabitants shall be secured, and, likewise, until
the Spanish officers are sure the Indians will be pacific. The two first
questions, if to be determined by negotiation, might be made subjects of
discussion for years, and as no limitation of time can be prescribed to
the other, a certainty in the opinion of the Spanish officers that the
Indians will be pacific, it will be impossible to suffer it to remain an
obstacle to the fulfillment of the treaty on the part of Spain.

To remove the first difficulty, I have determined to leave it to the
discretion of the officers of His Catholic Majesty when they withdraw
his troops from the forts within the territory of the United States,
either to leave the works