urt of Madrid, that whilst at
that court he had laid the foundation of a treaty with Spain for the
cession of the Floridas, and the settlement of the boundary of
Louisiana, fixing the western limit of the latter at the Rio Grande,
agreeably to the understanding of France; that he had written home
to our government for power to complete and sign this negotiation;
but that, instead of receiving such authority, the negotiation was
taken out of his hands, and transferred to Washington, and a new
treaty was there concluded, by which the Sabine, and not the Rio
Grande, was recognized and established as the boundary of Louisiana.
Finding that these statements were true, and that our government did
really give up that important territory, when it was at its option
to retain it, I was filled with astonishment. The right to the
territory was obtained from France, Spain stood ready to acknowledge
it to the Rio Grande, and yet the authority asked by our minister to
insert the true boundary was not only withheld, but, in lieu of it,
a limit was adopted which stripped us of the whole vast country
lying between the two rivers."

The letter containing this statement Aaron Vail Brown kept concealed
from the public until March, 1844, when he gave it publicity to
counteract a letter from Mr. Webster against the annexation of Texas to
the United States. This statement of Andrew Jackson having thus been
brought to the knowledge of Mr. Adams, he took occasion, on the 7th of
October in that year, in an address to a political society of young men
in Boston, to contradict and expose it in the following terms:

"I have read the whole of this letter to you, for I intend to
prolong its existence for the benefit of posterity." [After reading
the above extract from the letter of Andrew Jackson, Mr. Adams
proceeds.] "He was filled with astonishment, fellow-citizens! I am
repeating to you the words of a man who has been eight years
President of the United States; words deliberately written, and
published to the world more than a year after they were written;
words importing a statement of his conduct in his office as chief
magistrate of this Union; words impeaching of treason the government
of his predecessor, James Monroe, and in an especial manner, though
without daring to name him, the Secretary of State,--a government to
which he (A