ruler, America
would, perhaps, have been less free and Europe more tranquil. After the
treaty of Amiens had Produced a general pacification, our Government was
seriously determined to reconquer from America a part of those treasures
its citizens had gained during the Revolutionary War, by a neutrality
which our policy and interest required, and which the liberality of your
Government endured. Hence the acquisition we made of New Orleans from
Spain, and hence the intrigues of our emissaries in that colony, and the
peremptory requisitions of provision for St. Domingo by our Minister and
generals. Had we been victorious in St. Domingo, most of our troops
there were destined for the American Continent, to invade, according to
circumstances, either the Spanish colonies on the terra firma or the
States of the American Commonwealth. The unforeseen rupture with your
country postponed a plan that is far from being laid aside.

You may, perhaps, think that since we sold Louisiana we have no footing
in America that can threaten the peace or independence of the United
States; but may not the same dictates that procured us at Madrid the
acquisition of New Orleans, also make us masters of Spanish Florida? And
do you believe it improbable that the present disagreement between
America and Spain is kept up by our intrigues and by our future views?
Would not a word from us settle in an instant at Madrid the differences
as well as the frontiers of the contending parties in America? And does
it not seem to be the regular and systematic plan of our Government to
provoke the retaliation of the Americans, and to show our disregard of
their privilege of neutrality and rights of independence; and that we
insult them only because we despise them, and despise them only because
we do not apprehend their resentment.

I have heard the late American Minister here assert that the American
vessels captured by our cruisers and condemned by our tribunals, only
during the last war, amounted to about five hundred; and their cargoes
(all American property) to one hundred and fifty millions of
livres--L6,000,000. Some few days ago I saw a printed list, presented by
the American consul to our Minister of the Marine Department, claiming
one hundred and twelve American ships captured in the West Indies and on
the coast of America within these last two years, the cargoes of which
have all been confiscated, and most of the crews still continue prisoners
a