as fully and in the same manner as it had been
retroceded to France by Spain in the treaty of San Ildefonso; and, by
virtue of this grant, Messieurs Madison, Monroe, Adams, Clay, Van Buren,
and Jackson contended that the original limits of the state had been the
Rio Grande. However, by the 3rd article of our treaty with Spain in
1819, all our pretensions to extend the territory of Louisiana towards
Mexico or the Rio Grande, were resigned and abandoned by adopting the
River Sabine as our southern confine in that quarter. See Lyman's
diplomacy of the United States. Vol. 1, p. 368, and vol. 2, p. 136.

The following extract from a valuable letter with which the author was
favored by Ex-President Adams, who, as secretary of state, conducted the
negotiations with Spain, will explain his opinions and acts upon a
subject of so much importance.

QUINCY, 7th July, 1847.

* * * * *

"Whoever sets out with an inquiry respecting the right of
territories in the American hemisphere claimed by Europeans,
must begin by settling certain conventional principles of
right and wrong before he can enter upon the discussion.

"For example what right had Columbus to Cat Island,
otherwise called Guanahani? Who has the right to it now and
how came they by it? The flag of St. George and the Dragon
now waves over it; but who had the right to take possession
of it because Christopher Columbus found it,--the paltriest
island in the midst of the ocean. European statesmen,
warriors, and writers on what are called the laws of
nations, have laid down a system of laws upon which they
found this right. Have the Carribee Indians, in whose
possession that Island was discovered by Columbus, ever
assented to that system of right and wrong?

"You remember that Hume, in commencing his history of
England by the Roman conquest says--"that without seeking
any more justifiable reasons of hostility than were employed
by the later Europeans in subjecting the Africans and the
Americans, they sent over an army under the command of
Plautius, an able general, who gained some victories, and
made a considerable progress in subduing the inhabitants."
Then, no European has ever had any better right to take
possession of America, than Julius Caesar and the Romans had
to take possessi