on of the island of Britain.

"What then was the right either of France or Spain to the
possession of the province of Texas? To come to any question
of right between the parties upon the subject you must agree
upon certain conventional principles: where and when your
question of right must become applicable to the facts; and,
as between them, it was a disputed question, and had been so
from the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi river by
La Salle, and from his second expedition to find the mouth
of the Mississippi coming from the ocean, in which he
perished.

"Spain had prior claims to the country, but the claim of
France was founded upon the last voyage of La Salle, and by
extending a supposed derivative right, from the spot where
La Salle landed half way to the nearest Spanish settlement.

"Mr. Monroe and Mr. Charles Pinckney, in their
correspondence with Cevallos, assumed this as a settled
principle between European nations, in the discussion of
right to American territory. It was not contested, but was
not assented to on the part of Spain; and, having found it
laid down by Messieurs Monroe and Pinckney, I argued upon
it, and it was never directly answered by Don Luis De Onis,
who could not controvert it without going to the Pope's
Bull.[89]

"As between France and Spain therefore, I maintained that
the question of right, had always been disputed and never
was settled, from which opinion I have not since varied.
That we had a shadow of right beyond the Sabine I never
believed since the conclusion of the Florida treaty, and, it
is from the date of that treaty, that Great Britain had not
a shadow of right upon the Oregon territory until we have
been pleased to confer it upon her."

* * * * *

"I am, dear sir, with great respect, your very obedient
servant,

J. Q. ADAMS."

To BRANTZ MAYER, ESQ., Baltimore."

[89] Alexander VIth's Bull of Donation.

[90] See "Matthew Carey's general map of the world,"--29th
map--published 1814.--Kennedy's Texas, p. 4.--Mrs. Holley's
Texas.--History of Texas, by D. B. Edwards, preceptor of Gonzales
Seminary, Texas, 1836, p. 14. He says:--"Texas is bounded on the north
by Red river, which divides it from Arkansas, Ozark District,