forth in a
diplomatic document. The west was gained by: (1) the westward movement
of the backwoodsmen during the Revolution; (2) the final success of the
Continental armies in the east; (3) the skill of our diplomats at Paris;
failure on any one of these three points would have lost us the west.

Mr. Hinsdale seems to think that Clark's conquest prevented the Illinois
from being conquered from the British by the Spaniards; but this is very
doubtful. The British at Detroit would have been far more likely to have
conquered the Spaniards at St. Louis; at any rate there is small
probability that they would have been seriously troubled by the latter.
The so-called Spanish conquest of St. Joseph was not a conquest at all,
but an unimportant plundering raid.

The peace negotiations are best discussed in John Jay's chapter thereon,
in the seventh volume of Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of
North America." Sparks' account is fundamentally wrong on several
points. Bancroft largely follows him, and therefore repeats and shares
his errors.]

This view of the case is amply confirmed by a consideration of what was
actually acquired under the treaty of peace which closed the
Revolutionary struggle. Map-makers down to the present day have almost
invariably misrepresented the territorial limits we gained by this
treaty. They represent our limits in the west in 1783 as being the Great
Lakes, the Mississippi, and the 31st parallel of latitude from the
Mississippi to the Chattahoochee; [Footnote: The map in Mr. Hinsdale's
book may be given as a late instance.] but in reality we did not acquire
these limits until a dozen years later, by the treaties of Jay and
Pinckney. Two points must be kept in mind: first, that during the war
our ally, Spain, had conquered from England that portion of the Gulf
coast known as West Florida; and second, that when the treaty was made
the United States and Great Britain mutually covenanted to do certain
things, some of which were never done. Great Britain agreed to recognize
the lakes as our northern boundary, but, on the alleged ground that we
did not fulfil certain of our promises, she declined to fulfil this
agreement, and the lake posts remained in her hands until the Jay treaty
was ratified. She likewise consented to recognize the 31st parallel as
our southern boundary, but by a secret article it was agreed that if by
the negotiations she recovered West Florida, then the boundary should
run