Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/232

200 rights, claims and pretensions to the territories lying west and south of the above described line ; and, in like manner, his Catholic Majesty ceded to the United States all his rights, claims and pretensions to any territories, east and north of the said line. &quot; All spoliation claims were renounced, and the United States agreed to pay to American citizens all claims against Spain &quot;to an amount not exceeding five millions of dollars.&quot; The treaty contained sixteen articles. (The Public Domain, Donaldson, p. 108, et seq.}

Thus the United States relinquished to Spain the territory from the Sabine to the Rio del Norte, or Colorado, which now forms the State of Texas, and was clearly a part of the Louisiana cession, and assumed the payment of $5,000,000; and received in return East Florida, the confirmation of her title to West Florida and the title of Spain to Oregon by right of discovery. This cession of the Spanish title confirmed the title to Oregon, but left the northern boundary in dispute with Great Britain. Its final settlement many years later threatened to lead to a third war with Great Britain.

This treaty was executed by Secretary Adams and Don Luis de Onis on Washington s birthday, February 22, 1819, and was approved by the President and unanimously ratified by the- Senate on the same day. It was at once forwarded to Spain, and Mr. Forsyth, of Georgia, was appointed minister to Madrid to secure its ratification. An unexpected reluctance to its completion was shown by the Spanish court. It was not until October 24, 1820, that Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, finally ratified it. When returned to Washington, the limitation for the exchange of ratifications having expired, it was necessary for the Senate to pass on it a second time, which was done February 19, 1821, by a unanimous vote.

Thus, after twenty years of inflexible adherence to the sagacious course marked out by Jefferson, the party which he founded had won the final victory of his for-