Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 3.djvu/47

1805. with your Excellency's propositions for the arrangement of the whole business." He flattered himself in vain; ten days passed without an answer.  May 1, at a private interview, he tried to obtain some promise of action, without better result than the usual obliging Spanish expressions; a week afterward he made another attempt, with the same reply, followed on Monroe's part by an offer to concede even the point of dignity.  "Would Señor Cevallos listen to a new and more advantageous offer on the part of the United States?" Cevallos replied that such a step would be premature, as the discussion was not yet ended. Monroe had no choice but to break through the diplomatic net in which he had wound himself; and at length, May 12, 1805, he sent a general ultimatum to the Spanish government: If Spain would cede the Floridas, ratify the claims convention of August, 1802, and accept the Colorado as the Texan boundary, the United States would establish a neutral territory a hundred miles wide on the eastern bank of the Colorado, from the Gulf to the northern boundary of Louisiana; would assume the French spoliation claims, abandon the entrepôt claims, and accept the cession of West Florida from the King, thereby abandoning the claim that it was a part of Louisiana.