Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/159

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��rendered us in our glorious strus^gle to maintain our independence. It cannot be supposed, that if she had had an interest in destroying Spain and taking possession of her rich ultramarine estates, she would have neglected to do it, when there was no- thing to prevent lier; but the Nation has another more powerful safeguard in the anns of her sons, and may whenever she pleases place her posses- sions beyond the power of insult from any foreign power whatever, that attempts either secretly or openly to assail her. Let her adopt the measures that a sound policy dictates, and never manifest un- founded fears that she may dispel as smoke, by her prudence and courage.

The idea that it would be more advantasreous to the nation to let the Duke of Alagon keep his lands and abandon the Floridas to their fate, than it would be to support the dignity of the nadonal character, is truly new. Besides, instead of these lands of the Duke of Alagon being worth 8 millions of dollars, it is doubtful whether they are worth at the present day three or four hundred thousand. The laws that protect the property of the individual in the United States, Would not protect the Spaniard more than the American, and there can be no doubt it would have been preferable to sell them for the benefit of the treasury and to pay the claims of Ame- rican citizens with their produce, than to keep them for the Duke of Alagon; and at all events the mo-

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