Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/250

230 statement like this? If he meant it to have any bearing upon this case at all, he desired to make us believe that the United States had made a treaty with Spain for the cession of what was called West Florida, that such treaty was pending before the Senate, and that during the pendency of that treaty, before it had been acted upon, in order to protect an inchoate right accrued to us there, President Madison ordered the Army into that territory to take and hold military possession. Sir, this is perhaps one of the most glaring misrepresentations of our history I ever heard of from any official, nay, I had almost said from any respectable source.

Does the Senator question that President Madison did send the Army?

Ah! I am about to tell the Senator what I do question.

I suppose the point the Senator makes against the Secretary is on the question whether the troops were sent there in reference to the question of boundary, or whether they were sent there pending the treaty.

No, sir. If the Senator will permit me I will make my own points.

Well, sir, I will not interrupt you again.

With due respect, I am always glad to be interrupted by the courteous Senator from New Jersey, but then I cannot permit him to make for me other points than those which I intended to make for myself.

Now, sir, the origin of that case the Secretary of the Navy might have discovered if he had simply referred to a very popular book on the history of the United States—I mean Hildreth's work, second series, volume three. He would have found there, on page 223, the following statement: