Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/171

 

province of Texas, situated on the gulf of Mexico between the United States of North America and the Rio Grande, and between latitudes 26° 50′ and 36° 30′, had been for some time, prior to 1819, a subject of disagreement between the American republic and Spain, the former claiming that Louisiana ex tended to the Rio Grande. Her great desire, how ever, was to own Florida in order to possess the whole range of coast from the Sabine River to Nova Scotia. After getting possession of that peninsula the government of the United States voluntarily gave up its alleged right to Texas, by the treaty of February 22, 1819, concluded between the secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, and the Spanish plenipotentiary Luis de Onis. But that treaty caused much dissatisfaction

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