ARTICLE 6. The stipulations of the present treaty having no prejudicial object, but on the contrary preserving untouched the rights of every one, it is not to be presumed they can excite the suspicions of any power. But if the contrary should happen, and the result of their execution should be that the two estates are attacked or threatened, both powers engage to make common cause, as well to repel aggression, as also to take those conciliatory measures proper to maintain peace with all their neighbours. ARTICLE 7. The obligations contained in the present treaty in nothing annul those which are expressed in the treaty of alliance signed at St. Ildefonso, on the 2d Fructidor, year 4 (18th August, 1796); on the contrary, they unite with new ties the interests of the two powers, and confirm the stipulations of the treaty of alliance in all the cases to which they can be applied. ARTICLE 8. The ratifications of the present preliminary articles shall be completed and exchanged in the period of one month, or sooner if possible, counting from the date of the signing of the present treaty. In faith of which, we, the undersigned ministers plenipotentiary of the French Republic and of his catholic majesty, by virtue of our respective powers, have signed the present preliminary articles, and have affixed our seals. Done at St. Ildefonso, the 9th Vendimaire, 9th year of the French Republic, (1st October, 1800.) (Signed) ALEXANDER BERTHIER. Mr. Talleyrand to Mr. Monroe: dated PARIS, December 21, 1804. SIR: I had the honour in Brumaire last, to inform Mr. Livingston that I would submit to the inspection of his imperial majesty the letters which he addressed to me, relative to the motives of Mr. Monroe's journey to Spain, and some discussions between the court of Madrid and the United States. Among the observations made on this subject by Messrs. Livingston and Monroe, his imperial majesty has been obliged to give particular attention to those bearing on the discussions, of which the object is peculiarly interesting to the French government. He has perceived that he could not be a stranger to the examination of these discussions, since they grew out of the treaty by which France has ceded Louisiana to the United States; and his majesty has thought that an explanation, made with that fidelity which charac terises him, on the eastern boundaries of the ceded territory, would put an end to the differences to which the cession has given rise. France, in giving up Louisiana to the United States, transferred to them all the right over that colony which she had acquired from Spain. She could not, nor did she wish to cede any other; and that no room might be left for doubt in this respect, she repeated, in her treaty of 30th April, 1803, the literal expressions of the treaty of St. Ildefonso, by which she had acquired that colony two years before. Now, it was stipulated in her treaty of the year 1801, that the acquisition of Louisiana by France was a retrocession; that is to say, that Spain restored to France what she had received from her in 1762. At that period, she had received the territory bounded on the east by the Mississippi, the river Iberville, the lakes Maurapas and Pontchartrain, the same day France ceded to England, by the preliminaries of peace, all the territory to the eastward. Of this Spain had received no part, and could therefore give back none to France. All the territory lying to the eastward of the Mississippi and the river Iberville, and south of the thirty-second degree of north latitude, bears the name of Florida. It has been constantly designated in that way during the time that Spain held it; it bears the same name in the treaty of limits between Spain and the United States, and, in different notes of Mr. Livingston, of a later date than the treaty of retrocession, in which the name of Louisiana is given to the territory on the west side of the Mississippi, of Florida to that on the east side of it. According to this designation, thus consecrated by time, and even prior to the period when Spain began to possess the whole territory between the thirty-first degree, the Mississippi, and the sea, this country ought, in good faith and justice, to be distinguished from Louisiana. Your excellency knows, that before the preliminaries of 1762, confirmed by the treaty of 1763, the French possessions situated near the Mississippi extended as far from the east of this river, towards the Ohio and the Illinois, as in the quarters of the Mobile ; and you must think it as unnatural, after all the changes of sovereignty which that part of America has undergone to give the name of Louisiana to the district of Mobile as to the territory more to the north, on the same bank of the river which formerly belonged to France. These observations surely will be sufficient to dispel every kind of doubt with regard to the retrocession made by Spain to France in the month of Vendimaire, year 9. It was under this impression that the French and the Spanish plenipotentiaries negotiated; and it was under this impression that I have since had occasion to give the necessary explanations when a project was formed to take possession of it. I have laid before his imperial majesty the negotiations of Madrid, which preceded the treaty of 1801; and his majesty is convinced that, during the whole course of these negociations, the Spanish government has constantly refused to cede any part of the Floridas, even from the Mississippi to the Mobile. His imperial majesty has moreover authorized me to declare to you, that at the beginning of the year 11, General Beurnonville was charged to open a new negotiation with Spain for the acquisition of the Floridas. This project, which has not been followed by any treaty, is an evident proof that France had not acquired, by the treaty retroceding Louisiana, the country east of the Mississippi. The candour of these observations proves to you, sir, how much value his majesty attaches to the maintenance of a good understanding between two powers, to whom France is united by connexions so intimate and so numerous. His majesty, called upon to give explanations on a question which interested France, directly pursuades himself that they will leave no ground of misunderstanding between the United States and Spain; and that these two powers, animated as they ought to be by the sentiments of friendship, which their vicinity and their position renders so necessary, will be able to agree with the same facility on the other subjects of their discus sion. This result his imperial majesty will learn with real interest. He saw with pain the United States commence their differences with Spain in an unusual manner, and conduct themselves towards the Floridas by acts of violence; which, not being founded in right, could have no other effect but to injure its lawful owners. Such an aggression gave the more surprise to his majesty, because the United States seemed in this measure to avail themselves of their treaty with France as an authority for their proceeding; and because he could scarcely reconcile with the just opinion which he entertains of the wisdom and fidelity of the federal government, a course of proceeding which nothing can authorize towards a power which has long occupied, and still occupies, one of the first ranks in Europe. But the federal government having entered the path of negotiation, and the question which divided the two powers being cleared up, there is reason to hope that they will easily agree on the other points; and this his majesty, from the sincere interest which he feels for the equal prosperity of the two nations, ardently desires. Accept, sir, &c., CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. Extract from the royal order of the king of Spain for the delivery of the province of Louisiana to the French republic, dated Barcelona, October 15, 1802. Don Carlos, by the grace of God king of Castile, Leon, Aragon, of the two Sicilies, of Jerusalem, Navarre, Grenada, Toledo, Valencia, Gallicia, Majorca, Minorca, Seville, Sardinia, Cardova, Corsica, Murcia, Jaen, of the Algarves, Algesiras, Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, of the East and West Indies, of the Islands and Continent of the Ocean, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Bur gundy, of Brabant and Milan, Count of Apsburg, Flanders, Tyrol and Barcelona, Lord of Biscay and Molina, &c. Whereas, I have judged it proper to retrocede to the French republic the colony and province of Louisiana, I command you, as soon as these presents are exhibited to you by General Victor, or any other officer duly authorized by said republic to receive the same, to put him in possession of the colony of Louisiana and its dependencies, together with the city and island of New Orleans, with the same limits it has at present, which it had whilst it belonged to France, and at the time she ceded it to my royal crown, and such as it ought to be found after the treaties successively concluded between my states and those of other powers, in order that henceforth the same may belong to said republic, and that she may cause it to be administered and governed by her own officers and governors, as her own possession, without any exception whatever. Act of Delivery of the Province of Louisiana by Spain to France. The undersigned, citizen Pierre Clement Laussat, colonial prefect, commissioner on the part of the French government, to receive possession in the name of the French republic, of the colony or province of Louisiana, from the hands of the officers and other agents of his catholic majesty, agreeably to the full powers which he has received, in the name of the French people, from Citizen Bonaparte, first consul, under date of the 17th Prairial, year 11, (6th June, 1803,) countersigned by Hugues Maret, secretary of state, and by his excellency Decres, minister of marine and of the colonies, and recently delivered in person to the commissioners of his said catholic majesty, together with the royal order, dated from Barcelona, 15th October, 1802. And the said commissioners of his catholic majesty, Don Manuel de Salcedo, brigadier in the king's armies, military and political governor of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, inspector of the veteran troops and militia of said provinces, royal vice patron, sub-delegate, judge of the superintendence of the post-office department, &c., and Don Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta y O'Farrell, Marquis of Casa Calvo, knight of the order of St. James, brigadier in the king's armies, and colonel of the infantry regiment of the Havana, appointed commissioner of his catholic majesty, for the delivery of this province to the French republic, according to the royal order of the 18th Feb., 1803: Certify by these presents, that, on this eighth day of Frimaire, in the twelfth year of the French republic, and thirtieth November, VOL. II. 66 1803, having assembled in the hall of the hotel of the city of New Orleans, accompanied on either part by the chiefs and officers of the armies of land and sea, the secular and ecclesiastical cabildo, the administration of finances of the king of Spain, the civil administration, and by other distinguished persons of their respective nations, said Citizen Laussat delivered to the said commissioners of his catholic majesty the above mentioned full powers from Citizen Bonaparte, first consul of the French republic; and immediately after, the said Manuel de Salcedo and the Marquis of Casa Calvo declared that, by virtue of, and in conformity to the terms of the order of the king of Spain, dated from Barcelona, the 15th October, 1802, and countersigned by Don Pedro Cevallos, first secretary and counsellor of state, they, from that moment, did put the said French commissioner, Citizen Laussat, in possession of the colony of Louisiana and its dependencies, as also of the city and island of New Orleans, with the same extent which they have on this day, and which they had while in the hands of France, when she ceded the same to the royal crown of Spain, and such as they ought to have been since the treaties successively concluded between the states of his catholic majesty and those of other powers, in order that the same may henceforth belong to the French republic, and be governed and administered by its officers or governors, in such manner as will best suit its interests; and they have, accordingly, solemnly delivered to him the keys of this place, declaring that they absolve from the oath of fidelity to his said majesty, all such inhabitants as may choose to continue in the service or dependence of the French republic. And to the end that the same may forever hereafter appear by this solemn act, the undersigned have signed these presents in the French and Spanish languages, have hereto affixed their seals, and caused the same to be countersigned by the secretaries of the respective commissions, the day, month, and year above written. LAUSSAT. By the colonial prefect and commissioner on the part of the French government. DAUGEROT, Secretary to the Commission. MANUEL DE SALCEDO, EL MARQUEZ DE CASA CALVO. ANDRES LOPEZ ARMISTO, Below is written: So del Gobo. y de la Comm'on. Deposited in the archives of the city hall of this commune, New |