model. In this, however, the following changes are to be made.

We should be admitted to all the dominions of Spain, to which any other foreign nation is, or may be admitted.

Article 5 being an exemption from a particular duty in France, will of course be omitted, as inapplicable to Spain.

Article 8 to be omitted, as unnecessary with Morocco, and inefficacious, and little honorable with any of the Barbary powers. But it may furnish occasion to sound Spain on the project of a convention of the powers at war with the Barbary States, to keep up, by rotation, a constant cruise of a given force on their coasts, till they shall be compelled to renounce forever, and against all nations, their predatory practices. Perhaps the infidelities of the Algerines to their treaty of peace with Spain, though the latter does not choose to break openly, may induce her to subsidize us to cruise against them with a given force.

Article 9 and 10, concerning fisheries, to be omitted, as inapplicable.

Article 11. The first paragraph of this article, respecting the droit d'aubaine, to be omitted; that law being supposed peculiar to France.

Article 17, giving asylum in the ports of either to the armed vessels of the other, with the prizes taken from the enemies of that other, must be qualified as it is in the 19th article of the Prussian treaty; as the stipulation in the latter part of the article, "that no shelter or refuge shall be given in the ports of the one to such as shall have made prize on the subjects of the other of the parties," would forbid us in case of a war between France and Spain, to give shelter in our ports to prizes made by the latter on the former, while the first part of the article would oblige us to shelter those made by the former on the latter-a very dangerous covenant, and which ought never to be repeated in any other instance.

Article 29. Consuls should be received in all the ports at which the vessels of either party may be received.

Article 30, concerning free ports in Europe and America.

Free ports in the Spanish possessions in America, and particularly at the Havana, San Domingo, in the island of that name, and St. John of Porto Rico, are more to be desired than expected. It can, therefore, only be recommended to the best endeavors of the commissioners to obtain them. It will be something to obtain for our vessels, flour, &c., admission to those ports during their pleasure. In like manner, if they could be prevailed on to re-establish our right of cutting log-wood in the bay of Campeachy, on the footing on which it stood before the treaty of 1763, it would be desirable, and not endanger, to us, any contest with the English, who, by the Revolution treaty, are restrained to the south-eastern parts of Yucatan.

Article 31. The act of ratification, on our part, may require a twelvemonth from the date of the treaty, as the Senate meets regularly but once a year; and to return it to Madrid, for exchange, may require four months more. It would be better, indeed, if Spain would send her ratification to be exchanged by her representative here.

The treaty must not exceed twelve or fifteen years' duration, except the clauses relating to boundary, and the navigation of the Mississippi, which must be perpetual and final. Indeed, these two subjects had better be in a separate instrument.

There might have been mentioned a third species of arrangement, that of making special agreements on every special subject of commerce, and of setting a tariff of duty to be paid on each side, on every particular article; but this would require in our commissioners a very minute knowledge of our commerce, as it is impossible to foresee every proposition of this kind which might be brought into discussion, and to prepare them for it by information and instruction from hence. Our commerce, too, is, as yet, rather in a course of experiment, and the channels in which it will ultimately flow, are not sufficiently known to enable us to provide for it by special agreement. Nor have the exigencies of our new government, as yet, so far developed themselves, as that we can know to what degree we may or must have recourse to commerce for the purposes of revenue.

No

common consideration, therefore, ought to induce us, as yet, to arrangements of this kind. Perhaps nothing should do it with any nation, short of the privileges of natives in all their possessions, foreign and domestic.

It were to be wished, indeed, that some positively favorable stipulations respecting our grain, flour, and fish, could be obtained, even on our giving reciprocal advantages to some other commodities of Spain, say her wines and brandies.

But, 1st. If we quit the ground of the most favored nation, as to certain articles for our convenience, Spain may insist on doing the same for other articles for her convenience, and thus our commissioners will get themselves on the ground of a treaty of detail, for which they will not be prepared.

2d. If we grant favor to the wines and brandies of Spain, then Portugal and Spain will demand the same; and in order to create an equivalent, Portugal may lay a duty on our fish and grain, and France, a prohibition on our whale oils, the removal of which will be proposed as an equivalent.

This much, however, as to grain and flour, may be attempted. There has, not long since, been a considerable duty laid on them in Spain. This was while a treaty on the subject of com-" merce was pending between us and Spain, as that court considers the matter. It is not generally thought right to change the state of things pending a treaty concerning them. On this consideration, and on the motive of cultivating our friendship, perhaps the commissioners may induce them to restore this commodity to the footing on which it was, on opening the conferences with Mr. Gardoqui, on the 26th day of July, 1785. If Spain says, "do the same by your tonnage on our vessels," the answer may be, that our foreign tonnage affects Spain very little, and other nations very much; whereas the duty on flour in Spain affects us very much, and other nations very little. Consequently, there would be no equality in reciprocal relinquishment, as there had been none in the reciprocal innovation; and Spain, by insisting on this, would, in fact, only be aiding the interests of her rival nations, to whom we should be forced to extend the same

indulgence. At the time of opening the conferences, too, we had, as yet, not erected any system; our government itself being not yet erected. Innovation then was unavoidable on our part, if it be innovation to establish a system. We did it on fair and general ground; on ground favorable to Spain. But they had a system, and, therefore, innovation was avoidable on their part,

The

It is known to the commissioners that we found it expedient to ask the interposition of France, lately, to bring on this settlement of our boundary, and the navigation of the Mississippi. How far that interposition has contributed to produce it, is uncertain. But we have reason to believe that her further interference would not produce an agreeable effect on Spain. commissioners, therefore, are to avoid all further communications on the subject with the ministers of France, giving them such explanations as may preserve their good dispositions. But if, ultimately, they shall find themselves unable to bring Spain to agreement on the subject of the navigation and boundary, the interposition of France, as a mutual friend, and the guarantee of our limits, is then to be asked, in whatever light Spain may choose to consider it.

Should the negotiations on the subject of navigation and boundary assume, at any time, an unhopeful aspect, it may be proper that Spain should be given to understand, that, if they are discontinued without coming to any agreement, the Government of the United States cannot be responsible for the longer forbearance of their western inhabitants. At the same time the abandonment of the negotiation should be so managed as that, without engaging us to a further suspension of the exercise of our rights, we may not be committed to resume them on the inThe present turbid situation of Europe cannot leave us long without a safe occasion of resuming our territory and navigation, and of carving for ourselves those conveniences, on the shores, which may facilitate and protect the latter effectually and permanently.

stant.

We had a right to expect that, pending a negotiation, all things would have remained in statu quo, and that Spain would

not have proceeded to possess herself of other parts of our territory. But she has lately taken and fortified a new post on the Walnut hills, above the mouth of the Yazoo river, and far above the 31st degree. This garrison ought to have been instantly dislodged; but for our wish to be in friendship with Spain, and our confidence in her assurances "to bide by the limits established in our treaty with England," complaints of this unfriendly and uncandid procedure may be brought forward or not, as the commissioners shall see expedient.

XXVII.-Report on the case of Charles Russell and others, claiming certain lands.

January 21, 1792.

The Secretary of State, to whom was referred, by the President of the United States, the letter of the Governor of Virginia of January 7th, 1792, with the report of a committee of the House of Delegates of that commonwealth, of December 12th, 1791, and resolution of the General Assembly thereon, of December 17th, on the case of Charles Russell, late an officer in the service of the said commonwealth, stating that a considerable part of the tract of country allotted for the officers and soldiers having fallen into the State of North Carolina on the extension of their common boundary, the legislature of the said State had, in 1781, passed an act substituting in lieu thereof the tract of country between the said boundary and the rivers Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and subjecting the same to the claims of their officers and soldiers. That the said Charles Russell had in consequence thereof, directed warrants for two thousand six hundred and sixty-six and two-thirds acres of land to be located within the said tract of country; but that the same belonging to the Chickasaws, he is unable to obtain a right thereto, and that there are other officers and soldiers of the said commonwealth under like circumstances:

Reports, That the tract of country before described, is within