possession of the East and the West Floridas. By the treaty of peace which England was compelled to make this time, all the territory east of the Mississippi, below the thirty-first degree of latitude, was ceded to Spain.
The treaty between the United States and Spain in, 1795, conceded to the former the free navigation of the Mississippi, the right of deposit at New Orleans, and fixed the boundary of the two dominions east of the Mississippi on the thirty-first degree of north latitude, deviating slightly from it towards the Atlantic.
From 1793 to 1797 efforts were made by the agents of France and Spain to prevail upon the people of the south-western territory to separate from the United States, and, with Louisiana in connection with these two powers, form an independent government west of the Alleghany mountains. Genet, the Minister of the French Republic, first fermented the idea, and even went so far as to enlist the sympathies and co-operation of the western people. But his government discovering his acts and recalling him, the United States establishing a strong military force in the West, squelched the movement. Garondolet, the governor of Louisiana, sought to attain the same object. He refused to give up certain posts that fell to the United States by the treaty, and embarrassed the navigation of the Mississippi. He sent secret agents into Ohio and Kentucky and sought to bribe over commanders of military posts to his interests; but finding them incorruptible, his project failed.
Therefore, when the United States ascertained through her Minister at Paris, Mr. Livingston, that the whole of Louisiana had been re-troceded to France by the secret treaty of Ildefonso (1800), as might be expected, was greatly alarmed. While impotent Spain had held dominion there, she had experienced great danger; still more was she imperilled when ambitious and powerful France established herself in so strong and commanding position.
The sagacious Jefferson, then President, comprehending the peril of his country's situation, like a wise and skillful statesman, by one of the most celebrated and strategic strokes of American diplomacy,
