Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/356

324 Retrocession of Louisiana by Spain. [isoo which Spain acknowledged the parallel of 31 north latitude as the southern boundary of the United States, agreed to withdraw her troops from American territory, and made New Orleans a port of deposit for American traders. But when, in 1797, commissioners were sent to take possession of the Spanish forts and posts in the disputed territory, the quarrel with France was at its height ; and Spain, hoping in the event of war to be able to acquire the converted region for ever, put forward one excuse after another, and retained some of the forts down to 1799. To France the Spanish treaty of 1795 was as displeasing as that with Great Britain. The news that Spain had adjusted her long dispute with the United States and was about to withdraw south of the parallel of 31 alarmed Talleyrand. "The Court of Madrid, 1 ' he wrote in 1798 to the new minister whom he was sending thither, "ever blind to its own interests and never docile to the lessons of experience, has again quite recently adopted a measure which cannot fail to produce the worst effects upon its political existence and on the preservation of its colonies. The United States has been put in possession of the forts situated along the Mississippi, which the Spaniards had occupied as posts essential to arrest the progress of the Americans in those countries." In his opinion the Americans should be shut up " within the limits which nature seems to have traced out for them." But, as Spain was in no condition to accomplish this herself, she should cede to France East and West Florida, which bounded the United States on the south, and the vast wilderness called Louisiana (ceded by France to Spain in 1763), which bounded it on the west. The scheme for the time being failed ; and a year later Talleyrand fell from power. But, with the rise of Napoleon, Talleyrand was recalled to office ; and Spain was again asked to give up Louisiana. This time the demand was obeyed; and on October 1, 1800, a treaty retroceding Louisiana to France was secretly signed at San Ildefonso. In America at that time the canvass for a Presidential election was well under way. The Federalists had selected John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney as their candidates for President and Vice-President, and the Republicans Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Already the triumph of the Republicans seemed assured. The steady growth of the party for years past, the unwise enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the new taxes necessitated by the French war, the widespread belief that the Federalists were a British party bent on establishing a monarchy, had done their work ; and, when the electoral votes were counted, it appeared that Adams and Pinckney were defeated. But neither Jefferson nor Burr was elected. As the Constitution then read, each elector wrote on his ballot the names of two men. When the ballots were opened and counted in the presence of Congress, the can- didate who had received the highest number of electoral votes, provided this were a majority of the total cast, was to be declared President ; and he who received the next highest number, even though less than a majority,