Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 1781] SPAIN CLAIMS GULF OF MEXICO 21 structions as to boundaries and an insistence on the navigation of the Mississippi for the citizens of the United States in common with the subjects of his Catholic Majesty as well as a free port or ports below the northern limit of West Florida for the use of the former. The letter of October 17 entered at length into the demands of Spain, the occupancy of territory east of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-first degree of latitude by right of conquest, and stated "particularly and ably the right of the United States to the free navigation of the river Mississippi, and enumerates the various reasons which induce them (Congress) to decline relinquishing it." ' "The minister, however, did not at any time enter into the merits of these arguments nor appear in the least affected by them. His answer to them all was that the King of Spain must have the Gulf of Mexico to himself; that the maxims of policy adopted in the management of their colonies required it; and that he had hoped the friendly disposition [!] shown by this court toward us would have induced a compliance on the part of Congress."2 Jay had received, May 18, a copy of the resolution of the 15th of February, 1781, through Mr. Lovell. It had been brought to Cadiz by the Virginia. " It is remarkable," says Jay, " that none of the journals or gazettes nor the letters from Congress which Mr. Lovell gave me reason to expect ever came to my hands. But as all the papers brought by the Virginia passed through the hands of the governor of Cadiz, and afterward through the post-office, the suppression of some of them may be easily accounted for."s As Jay had not received the copy of the resolution officially, he thought he was justified in delaying to bring the matter before the Sp...