West Florida Controversy
The first dispute commenced immediately after Spain received the colonies of West and East Florida from the Kingdom of Great Britain following the American Revolutionary War.
After years of disagreement, the dispute was finally resolved with Pinckney's Treaty in 1795, in which both parties agreed on the 31st parallel as the boundary between the United States and West Florida.
The United States laid claim to the region of West Florida between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers, asserting it had been part of French Louisiana.
In 1810, a group of discontented American and British settlers in the area of Baton Rouge learned that the Spanish colonial governor, who had feigned sympathy, was in fact mounting a force against them.
[2] On October 27, the United States president proclaimed that the territory should be annexed, and Spain, then embroiled in the Peninsular War with France, could do little to resist.
In addition to Canada, she ceded to Great Britain the river and port of Mobile and all her possessions on the left side of the Mississippi, except New Orleans and the island on which it was situated.
Spain, with equal earnestness and persistence, maintained that her cession to France comprehended what was at that time denominated Louisiana, consisting of the island of New Orleans and the country west of the Mississippi.
288–291 "Spain upheld her claim to the Floridas and consistently insisted from beginning to end of the territorial controversy with the United States that no just interpretation of the St. Ildefonso treaty and of its resultant Louisiana Purchase treaty would include any part of West Florida in the Louisiana retroceded to France and sold by the nation to the United States.
… [Y]ou must think as unnatural, after all the changes of sovereignty which that part of America has undergone, to give the name of Louisiana to the Mobile district as to territory more north of it, on the same bank of the river, which formerly belonged to France.
[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] However, the ambiguous third article of the treaty of St. Ildefonso lent itself to his purpose, although he had to adopt an interpretation that France had not asserted nor Spain allowed.
After 1783 Spain reunited West Florida to Louisiana, thus completing the province as France possessed it, with the exception of those portions controlled by the United States.
By a strict interpretation of the treaty, therefore, Spain might be required to cede to the United States such territory west of the Perdido as once belonged to France.
[1] p 84-85 Secretary of State James Madison directed Livingston and Monroe "to collect the proofs necessary to substantiate their claim to the Perdido.
… [William C. C.] Claiborne and John Sibley of Natchitoches were inclined to favor the claim to the Perdido, but their views were evidently determined by policy rather than precise information.
In January, 1804, he reiterated to Wilkinson and Claiborne that the limits on the east bank of the Mississippi remain fixed by the treaty of Paris and that Spain had peremptorily refused to include Mobile in the transfer [of 1801].
[1] p. 89 In November, 1803, John Randolph had introduced into the House of Representatives a bill to carry into effect the laws of the United States within its new acquisition.
"These two sections placed a full legislative interpretation on the theories of Livingston, Monroe and Jefferson, and there remained only the open or tacit acquiescence of Spain to make good the title of the United States as far as the Perdido.
"In a violent personal interview which [the Spanish minister to the U.S.,] Marqués de Casa Yrujo held with him, Madison speedily learned that Spain would by no means consent to this interpretation.
The incensed Spaniard demanded the annulment of these offending sections, and gave at great length the Spanish interpretation of the obscure territorial clauses.
"The president then cleared the situation by his proclamation of May 30, 1804," in which he placed all of the waterways and shores mentioned in the Mobile Act, lying within the boundaries of the United States, in a separate revenue district, with Fort Stoddert as its port of entry and delivery.
[1] p. 100 In 1804, Madison assigned a special mission to Monroe, which had as one of the administration's objects to "perfect its title to West Florida," with the right to the Perdido being a sine qua non.
Political, commercial, and strategic motives, as well as personal views, led Livingston, Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson to insist upon including it in the Louisiana Purchase.
100–101 Monroe "sought, but in vain, the influence of the French government in favor of [the U.S.] construction of the treaty, and [also] to help in the acquisition of territory east of the Perdido River.
"Monroe desired to remind Talleyrand [in a letter] of Napoleon's promise the year before to assist the United States in procuring the Floridas."
After Monroe left for Madrid, Napoleon "directed Talleyrand to declare the American claim to West Florida absolutely unfounded and to express a sarcastic interest in the outcome of so unusual a negotiation.
113–116 "In January, 1805, Turreau and Casa Yrujo, [the French and Spanish ministers to Washington,] in an embarrassing interview with Madison, informed him that their governments had come to the joint conclusion that the American claims to West Florida were untenable….
116–117 "Warned by the reports from abroad, the president now expected his envoys to break off the hopeless negotiations and merely attempt to secure the privilege of navigating the Mobile.
"[1][29] p. 118 In Madrid on May 12, 1805, Monroe and the American envoy Charles Pinckney submitted to Spain "the ultimate conditions on which they were authorized to adjust the points depending between the two governments.
… The propositions were absolutely rejected, and Mr. Monroe considering the negotiation concluded, asked and obtained his passports," acknowledging "the utter failure of the mission in all its objects.
46–47 Chambers also explains how, "when the United States purchased Louisiana, it acquired a vitiated title, which, if Spain had been at the zenith of her power, would never have been made good.
