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The steady pressure of the Georgians westward had perhaps served to convince the Spaniards that they could not hold the ground.

Mr. Martin states still another series of facts that contributed to the grand result.* Baron Carondelet early determined to rest his final decision in regard to the delivery of the forts upon the success or failure of a further effort to detach the Western country from the Union. He sent an emissary, Thomas Powers, to Tennessee and Kentucky to confer with the former correspondents of the governors of Louisiana. After an eventful experience Powers returned to New Orleans in January, 1798, with a disheartening report; the day had passed when the Spanish coterie in the Ohio Valley cared longer to toy with the Spaniard, and Gayoso, to whom the report was made, dismissed the subject.

On April 9 Commissioner Ellicott left Natchez for the field of active operations, and we may date the beginning of the survey from that time. What with dense canebrakes to be cut through, swamps, bayous, and rivers to be crossed, wildernesses to be tracked, supplies to be brought from long distances, Indian hostilities caused by Spanish "crooked talks" to be overcome, instruments and baggage to be transported, and occasional lapses into Spanish procrastination, the survey proved very slow and laborious. Two full years were spent in establishing the line. On his return to Philadelphia Ellicott had been absent almost four years. His history of the survey has slight interest save for historical and scientific specialists. He tells us that in 1797-'98 a plan was formed "to add to the Union the two Floridas, with the island of New Orleans, provided the Spaniards either committed hostilities against the citizens of the United States at Natchez or joined France in a contest against us. From the secrecy, talents, and enterprise of those concerned, added to a temporary system of finance and a deposit of arms, there could not possibly be any doubt of the complete and almost instantaneous success of the plan had it been attempted."t

Reference has been made to the issue between Congress and Georgia over the Yazoo lands. Disregarding the State's protest, but at the same time creating a commission to adjust and

* History of Louisiana, pp. 271-273; 274, 275.

+ Journal, p. 175.

settle pending questions, Congress passed an act in April, 1798, creating the Territory of Mississippi, which exactly coincided in extent with the territory over which the two powers had waged a long contest, and giving it a government like that of the Northwest Territory. Winthrop Sargent, who had been the Secretary of that Territory, was appointed governor, and he duly organized the government in September of that year. Ellicott testifies that, although the shadow of the Spanish jurisdiction that remained was finally withdrawn in January, 1798, and the inhabitants were left without law or government until September following, he never heard of a single outrage committed in the Territory, save by a small number of Spaniards.* It must be said to the commissioner's credit that, while he may sometimes have erred in discretion in discharging his delicate duties, he showed a courage, firmness, and devotion to his country that are worthy of all praise.t

*Journal, p. 167.

The Mississippi historians treat Ellicott with much severity. It appears that he had been sent by the President in 1791 to run the line between the State of Georgia and the Creek Indians, but that the Creeks would not allow the line to be run. Claiborne writes the history of the survey with partisan animus. See "Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State," Chaps. XIX, XX.

XXIV. THE HISTORIC POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES AS TO

ANNEXATION.

By PROFESSOR SIMEON E. BALDWIN, LL.D.

OF YALE UNIVERSITY.

THE HISTORIC POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES AS TO ANNEX

ATION.

By SIMEON E. BALDWIN.

The United States, according to President Lincoln, was "formed in fact by the Articles of Association in 1774." But the self-styled "Continental Congress," which framed those articles, represented and claimed to represent but a small portion of the American continent. The eleven colonies, whose delegates met at Carpenter's Hall, October 20, 1774, and those of the three counties of Delaware who sat with them on equal terms, though really a part of the proprietary government of Pennsylvania, were in actual possession of but a narrow strip of territory on the Atlantic seaboard, running back no farther than the line of the Alleghanies. To the southward lay Georgia, East Florida, West Florida, and Louisiana; to the northward Nova Scotia and Canada; and on their western frontiers Parliament had recently put the boundary of the new Province of Quebec.

It was the hope of Congress that their ranks might be swelled by the accession of all the British colonies or provinces on our continent. On October 26 a stirring appeal to unite in the Articles of Association, adopted two days before, was addressed to the inhabitants of Quebec. "We defy you," wrote Congress, "casting your view upon every side, to discover a single circumstance, promising from any quarter the faintest hope of liberty to you or your posterity, but from an entire adoption into the Union of these colonies." What, it was

urged, would your great countryman, Montesquieu, say to you were he living to-day? "Would not this be the purport of his address? Seize the opportunity presented to you by Providence itself. You have been conquered into liberty, if you act as you ought. This work is not of man. You are a small

S. Mis. 104- -24

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