THE FEDERAL AND STATE CONSTITUTIONS COLONIAL CHARTERS, AND OTHER OF THE STATES, TERRITORIES, AND NOW OR HERETOFORE FORMING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Compiled and Edited under the Act of Congress of June 30, 1906 By FRANCIS NEWTON THORPE, Ph. D., LL. D. VOL. II WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 FLORIDA TREATY BETWEEN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES-1795 [This treaty, which can be found in volume eight of the Statutes at Large, edition of 1848, pages 138-153, provides that: "The southern boundary of the United States, which divides their territory from the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida, shall be desig nated by a line beginning on the river Mississippi, at the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of latitude north of the equator, which from thence shall be drawn due east to the middle of the river Apalachicola, or Catahouche, thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint: thence straight to the head of Saint Mary's River, and thence down the middle thereof to the Atlantic Ocean." It was agreed that a commissioner and a surveyor should be appointed by each of the contracting parties, who should meet at Natchez and proceed to run and mark this boundary; and it was further agreed that the two high contracting parties should, by all the means in their power, maintain peace and harmony among the several Indian nations who inhabit the country adjacent to the lines and rivers which formed the boundaries of the two Floridas.] a TREATY WITH SPAIN CEDING FLORIDA-1819 @ Treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty. The United States of America and His Catholic Majesty, desiring to consolidate, on a permanent basis, the friendship and good correspondence which happily prevails between the two parties, have @ This treaty was concluded February 22, 1819. The ratifications were exchanged February 22, 1821, and proclaimed February 22, 1821. By the treaty of Saint Ildefonso, made October 1, 1800, Spain had ceded Louisiana to France; and France, by the treaty of Paris, signed April 30, 1803, had ceded it to the United States. Under this treaty the United States claimed the countries between the Iberville and the Perdido. Spain contended that her cession to France comprehended only that territory which, at the time of the cession, was denominated Louisiana, consisting of the island of New Orleans, and the country which had been originally ceded to her by France west of the Mississippi. Congress passed a joint resolution, approved January 15, 1811, declaring that the United States, under the peculiar circumstances of the existing crisis, could not, without serious inquietude, see any part of this disputed territory pass into the hands of any foreign power; and that a due regard to their own safety compelled them to provide, under certain contingencies, for the temporary occupation of the disputed territory; they, at the same time, declaring that the territory should, in their hands, remain subject to future negotiation. An act of Congress, approved on the same day, authorized the President to take possession of and occupy all or any part of the territory lying east of the river Perdido and south of the State of Georgia and the Mississippi Territory, in case an arrangement had been, or should be, made with the local authority of the said territory, for delivering up the possession of the same, or any part thereof, to the United States, or in the event of an attempt to occupy the said territory, or any part thereof, by any foreign government. 649 |