Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... had been informed Mr. Onis had published in Spain a book or a pamphlet giving an account of his mission to this country, and particularly of that negotiation; that I had not seen it, but, from what I had heard of it, Mr. Onis, though he had been far from doing justice to the American Government, had nevertheless admitted that he signed the treaty with the full understanding that all the grants in question were null and void under it, and had insisted with great force that the treaty even thus made was in the highest degree advantageous to Spain; that as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Perez de Castro, had urged, in an official note to Mr. Forsyth, all that the Cortes had wished should be said by the Spanish Government on this subject, and had been answered by Mr. Forsyth, I presumed there would be no occasion for a further discussion of it here; that, at all events, no new disposition of the lands, nor any other alteration of the treaty, could possibly be made without another negotiation and another treaty. He said that for that he had neither instructions nor authority; on the contrary, his orders were merely to submit the observations which he had made to me, and to present the ratification of the treaty, which contained, as had been desired by the American Government, an express declaration of the annulment of the grants; that he did not even think it necessary to commit these observations to writing, but, as there had been intimations abroad as if the Spanish Government were insidiously intending to protract the conclusion of this nego tiation, he had now brought the ratified treaty with him, and would be at any time ready to receive our ratification in return; he had also received the royal order to the Governor and...
