Plenipotentiaries during this negociation, were actuated by, the sole motive of removing erroneous impressions.

Still influenced by the same motive, they will now add, that at the time when the Spanish minister was remonstrating at Washington against the transfer of Louisiana, orders were given by his government for its delivery to France: that it was, in fact, delivered a short time after that remonstrance; and that if the treaty by which the U. States acquired it had not been ratified, would have become, of course, a French colony. The undersigned believe that the evidence of the assent of Spain to that transfer has been promulgated. They neither admit the alledged disability of the Spanish monarch, nor the inference which the British Plenipotentiaries would seem to deduce from it; on the contrary, the assent was voluntarily given in the year 1804, by the same king who, about the same time. ceded Tranidad to G. Britain, and prior to the time when he was again engaged in war with her. The cession by France was immediately communicated to G. Britain, no circumstance affecting it, and then within the knowledge of the U. States, being intentionally concealed from her. She expressed her satisfaction with it; and if in any possible state of the case she would have had a right to question the transaction, it does not appear to the undersigned that she is now authorised to do so.

After stating, generally, that the proclamations of Generals Hull and Smyth were neither authorized nor approved by their government, the undersigned could not have expected that the British Pienipotentiaries would suppose that their statement did not embrace the only part of the proclamations which was a subject of consideration.

The undersigned had, indeed, hoped, that by stating in their note of the 9th ultimo, that the government of the U. States, from the commencement of the war, had been disposed to make peace without obtaining any cession of territory, and by referring to their knowledge of that disposi tion, and to instructions accordingly given from July, 1812, to January, 1814, they would effectually remove the impression that the annexation of Canada to the U. States was the declared object of their government. Not only have the undersigned been disappointed in this expectation, but the only inference which the British Plenipotentiaries have

thought proper to draw from this explicit statement, has been, that either the American government, by not giving instructions subsequent to the pacification of Europe, or the undersigned, by not acting under such instructions, gave no proof of a sincere desire to bring the present regociations to a favorable conclusion. The undersigned did not allude, in reference to the alledged intention to annex Canada to the U. States, to any instructions given by their government subsequently to January last, because, asking at this time for an accession of territory, it was only of its previous disposition that it appeared necessary to produce any proof. So erroneous was the inference drawn by the British Plenipotentiaries, in both respects, that it was in virtue of the instructions of June last, that the undersigned were enabled, in their note of the 24th of Aug. to state, that the causes of the war between the U. States and G. Britain, having disappeared, by the maritime pacification of Europe, they had been authorised to agree to its termination upon a mutual restoration of territory, and without making the conclusion of peace to depend on a successful arrangement of those points on which differences had existed.

Considering the present state of this negociation, the undersigned will abstain, at this time from adducing any evidence or remarks upon the influence which has been exerted over the Indian tribes inhabiting the territories of the U. States, and the nature of those excitements which had been employed by British traders and agents.

The arguments and facts already brought forward by the undersigned, respecting the political condition of those tribes, render it unnecessary for them to make many observations on those of the, British Plenipotentiaries on that subject. The treaties of 1763, and 1783, were those principally alluded to by the undersigned, to illustrate the practice of G. Britain. She did not admit in the first, nor require in the last, any stipulations respecting the Indians who, in one case, had been her enemies, and in the other, her allies, and who, in both instances, feil by the peace within the dominions of that power against whom they had been engaged in the preceeding war..

The negociation of 1761 was quoted for the purpose of proving, what appears to be fully established by the answer of England to the ultimatum of France delivered on

the first of September of that year, that his 'Britannic majesty would not renounce his right of protection over the Indian nations reputed to be within his dominions, that is to say, between the British settlements and the Mississippi. Mr. Pitt's letter, cited by the British Plenipotentiaries, far from contradicting that position, goes still further. It states that the fixation of the new limits to Canada, as proposed by France, is intended to shorten the extent of Canada, which was to be ceded to England, and to lengthen the boundaries of Louisiana, which France was to keep, and in the view to establish what must not be admitted, namely, that all which is not Canada is Louisiana, whereby all the intermediate nations and countries, the true barrier to each province, would be given up to France. This is precisely the principle uniformly supported by the undersigned, to wit, that the recognition of a boundary gives up to the nation, in whose behalf it is made, all the Indian tribes and countries within that boundary. It was on this principle that the undersigned have confidently relied on the treaty of 1783, what fixes and recognizes the boundary of the U. S. without making any reservation respecting Indian tribes.

But the British Plenipotentiaries, unable to produce a solitary precedent of one European power treating for the savages inhabiting with the dominions of another, have been compelled, in support of their prineiple, to refer to the German empire, a body consisting of several independent states, recognized as such by the whole world, and seperately maintaining with foreign powers the relations belonging to such a condition. Can it be necessary to prove that there is no sort of analogy between the political situation of these civilized communities, and that of the wandering tribes of North American savages?

In refering to what the British Plenipotentiaries represent as alarming and novel pretensions, what G. Britain can never recognize," the undersigned might complam that these alledged pretensions have not been stated, either in terms or in substance, as expressed by themselves. This, however, is the less material, as any further recognition of them by G. Britain is not necessary nor required. On the other hand, they can never aduit nor recognize the principles or pretensions asserted in the course of this correspondence By the British Plenipotentiaries, and which, to them, appear novel and alarming.

The article proposed by the British Plenipotentiaries, in their last note, not including the Indian tribes as parties in the peace, and leaving the U. States free to effect its object in the mode consonant with the relations which they have constantly maintained with those tribes, partaking also of the nature of an amnesty, and being at the same time recip rocal, is not liable to that objection; and accords with the views uniformly professed by the undersigned, of placing these tribes precisely, and in every respect, in the same situation as that in which they stood before the commencement of host lities. This article, thus proposing only what the undersigned have so often assured the British, Plenipotentiaries would necessarily follow, if indeed it has not already, as is highly probable, preceded a peace between G. Britain and the U. States. The undersigned agree to admit it, in substance, as a provisional article, subject, in the manner originally proposed by the British government, to the approbation or rejection of the government of the U. States, which, having given no instructions to the undersigned on this point, cannot be bound by any article they may admit on the subject.

It will, of course, be understood, that if, unhappily peace should not be the result of the present negociation, the article thus conditionally agreed to shall be of no effect, and shall not, in any future negociation, be brought forward by either party, by way of argument or precedent. a apă

This article having been presented as an indispensible preliminary, and being now accepted, the undersigned request the British Plenipotentiaries to communicate to t them the project of a treaty embracing all the points deemed material by G. Britain; the undersigned engaging on their part to deliver immediately after, a counter project with res pect to all the articles to which they may not agree, and on the subject deemed material by the U. States, and, which may be omitted in the British project.

JOHN Q. ADAMS, JONA. RUSSELL,
J. A. BAYARD, A. GALLATIN

The undersigned have had the honor of receiving the note of the American Plenipotentiaries of the 13th inst

communicating their acceptance of the article which the undersigned had proposed on the subject of the pacification and rights of the Indian nations.

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The undersigned are happy in being thus relieved from the necessity of recurring to several topics, which though they arose in the course of their discussions,, have only an incidental connection with the difference remaining to be adjusted between the two countries.

With a view to this adjustment the undersigned prefer ing in the present state of the negociation a general statement of the formal arrangement of articles, are willing so far to comply with the request of the American Plenipotentiaries contained in their last note, as to wave the advan tages to which they think they were fairly entitled, of require ing from them the first project of a treaty.

The undersigned having stated at the first conference the points upon which his majesty's government considered the discussions between the two countries as likely to turn, cannot better satisfy the request of the American Plenipotentiaries than by referring them to that conference for a statement of the points which, in the opinion of his majesty's government yet remains to be adjusted,

With respect to the forcible seizure of mariners from ou board merchant vessels on the high seas, and the right of the king of G. Britain to the allegiance of all his subjects, and with respect to the maritime rights of the British em+ pire the undersigued conceive, that after the pretensions asserted by the government of the U. States, a more satisfac. tory proof of the conciliatory spirit of his Majesty's government cannot be given than not requiring any stipulation on those subjects, which though most important in themselves, no longer in consequence of the maritime pacification of Europe, produce the same practical results.

On the subject of the fisheries the undersigned expressed with so much frankuess at the conference already referred to, the views of their government, that they consider any further observations on that topic as unnecessary at the present time, On the question of the boundary between the dominions. of his majesty and those of the U, States, the undersigned are led to expect from the discussion which this subject has already undergone, that the northwest boundary from the Jake of the Woods to the Mississippi, the intended arrange-ment of 1803, will be admitted without objection.