| 52 | HISTORY |
States. To permit the free navigation of the river appeared to Spain like laying the foundation for the ultimate loss of her American possessions.
The settlements in the valley were separated by wide stretches of wilderness, with no prospect of markets or access to the commerce of the world, save through the Spanish dominions. These settlements were surrounded by hostile Indians and remote from protection of the home government. Their navigable rivers all led to the Mississippi. Spain saw the necessity and used all of these arguments to persuade settlers to unite with the Spanish possessions and separate themselves from the United States. The pressure was increased by levying heavy duties upon all imports the settlers received by way of the lower Mississippi. These duties were arbitrary. Every boat passing up or down the lower river was required to land and submit to these exactions under penalty of seizure, Confiscation and imprisonment of the crew. The Spanish officers enriched themselves from these exorbitant taxes.
The pioneers of the valley were poor, and endured all the hardships and privations inseparable from settlement in a wild country. They were wholly dependent upon their own ingenuity and toil for the common necessaries of life and they felt keenly the merciless taxation that was levied upon a traffic which brought them a scanty supply of groceries and hardware in exchange for their products. Spain insolently refused to even grant them the free navigation of the river, unless they would unite their fortunes with Spanish Louisiana and separate from their own kindred and country.
In 1786 John Jay, the American minister to Spain, having failed to procure concessions from the government on this point, in compliance with instructions from Washington, almost consented to waive the right of free navigation for twenty years, provided Spain would concede that right at the expiration of that period.
