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��ed, to the august assembly of the Cortes, for their sanction, I have thought it my duty until then, scru- pulously to abstain from prejudicing their judgment, hoping that every intelligent man will duly appre- ciate the motives of delicacy that impel me to this conduct.
An impartial publick will judge, whether the treaty of the 22d February, 1819, (which is impro- perly called a treaty of Cession, as it is in reality one of exchange or jJermiitation of one small pro- vince, for another of double the extent, richer and more fertile,) deserves the epithet of disgraceful; under which it has been painted to his Majesty, and Avhether I have not in it attended to the honour and interest of the nation, somewhat more, in my conception, thein in the treaties of Paris and Vienna, and that of the slave trade which shut the door to the infant prosperity of our American islands, as well as others both anterior and posterior which have unfGrtunately committed the dignity and inte- rests of the country.
I will agree, however, that for greater perspi- cuity, I might have extended the 3d article in the following terms: ^^ In exchange, the United States cede to his Majesty the province of Tehas, &c." as the government wished me to express it; but as I had, in the correspondence which is inserted,* for
- The correspondence alluded to here, is not in the Ap-
pendix to this volume, a 2d one bein^ in the press at Madrid.
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