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��France without authority^ seeing the delaration mentioned.
This and other absurdities, of which 1 shall make no merit, such as that of our government hav- ing subscribed to the treaties of Paris and Vienna, Avithout having required that Louisiana should be restored to us, since the province of Etruria, for which we had ceded it to France, had been taken from us, are sufficient to show to every sensible man, that the treaty intended to be concluded with the United States, besides being extremely complicat- ed and difficult, was absolutely necessary to prevent a rupture with the United States, which, it was to be feared, would lead to the loss of the whole, or the greater part, of South America.
This danger then was to be avoided; the fron- tiers of New Spain and New Mexico were to be defined in a suitable manner, so as to separate the Americans as far as possible from these precious possessions; the errours of the treaty of 1795, and of the Convention of 1802, were as far as possible to be corrected, that they might not weigh upon the nation in future; and lastly, it was important to free the national income from the enormous disburse- ments for Avhich it stood committed, and which it was, by no means in a situation to be able to satisfy.
The attempting a work of this importance, at the distance I was from the government, might have appalled one of greater abilities than mine; and
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