Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderslads


at Washington it was submitted to Congress by President Madison.
Among its choicer passages is the following:
 The administration of this government having put the stamp upon the
servile meanness and adulation in which they stand in relation to their oraele,
Bonaparte, the day before yesterday, by their direction, Mr. Eppes, the son
in law of the former president, Jeterson, made a proposition that a min-
ister should be sent immediately to Joseph Bonaparte..... a vote was taken,
from which it resulted that, for the present no minister should be sent to
Joseph.
 In the annexed paper you will see all the debates, which for want of time,
 I have not been able to have translated: if your excellent should not be in-
 formed by my former despatehes of the mode of thinking of the present ad-
 ministation, this alone will show you the little hope there is of obtaining any
 thing favorable from it, but by energy, by force, and by chastisement.
 Although the knowledge of such writings would naturally have
 made the administration antagonistic, it is essential to remember
 that the policy of nonrecognition was adopted immediately upon
 Onis' arrival, before his attitude could have been known. Later
 developments, at the time of his official acceptance, also support
 the view that the administration's stand was based upon European
 political exigencies, and not upon objections to Onis.
 After Monroe's appointment, Onis complained to his govern-
 ment that the new secretary of state would not communicate with
 him satisfactorily. He was then officially instructed to inform the
 administration at Washington, "with firmness and dignity," that
 Spain would not long surfer such humiliation." Onis was assured
 that the favorable progress of the Peninsular War and the pacifica-
 tion of revolting Mexico gave Spain the hope of being able to de-
 fend her American frontiers vigorously. In a code message sent
 with this instruction, however, Onis received something of a rebuke
 in the statement of Bardaxi that "notwithstanding that which I
 tell you in my other letter... you must modify somewhat your ex-
 pressions, presenting your notes in language somewhat less harsh."
 WAWrmB EBiOBTB
 As a measure of his accomplishments up to the time of his recogni-
 tion late in 1815, Ons' diplomatic activities may be conveniently
 summarized under the following heads: complaints delivered to the
 United Statee, discussion of Spanish policy in the War of 1812,
 abortive dealings with Monroe on a Florida eesion, and the small