Brooks: Diploma and the Borderlands 87

message to Congress announced a decision to this effect, which was
carried out in the occupation of the island by both land and naval
forces on December 23, 1817."
 Onis had protested the original venture of McGregor, and now
asked explanations of the President's intent regarding the invasion
of Spanish territory by United States troops." In the following
month he protested the occupation, and Adams answered that if
Spain could have protected her own territory the United States
would not have had to do it for her, and that no conquest from
Spain was intended. The United States troops stayed until after
the signing of the Adams-Onis Treaty, and throughout the nego-
tiation it is evident that the Amelia affair was a source of serious
irritation.
 At the same time Onis relayed home reports of a menacing ven-
ture of certain French Bonapartists, who, after an attempt to form
a colony on the Alabama River as an exile haven, proposed to cap-
ture Texas, eventually enlarging their scheme to include the crown-
ing of Joseph Bonaparte as king of Mexico." While their plot was
brewing, a situation similar to that at Amelia developed at Galves-
ton, where piracies led the United States government to occupy
that island. This time the intervention was based on the claim that
Galveston lay in United States territory."
 The third disturbing factor was the danger that the United
 States would recognize the insurgent Spanish colonies, having
 already given them a distinct status as belligerents by its neu-
 trality legislation. That would of course end hopes of an accord
 between this country and Spain. Conspicuous as the leader of agi-
 tation for this step was Henry Clay, speaker of the House of Rep-
 resentatives. His arguments were based on the declaration of
 independence of the United Provinces of the La Plata at Tucuman
 in 1816, and the victories of San Martin over the Loyalists in Chile
 in the spring of 1817, which gave the independence movement
 definite momentum.
 During 1817 plans were laid to send agents to investigate con-
 ditions in the insurgent countries. These plans finally materialized
 with the sailing of the frigate "Congress" on December 4, carrying
 Caesar A. Rodney, Theodorick Bland, and John Graham as com-
 missioners appointed to report on the history and progress of
 affairs in South America. Onis had reported that in August, when