96 University of California Publications in History

to the idea of the Colorado River limit, and said plainly that the
United States believed
that LaSalle, a Frenchman, with a commission and authority from Louis XIV,
discovered the Bay of St. Bernard, and formed a settlement there on the west-
ern side of the river Colorado, in the year 1685, and that the possession thus
taken of in the Bay of St. Bernard, in connexion with that on the Mississippi,
had always been understood, as of right it ought, to extend to the Rio Bravo."

 This response of Adams was made only after weeks of prepara-
 tion. It had been discussed at two Cabinet meetings, on January
 31 and March 3, 1818, and submitted to the individual criticism,
 at other times, at least of the President, Secretary of War John C.
 Calhoun, and Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford." It
 was also made subsequent to the administration's decision to stand
 on its own feet in the Spanish negotiation, rejecting the possibility
 of mediation by England.
 Adams in this note replied to Onis' declaration concerning the
 omnipresence of truth in language matching the Spaniard's own,
 a passage as frequently quoted as that of Onis:
 The observation, that truth is of all times, and that reason and justice are
 founded upon immutable principles, has never been contested by the United
 States; but neither truth, reason nor justice consists in stubbornness of asser-
 tion, nor in the multiplied repetition of error."

 Adams then went on to review at length the whole territorial argu-
 ment, attempting to justify the claims based on French expedi-
 tions and accounts, and deprecating the rights acquired by Spain
 through her various settlements in Texas. On La Salle's venture
 Adams was particularly eloquent, saying that his undertaking
 "has every characteristic of sublime genius, magnanimous enter-
 prise, and heroic execution." The secretary repeated the arguments
 in favor of including the French spoliations for the settlement of
 which Spain was liable, trying to appeal to Spanish resentment
 of the manner in which Napoleon toyed with the government of
 Charles IV. But no new propositions were made.
 Onis replied soon after, on March 23, with the comment:
 I wish not to rob La Salle of the glory you are disposed to allow him for his
 brilliant enterprises and sublime philanthropy. But what I have alleged, and
 can prove by the fulleet evidence of which facts of this nature are susceptible,
 is, that La alle did nothing more than traverse ... through territories which,