Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlnds 99

 In February, 1818, Onis complained to Adams on behalf of the
Spanish vice-consul at New Orleans, Diego Morphy, who had been
assaulted by a French resident there. The Washington govern-
ment told Onis orders had been sent for the arrest of the culprit,
but at the same time demanded of the minister an explanation of
the Meade affair. Indignation over the latter ran high in this coun-
try. Onis had then to send home for information in that case, of
which he pleaded ignorance."
 Enough news of the Meade affair had been received in this coun-
try for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to resolve that
Meade deserved the protection of his government, and "that what-
ever intentional injury may be done him should be retaliated by
the employment, if necessary, of the force of the nation."" The
Meade case was later to cause a serious complication in the claims
settlement provided in the Adams-Onis Treaty.
 Objects seemingly as far remote from diplomacy as a door lamp
and a dead chicken added to Onis' anxieties. He complained to
Adams in February, 1818, that Spanish American revolutionary
agents had become insulting to him and to his government. First,
he said, they threw stones and broke his windows. Then they broke
the lamp outside his door. And finally they hung a dead fowl to the
bell-cord, in mockery, as Onis interpreted it, of the debility of the
Spanish monarchy. Not only diplomatic protection but personal
and national honor he felt were involved in these affronts. He re-
fused to be satisfied with Adams' explanation that these were but
the pranks of children, and wrote that some night the plotters
might set his house on fire, "or commit some other offence to whick
Foreign Ministers accredited to civilized Powers are never ex-
posed.""
 Meanwhile, in heights of oratory, Clay had carried on the fight
 for recognition of the insurgent colonies-at the same time carry-
 ing terror to Onis. His appeal in the House of Representatives on
 March 24 for funds for a diplomatic mission to Buenos Aires was
 a forensic exhibition. The measure lost, however, by the wide mar-
 gin of 115 votes to 45, presumably because of the influence of the
 administration. It was with real relief, but still with anxiety, that
 Onis reported the adjournment of Congress in April. He warned
 his chief that if affairs were not settled before the opening of the
 next session, set for November 13, 1818, that meeting would see the