Brooks: Diplomacy and the BorderiSeds


the failure to obtain Texas. Jackson, so Adams testifies, expressed
the same opinion, although many years later the General de-
nounced that failure.u Other members of the Cabinet voiced their
opinions not only to Adams and Monroe, but, to the disgust of the
secretary, also directly to Onis and Hyde de Neuville.
 Monroe, anxious to reach a settlement, would have accepted
Hyde de Nenville's proposal of turning the line from the Bed
River at longitude 100 west, and running it to the Pacific along
the Forty-third Parallel. Adams, on the other hand, was more
firm. He drafted a project dated February 6, proposing a line be-
tween 1010 and 1020, with the line to the ocean along the Forty-
first Parallel He added the stipulation that Spain should make
no settlements on the Red or the Arkansas River, and that the
navigation of those streams should remain to the United States.
 Onis, fearing as did Adams that the disgust shown in Congress
and in the press at the failure to obtain Texas might jeopardize the
whole arrangement, hastened to reach an agreement. He tried still
another counterproposal on the ninth, but wrote home that if he
could not obtain any further concessions he would sign on Adams'
terms." He did in fact get an important concession on the limits,
for which Spain had to thank Onis' pertinacity alone.
 The project which he delivered difered from preceding ones in
no material way except regarding the boundary. He planned to
have it drawn along the Sabine from the Gulf to latitude 320
north, thence directly north to the Bed River, following that river
westward to longitude 1000 west, north on that line to the Arkan-
sas, up it to the Forty-second Parallel, west along that line to the
Multnomah, down it to the Forty-third Parallel, and thence west
to the Pacific." Both this proposal and the treaty which was ulti-
mately signed manifested current ignorance of the fact that the
Arkansas rises considerably below the Forty-second Parallel.
 The Cabinet met on the eleventh and twelfth to discuss Onfs'
project. Adams noted that an agreement was so near that "the
President inclines to give up all that remains in contest" Monroe
would have accepted a line turning from the Red at longitude 1000
west and running to the Pacific from the Multnomah on the Forty-
third Parallel. The secretary of state "was convinced that we
should obtain more by adhering to our points," but maintained
that view almost alone." Acceptance of the President's suggestion