CHAPTER VII


RATIFICATION AND EXECUTION, 1819-1821

 JUBILNT REACTIONS
SHE UNrIED STATES SENATE unanimously approved the Adams-
 Onis Treaty on February 24,1819.1 It was welcomed by nearly
 all political groups throughout this country, a fact which in
 all fairness should be emphasized in view of the acrimonious
 controversy of twenty-five years later over the relinquishment of
 Texas.
 Adams, unwittingly suggesting the disheartening wrangles that
 were to follow while Spain delayed ratification for two years,
 wrote in his diary on the day of signing:
 It was, perhaps, the most important day of my life. What the consequences
 may be of the compact this day signed with Spain is known only to the all-wiae
 and all-beneficent Disposer of events, who has brought it about in a manner
 utterly unexpected and by means the most extraordinary and unforeseen. Its
 prospects are propitious and flattering in an eminent degree. May they be
 realized by the same superintending bounty that produced them! May no dis-
 appointment embitter the hope which this event warrants us in cherishing, and
 may its future influence on the destinies of my country be as extensive and as
 favorable as our warmest anticipations can paint! Let no idle and unfounded
 exultation take possession of my mind, as if I could ascribe to my own fore-
 sight or exertions any portion of the event. It is the work of an intelligent and
 all-embracing Cause. .... The acquisition of the Floridas has long been an
 object of earnest desire to this country. The acknowledgment of a definite line
 of boundary to the South Sea forms a great epocha in our history. The first
 proposal of it in this negotiation was my own, and I trust it is now secured
 beyond the reach of revocation.... I record the first assertion of this claim
 for the United States as my own, because it is known to be mine perhaps only
 to the members of the present Administration, and may perhaps never be
 known to the public-and, if ever known, will be soon and easily forgotten'
 Jackson, who was some years later to berate Adams for the con-
 cessions made, had given the settlement his approval when the
 treaty was signed. He repeated his statement in a letter to Monroe
 a year later:
 ... I am clearly of your opinion, that for the present, we ought to be content
 with the Floridas-fortify them, concentrate our population, confine our
 frontier to proper limits, until our country, to those limits, is filled with a
 dense population; it is the denseness of our population that gives strength
 1For notes to chap. vii, see pp. 197-201.
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