Brooks: Diplomacy and tke Borderlands


and a brief evaluation of the treaty. This last section, which is of
especial interest, has been generally overlooked in the United
States because the second volume was never published in English.
 Oni pointed out that the Floridas were really of little value to
Spain.m To lose the opportunity to exchange them would have
meant abandoning them without recompense. In an earnest effort
to justify his actions, he cited nine advantages accruing to Spain
from the treaty: the retention of Texas; the acquisition of terri-
tory beyond longitude 1000 west and north of the Red River, which
he now said had belonged to Louisiana; the provision of a wide
desert between the boundary line and the settled portions of New
Spain; the removal of the Russian menace to California by the
extension of the domain of the United States to the Pacific; re-
lease from payment of claims which would surely amount to sev-
eral times the five million dollars' worth assumed by the United
States; lightening of the obligations imposed by the article of
Pinckney's Treaty which provided that "the flag covers the goods"
in neutral maritime commerce; the promise for return of deserters
to ships by consuls; the admission of Spanish ships to Florida
ports with special customs privileges; and the restoration of har-
mony, which would lessen the probability of recognition of the
insurgent colonies by the United States.

 LEGACIES OP THE TBATY
Onfs' return to Spain ended his active r6le in the negotiations with
the United States. The Spanish government was soon to be shorn
of interest in the matter by the effective independence of Mexico,
which came later in 1821. But on the American side the treaty be-
came the basis of complications which carried over into the twen-
tieth century.
 The execution of the treaty involved a series of controversies
which covered many more years than its negotiation. President
Monroe proclaimed the agreement on Washington's Birthday,
1821, just two years after its original signature, and subsequently
the necessary enabling acts were passed in Congress. Jackson was
appointed to receive the ceded area and to become the territorial
governor of what is now the state of Florida. Parts of West Flor-
ida, the definition of which was intentionally left vague in the
treaty, had already been incorporated into the states of Louisiana,