CHAPTER Vll
FR0:>1 SA:s LORENZO TO THE RETROCESSION OF LOUISIANA, 1795-1801
Treaty of San Lorenzo, 1795. After prolonged negotiations and considerable wrangling over the limits between the United States and the dominions of His Catholic Majesty in America, a treaty was signed on October 20, 1795. Article II stipulated that the southern boundary was to be the thirty-first parallel of north latitude from the Mississippi RiYer eastward to the Chattahoochee River, thence along a line running due east from the mouth of the Flint River to the head of the St. Mary's River, and thence down the middle of that river to the Atlantic Ocean. Article IV defined the western boundary as running along the middle of the Mississippi River from its source to the intersection of the thirty-first parallel of north latitude on the said river. But the people of the United States were granted the right of navigation from the source of the Mississippi to the sea, and permitted the use of New Orleans as a place of deposit free of all duty for a period of three years. The treaty further provided for the immediate appointment of commissioners to surYey the line agreed upon, and for the evacuation of the troops and garrisons of the signatory powers to their respective jurisdictions within six months from the date of ratification. The subjects of the two powers were likewise to be at liberty to move if they so desired. 1 Such were the stipulations concerning the limits between the two countries embodied in the treaty of amity and commerce of 1795. The completion of the negotiations put an end to the intrigues of the governor of Louisiana with the agents of the disgruntled West, but it gave rise to new difficulties and misunderstandings which deeply affected conditions in Texas. The American frontier had moved to the Mississippi River; the aggressive pioneer had been brought one step closer to the thinly populated and weakly held outposts of northern New Spain. Before the new boundary was definitely established, Louisiana was to be returned to France and Napoleon was to sell it to the United States, bringing the frontier beyond the Mississippi to the eastern border of Texas. Coi1i,plications resulting from tlze war witlz Great Britain. Even as the terms of the treaty of 1795 were being discussed, relations between 1 TreaJks, Conventions, and /11ternational Acts, Protocols, and Agreements between tlte United States and Otlzer Powers, 1776-1909, II. (Washington, 1910.)
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