First Clashes witli tl,e United States
247
worthy of being quoted. "The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France works most sorely on the United States," declared Jefferson. "It completely reverses all the political relations of the United States and will form a new epoch in our political course.... It is impos- sible that France and the United States can continue long friends.... We must turn all our attention to a maritime force, for which our resources place us in a very high ground, and having formed and connected together a power which may render reinforcements of the settlements here impossible to France, make the first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for the tearing up of any settlement she may have made and for holding the two continents of America in sequestration for the common purpose of the United British and American nations." 50 The mounting resentment against France increased the fears of the already worried Spanish officials of Louisiana, Cuba, and Texas, who, cut off from Spain, heard only distorted and inaccurate accounts of what was happening. On June 15, 1801, Governor Marques de Casa Calvo wrote to the captain general of Cuba, the Marques de Someruelos, that he was in a quandary as to his course of action should either France or the United States demand that he turn over the province of Louisiana to them. English papers from Jamaica and American papers from Baltimore repeatedly referred to the recent transfer of Louisiana to France, but the Americans loudly voiced their determina- tion not to allow its consummation. The governor had received no official communication from Spain since August, 1800. What particularly alarmed him was that the United States had recently erected a new fort named General Wilkinson near the Illinois River and garrisoned it with seven hundred men under Colonel Strong. Furthermore General Wilkinson himself had been again ordered to Natchez, only seventy leagues from New Orleans. Under the trying circumstances it had been a relief, he added, to learn that the desperado Philip Nolan had been killed near the Brazos River, and his companions arrested. 51 The resentment against France was extended to Spain and the situa- tion was aggravated by the ill-advised action of Juan Ventura Morales. intendant at New Orleans. who, on October 16. 1802, published a proc- lamation abrogating the right of deposit in New Orleans. He declared that the three-year period stipulated by the treaty of Ii95 had long 50 Geer, o,;. cu., I 9 I -I 92. 51 Marques de Casa Calvo to M~rques de Someruelos, June 15, 1801. .A. G. I., Audiencia de Santo Domingo, 86-7-27. (Dunn Transcripts, 1763-1818, pp. 271-275.)
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