NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPAIN.

205

dent at Philadelphia, the above ratification under the seal of the Commonwealth. This proceeding, doubtless an irregularity in a diplomatic and political sense,- stands redeemed to every ingenuous mind by the loyal motives of national honor and inflexible patriotism which dictated it.

It was the earnest desire both of France and the United States to secure the coöperation of Spain in the contest now waging against the vast military and naval power of England. Overtures were early made by Congress through Dr. Franklin at Versailles, who addressed a letter on the subject to Count d'Aranda, the Spanish minister at the same court; and more recently, Mr. Arthur Lee had been accredited directly to Madrid. But the time had not yet come for the cautious and dilatory councils of the Spanish monarchy to entertain a proposition so doubtful and hazardous. When the King of France had made up his mind to give aid to the American Colonies in their struggle for independence, he indited a letter under his own hand to Charles III., earnestly urging him to take part against the common enemy. The advice, however, was far from being acceptable to his Catholic Majesty; who even complained that, in a matter in which there should have been a previous understanding and friendly concert between the two branches of the house of Bourbon, the King of France had already committed himself, without consulting him.

1 See Journal of House of Delegates, May session, 1779, p. 32.

Instead, therefore, of entering into the war, the King of Spain offered his mediation to the belligerent powers, to bring about a pacification which would, of course, include the American States. The mediation was cordially accepted by France, and not declined by England. Negotiations were carried on by the mediator for eight or nine months, which the haughty spirit of Great Britain at length brought to an abrupt close; and the King of Spain, no longer able to avoid the obligations of the family compact, in June, 1779, recalled his ambassador from London, with a virtual declaration of war against England.

Apprehensive, however, for the security of his own empire in America, he was not willing to become a party to the alliance between France and the United States, unless the latter should first renounce their claim to the navigation of the Mississippi, and also limit their territorial pretensions within the Alleghany mountains, as their extreme western boundary. France, attaching the highest importance to the naval coöperation of Spain in the American war, and anxious also to restore the cordiality of her relations with her ancient ally, used all her influence with the United States to obtain from them the concessions demanded by Spain as the condition of her accession to the alliance. These concessions, however, involved interests of far too vital a nature to the United States to be easily yielded;

MISSISSIPPI AND WESTERN LANDS.

207

and we shall see that they formed the Gordian knot of the foreign negotiations, as well as of the domestic councils, of the Confederacy for years yet to come. No State was more deeply interested in these questions than Virginia; and by a resolution of her Assembly, adopted the 5th of November, 1779, her delegates in Congress were instructed, "in the pending negotiations with Spain, to use their utmost endeavours to obtain an express stipulation in favor of the United American States, for the free navigation of the river Mississippi to the sea," with a free port and other easements on the shores and at the mouth of the river.1

Within a short time after the adoption of this resolution, another act of the General Assembly of Virginia, of a very marked character, served to show how delicate and sensitive were the questions relating to that Western territory, on which Spain had fixed an eye of covetous and ambitious desire. Virginia, in virtue of her chartered limits, as well as, recently, by right of conquest, claimed a large domain, stretching away from the mountain barrier of the Alleghanies to the banks of the Mississippi and the shores of the northern lakes. Some private land companies (the Indiana and Vandalia especially) had set up claims to extensive portions of this territory in opposition to her laws, and appealed to Congress to protect their alleged titles against

1 See Hen. Stat. vol. x. pp. 535, 536.

the jurisdiction of Virginia. The General Assembly of the State, on the 10th day of December, 1779, adopted a remonstrance, addressed to the Congress of the United States, asserting in strong terms "her exclusive rights of sovereignty and jurisdiction within her own territory"; and, while professing every disposition to make sacrifices to the common interest of America, protesting energetically against any jurisdiction or right of adjudication in Congress on the matter of the abovementioned petitions, or upon any other matter "interfering with the internal policy, civil government, or sovereignty of the several States, in cases not warranted by the articles of confederation." 1

It was in the midst of these grave and difficult questions of foreign and domestic policy, and at a most critical and embarrassed period of the great contest for American Independence, that Mr. Madison was sent forth to exert his patriotism and talents on the theatre of the national councils. On the 14th of December, 1779, at the age of twenty-eight years, he was chosen by the General Assembly of Virginia one of the delegates to represent the State in the Congress of the Confederation.

1 See Journal of the House of Delegates of the date referred to. The Remonstrance was, doubtless, drawn by George Mason.

CHAPTER VII.

Confederate Government the first and natural Want of the Social State in America - Successive Stages of its Development - Extent and Detail of the Powers of Congress under the Articles of Confederation Number and Character of its Members - Earnest Appeal of Washington on Behalf of the National Service - Colleagues of Madison in Congress Gloomy Condition of Public Affairs at the Period of his Entrance on the National Theatre Causes of the Public Distress - Financial Embarrassments - Striking Letter of Mr. Madison on the Subject Committee appointed by Congress to confer with the Commander-in-chief Military Preparations and Events - French Land and Naval Forces arrive in the United States Reduced to Inactivity by the Naval Superiority of the Enemy - Disasters of the Campaign - The Necessity of increased Vigor and Foresight - Views of Mr. Madison with Regard to both Financial and Political Reform- His Constitutional Creed-Measures adopted by Congress - Representation addressed to the King of France-Special Mission of Colonel John Laurens.

THE Congress of the Confederation, of which Mr. Madison was now a member, was the supreme and central authority on which depended the conduct of the war, the struggle for independence, and every great interest common to the confederated States. Federal association, in