The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1810-08-21
WAsHINGToN, August II.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE NATIONAL
1NTELLIG ENCER.

In justification Of the opinion which YOU
have given relative to the merits of late
publication extracted from late Chillicnthe
paper, and said to be from a correspondent
in the Mississippi Territory calculated TO
injare Gen. Wilkinson, be pleased to give
place In the inteligencer to the following
facts:
Louisiana was ceded by Spain to France,
on the list day of October 1900, and was
sold by France TO the U. States, on the so,h
day of April, 1903. in the express terms of
the cession of Spain TO France On the S1st
October of the same year, gen. Wilkinson
was appointed second in commission to re-
ceive, not from Spain, but from France, pos
session of the purchased territory, and the
notice OF his appointment did not reach him
until the "a IN Of November. On the 3Oth of
the same month, the province was delivered
by The commissioners Of Spain to the French
commissioner Monsieur Lausatt, at which
time gen. Wilkinson was more than two
hundred and fifty miles distant On the
18th of December ensuing. the American
commissioners Messrs. Claiborne and Will
kinson. accompanied by a body of troops,
arrived in the neighborhood of New-Or..
! leans, then in possession of the guards of
| france. On the 20lh of same month, two
days after, possession was given to the A.
| mericas commissioners, by the French com.
| missioner Lausatt, in the face of thousands.
agreeably tothe conditions, on which it had
been delivered up by Spain to France. The
commissioners of the u. States were neither
authorised nor instructed to demand specific
limits, because our treaty had not defined
them, and because the French commissioner
might, under such circumstances, have
made them what he pleased. The Ameri
Can commissioners, however, like vigilant
| and faithful agents, iRstead of agreeing to
\ give up w Florida, as is basely imputed to
Wilkinson in the publication alluded to, de
ternined to seize the first proper occasion
to enter their protest observatory to the u.
s. OF all territorial claims and rights foun-
ded ON the treaty of St. tldephonso of the LIST
OF October, 1900, wherein the government of
| Spain had coded the province of Louisiana
to the French Republic. This occasion was
Offered by the French commissioner in his
letters OF the 21st and 25th Jan. 1904, and
the American commissioners, embraced il
to offer the following declaration:
New. ORLEANS, 26th March, 1904.
SIR,
| The undersigned commissioners of the
: U. ). appointed TO receive possession of the
province of Louisiana, have observed in
your letters of the 21st and 25th Jan. $50 Nj
vose and Pluviose) last, that you speak
of SPANS retaining possession of West Flo
rida.
1t is not the intention of The undersigned to
investigate the right of SPAN to that tract
or to state their opinions with respect to the
limits of the coded territory but soiemny
to protest that nothing done on their part
shall be construed as a accomplishment of the
CLAIMS of the u. States to the COLONY or pro
vince of Louisiana, with the same extent.
which it had actually in the hands of Spain
(on the Is, day of October, 1900. the date of
the treaty of ST. Ildephonso) and which il
had when France possessed it, and such IT
ought to be after the treaties subsequently,
entered into between Spain and other ST ates.
Accept assurances of our high respect and
consideration
(Signed)
VIM. c. c CLAIBORNE,
JAMES WILKINSON,
The Commissioner offhe