%297.  The Spanish Boundary Line.%—­One year later (1819) the boundary of Louisiana was completed by a treaty with Spain, which now sold us East and West Florida for $5,000,000.  Till this time we had always claimed that Louisiana extended across Texas as far as the Rio Grande.  By the treaty this claim was given up, and the boundary became the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to 32 deg., then a north line to the Red River; westward along this river to the 100th meridian; then northward to the Arkansas River, and westward to its source in the Rocky Mountains; then a north line to 42 deg., and then along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean.[1]

[Footnote 1:  McMaster’s History of the People of the United States, Vol.  IV., pp. 457-480.]

%298.  Russian Claims on the Pacific.%—­The Oregon country was thus restricted to 42 deg. on the south, and though it had no limit on the north the Emperor of Russia (in 1822) undertook to fix one at 51 deg., which he declared should be the south boundary of Alaska.  Oregon was thus to extend from 42 deg. to 51 deg., and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.  But Russia had also founded a colony in California, and seemed to be preparing to shut the United States from the Pacific coast.  Against all this John Quincy Adams, then Secretary of State, protested, telling the Russian minister that European powers no longer had a right to plant colonies in either North or South America.

%299.  The Holy Allies and the South American Republics.%—­This was a new doctrine, and while the United States and Russia were discussing the boundary of Oregon, it became necessary to make another declaration regarding the rights of European powers in the two Americas.

Ever since 1793, when Washington issued his proclamation of neutrality (p. 206), the policy of the United States had been to take no part in European wars, nor meddle in European politics.  This had been asserted repeatedly by Washington, Jefferson, and Monroe,[1] and during all the wars from 1793 to 1815 had been carefully adhered to.  It was supposed, of course, that if we did not meddle in the affairs of the Old World nations, they would not interfere in affairs over here.  But about 1822 it seemed likely that they would interfere very seriously.

[Footnote 1:  See Washington’s Farewell Address; Jefferson’s Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801; also his message to Congress, Oct. 17, 1803; Monroe’s Inaugural Address, March 4, 1817, and messages, Dec. 2, 1817, Nov. 17, 1818, Nov. 14, 1820; see also American History Leaflets, No. 4.]

[Illustration:  %NORTH AMERICA AFTER 1824%]