The result of these uncertainties as to bound ary was that the commissioners sent to Paris to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Bri tain were instructed to claim all of the territo ries in question, but to be guided by the French government in their work. These commis sioners. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay and Henry Laurens, soon after their meet ing, found a disposition on the part of the French government to advise that the British retain the country north of the Ohio, and even that the country south of the Ohio, between the Cumberland Mountains and the Mississippi, be declared neutral territory for the use of the Indians. As a result, the United States com missioners broke off their relations with the French and negotiated the treaty according to their own views. By the boundary lines finally determined they obtained the recession to the United States of the small strip at the south west corner of Georgia, now the southern part of Alabama and Mississippi, also the entire country north of the Ohio to the Great Lakes and that section west of the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and as far north as the present boundary line. These may be properly said to be the first additions to the territory of the United States, since all of the area in question was more or less in dispute under the latest acts of the British government prior to the War of the Revolution and the organization of the 13 colonies as the °United States of America?" The next addition to the territorial area of the United States, and that which is usually spoken of as the first addition to the territory of the United States, was the Louisiana Pur chase. France had included the city of New Orleans and a small tract of country on the eastern bank of the Mississippi near its mouth in the territory ceded to Spain when she aban doned the continent of North America in 1763. This gave the control of the mouth of the Mississippi to the nation controlling this ter ritory. Following the close of the War of the Revolution, the area west of the Alleghenies had rapidly increased in population, and it was essential that this population should have an opportunity to reach the sea by the Mississippi River. An agreement was made with the Spanish government in 1795 by which citizens of the United States should have the privilege of depositing their goods in New Orleans for transshipment abroad, without payment of duties, and that incoming goods should have similar privileges. In 1802, however, it became known that Spain had ceded the Louisiana coun try to France, by a secret treaty made in 1800, and this fact caused great alarm among the people of the United States, lest their privilege of reaching the ocean through the Mississippi should be lost. A resolution was introduced in Congress authorizing the President to seize the city of New Orleans, but a substitute was adopted authorizing the President to send a commission to France and offer $2,000,000 for the city of New Orleans. James Monroe was sent as the special commissioner and authorized to co-operate with our Minister to France, Mr. Livingston. Napoleon, who was about entering upon war with the English, saw that his great possessions in America would be a source of weakness to him in such a war, and offered to sell the entire Louisiana territory to the com missioners. While they were not authorized to make such an agreement, they determined to assume the responsibility of doing so, and after some negotiation an agreement was made by which the entire territory was to be ceded to the United States for the sum of $15,000,000, of which $11,250,000 was .to be in bonds of the United States, the remainder to be paid to citi zens of the United States having claims against France. The treaty reached the United States in July 1803, a special session of Congress was called in the following October and after two days of discussion the treaty was ratified, and in December the city of New Orleans and the vast territory thus acquired was turned over to the United States. The population at that time was about 100,000, of which about one-half were whites, 10,000 mulattoes and 40,000 negroes. See UNITED STATES —THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE.
The next addition to the territory occurred in 1810-12, in the form of a small section of territory which had been a part of West Florida during the time that Great Britain controlled Florida. After the recession of Florida to Spain by Great Britain, the English citizens of the western part of West Florida became dis satisfied, and especially so in view of the re ports that Spain had sold West Florida to France. They held a convention in 1810, de claring themselves a free and independent State. A communication was sent to the President of the United States, who instead of recognizing the new republic directed the governor of New Orleans territory to take possession of the territory, basing this action upon a claim that the territory had been sold to France and should have been included with the cession of Louisiana territory by France. The annexation
does not seem to have been seriously objected to by the people of the area in question, but was met with protests on the part of both Spain and Great Britain. No further action was taken, however, and in 1812 the control of the United States was extended to another small section lying east of that occupied in 1810, this action being based upon claims similar to those upon which the occupation of 1810 was These two additions gave to the United States the small section by which Alabama and Mississippi now have a frontage upon the Gulf of Mexico.
The next addition to the territory of the United States, and that which is usually known as the second, was the purchase of Florida from Spain, in 1819. Florida had been continuously in control of Spain from the discovery to 1763, when Spain ceded it to Great Britain in ex change for a part of Cuba, which Great Britain had seized during the war with France, because of the aid which Spain gave to France in that war. In 1783 England receded Florida to Spain, and in 1785 Spain sold West Florida to France, and it was upon this fact of the owner ship of that territory by France that the United States claimed that it was included in the ces sion of the Louisiana territory in 1803, and upon this claim was based the occupancy in 1810 and 1812 above described. Florida was greatly desired as a part of the United States, both for the purpose of extension of the slave area and because of the fact that the presence of this foreign territory alongside of that in which slavery existed resulted in constant fric tion between the people of the two sections. The escaping slaves from the adjacent territory of the United States found Florida a safe re treat and there was also much bitterness over the fact that Florida had been made the head quarters of a British force during the war of 1812-14. Repeated offers were made to the Spanish government for its purchase but with out avail, but finally, in 1819, the Spanish Am bassador at Washington signed a treaty by which Florida was to pass to the United States on payment of $5,000,000 in full extinction of the claims of certain American citizens against the Spanish government. The treaty was rati fied in 1821 and the territory taken possession of by the United States, which in 1822 estab lished the °Territory of Florida." See FLORIDA.
The next addition to the territory of the Union was that of Texas. It was desired as a part of the Union, especially by those interested in the extension of slave area and slave States. It was formerly a part of the Spanish colony of Mexico. In 1810 the people of Mexico re volted against Spanish rule, and in 1822 were successful, and in 1824 the republic of Mexico was established. The two provinces, formerly known as °Texas" and °Coahuila," were made a single state of the new republic of Mexico, under the name of Texas. The desire of the people of the United States for this territory led to an offer of $1,000,000 to the Mexican government for its purchase in 1827 and another of $5,000,000 in 1829, but each was rejected. Meantime a large number of persons from the southern part of the United States settled in Texas, and in 1833 Texas attempted to obtain a peaceable separation from Mexico and inde pendence, but without success. In 1836 Texas seceded from Mexico and established itself as a republic. In the election for President which followed, an almost unanimous vote was cast for annexation to the United States, but the application for admission, made by its Minister at Washington, was not favorably received by Congress. In 1844 another treaty of annexation was made but rejected by the Senate. The Presidential election in the United States which soon followed hinged largely on this question, and the sentiment was apparently in favor of annexation, and in January 1845 Congress passed a resolution giving °consent that the territory properly included within the Republic of Texas may be erected into a new State to be called the State of Texas." This was accepted by the Congress of Texas and by popular vote in that republic, and in Decem ber 1845, a joint resolution was passed in the Congress of the United States admitting Texas as a State. Thus, Texas passed from the posi tion of an independent republic to that of a State of the United States, without a treaty or without passing through the Territorial stage which usually preceded the formation of States of the Union. See UNITED STATEs— ANNEXA TION OF TEXAS.