shall be found indispensable for the conclusion of the same, that the United States and their citizens, for a limited time, should forbear to use so much of the river Mississippi as is south of the southern boundary of the United States, that he he and hereby is authorized and directed, on behalf of the United States, to consent to an article or articles stipulating on their part and that of their citizens a forbearance of the use of the said river Mississippi, for a period not exceeding years, from the point where the southern boundary of the United States intersects the said river, to its mouth or the ocean; provided that such stipulation of a forbearance of the use of the said river for a limited time as aforesaid, shall not be construed to extinguish the right of the United States, independent of such stipulation, to use and navigate the said river from its source to the ocean; provided farther, that the secretary of foreign affairs shall not stipulate on behalf of the United States, in favour of the exclusive navigation and use of the said river Mississippi by his catholick majesty and his subjects, below its intersection of the southern boundary of the United States, unless it shall be agreed and stipulated in the same treaty, that the navigation and use of the said river from the intersection aforesaid to its head or source be and continue common to the United States and his catholick majesty and to their respective citizens and subjects. And the said secretary of foreign affairs is hereby farther instructed, firmly to insist on the territorial boundaries of the United States southwardly and westwardly, as fixed by the definitive treaty of peace and friendship between the United States of America and his Britannick majesty; and on no condition to consent to a treaty, unless the same shall contain a quit claim of all pretended rights and claims of his catholick majesty to territory within the United States, eastwardly of the Mississippi and northerly of the Floridas; whether the said rights or claims are pretended in virtue of conquest or otherwise. And if in the course of the negotiation a question should arise relative to the precise boundary line between the United States and the Floridas, the said secretary of foreign affairs is hereby instructed that the Floridas do not, and ought not of right to extend to the northward of the boundary line between them and the United States as fixed by the definitive treaty aforesaid, and that he shall not in any event by treaty or otherwise consent to the extent of the Floridas northerly of a line or boundary of the United States adjacent to the Floridas, specified in a separate article of the provisional articles between the United States and Great Britain, at Paris, on the 30th day of November, 1782. And provided that a disagreement shall take place between the said secretary of foreign affairs and the encargado de negocios of his catholick majesty, by the latter's insisting on the boundary line as specified by the aforesaid separate article, and the former's insisting on the boundary line as fixed in the aforesaid definitive treaty, the said secretary of foreign affairs is hereby authorized to agree to the settlement and final decision of such disagreement by commissaries mutually appointed for that purpose; for the appointment of whom and for all other purposes incident to the final determination of the said disagreement by commissaries, conformable to the laws of nations, the said secretary of foreign affairs is hereby invested with full powers on behalf of the United States of America." A motion was made by Mr. King, seconded by Mr. Smith, to amend the report by striking out the last clause in the second resolution, beginning with the words "and the said secretary of foreign affairs is " hereby further instructed firmly," &c. to the end, and in lieu thereof to insert "provided farther, that the " said secretary of foreign affairs do and hereby is "directed, to insist on the territorial limits or bounda"ries of the United States as fixed in the definitive "treaty of peace and friendship between the United "States of America and his Britannick majesty; and "he is further instructed not to form any treaty with " the said encargado de negocios, unless the said limits "or boundaries are thereby acknowledged and se" cured;" and on the question to agree to this amendment, the yeas and nays being required by Mr. King A division of the report and a decision on the first resolution being called for, a motion was made by Mr. Pinckney, seconded by Mr. Carrington, to postpone the first resolution in order to take up the following: That the commission and instructions issued to J. Jay, secretary for foreign affairs, to negotiate on the part of the United States, with don Diego de Gardoqui, encargado de negocios of his catholick majesty, be and the same are hereby revoked and repealed. |