England, having conceded the grand point of independence, was disposed to be generous, and not to haggle about lesser matters.

Spain, on the contrary, was quite as hostile to the new nation as to England.

Through her representative, Count Aranda, she predicted the future enormous expansion of the Federal Republic at the expense of Florida, Louisiana, and Mexico, unless it was effectually curbed in its youth.

The prophecy has been strikingly fulfilled, and the event has thoroughly justified Spain's fear; for the major part of the present territory of the United States was under Spanish dominion at the close of the Revolutionary war.

Spain, therefore, proposed to hem in our growth by giving us the Alleghanies for our western boundary.