[Footnote: State Dept.MSS., No.56.Symmes to the President of Congress, May 3, 1787.] Inconsistencies of the Frontiersmen.
There was justification for the original excitement; there was none whatever for its continuance after Jay's final report to Congress, in April, 1787, [Footnote: W.H.Trescott, "Diplomatic History of the Administrations of Washington and Adams," p.

46.] and after the publication by Congress of its resolve never to abandon its claim to the Mississippi.

Jay in this report took what was unquestionably the rational position.

He urged that the United States was undoubtedly in the right; and that it should either insist upon a treaty with Spain, by which all conflicting claims would be reconciled, or else simply claim the right, and if Spain refused to grant it promptly declare war.
So far he was emphatically right.

His cool and steadfast insistence on our rights, and his clearsighted recognition of the proper way to obtain them, contrasted well with the mixed turbulence and foolishness of the Westerners who denounced him.