But in the first stages of the negotiation it was clear that the British cabinet had more serious and dangerous objects in view, and looked beyond aggression and temporary injury to permanent objects.

At the first meeting on August 8, the British commissioners demanded, as a preliminary to any negotiation, that the United States should set apart to the Indian tribes the entire territory of the Northwest to be held by them forever in sovereignty under the guaranty of Great Britain.

The absurdity of such a demand is sufficient evidence that it was never seriously entertained.

There could have been no idea that the military power of Great Britain was able to enforce, or that the United States would abjectly submit to, such a mutilation of its territory and such a limitation of its expansion.

Behind this cover Mr.Gallatin instinctively detected the real design of the cabinet to be the conquest of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi.