edited.
Despatches, giving notice of the hostilities meditated by his
Catholic Majesty, were forwarded to Don Galvez, the governor of
Louisiana, who collected a considerable military force at New Orleans,
and reduced the settlements held by the British crown on the
Mississippi, which had not been apprised of the war.

Intelligence of this important event was given to congress while that
body was deliberating on the instructions to their negotiators. It is
not impossible that this information had some influence on those
deliberations; and, rendering the American government less solicitous
about the future conduct of Spain, diminished the motives for making
territorial sacrifices to that power. Their ministers were ordered to
make it a preliminary article to any negotiation, that Great Britain
should agree to treat with the United States, as sovereign, free, and
independent; and that their independence should be expressly assured
and confirmed by the terms of the treaty itself.

That the United States might be enabled to avail themselves without
further delays, of any occasion which might be presented for
terminating the war, Mr. John Adams, who was already in Europe, was
authorized to negotiate a treaty of peace, and a commercial treaty
with Great Britain; and Mr. Jay, at that time president of congress,
was appointed minister plenipotentiary to the court of Madrid, with
instructions to insist on the free navigation of the Mississippi;--a
claim to which Spain objected, and which was discountenanced by
France.

As the campaign drew to a close without affording any solid foundation
for the hope that the war was about to terminate, General Washington
repeated those efforts which he had made so often and so
unsuccessfully, to induce early preparations for the ensuing year. He
submitted to the view of his government a detailed report of the whole
army, which exhibited the alarming fact, that by the last of the
following June, the terms of service of nearly one-half the men under
his command would expire.

It was not the least considerable of the inconveniences attending the
complex system of government then prevailing in the United States,
that measures essential to the safety of the nation were never taken
in season. Thus, when the time for raising the quotas of the
respective states by voluntary enlistment had passed away, and the
necessity of resorting to coercive means had become absolute, those
means were so delaye