nnexion
which will be erected thereon.

Though the delays you have met with afford room to suspect, that Spain
wishes to defer a particular treaty with us till a general peace, yet
I see so many political reasons against such a measure, that I can
hardly presume they will adopt it.

At the close of a successful war, a great and powerful nation, to whom
a character for justice and moderation is of the last importance, can
in no case demand more than a compensation for the injuries received.
This compensation will, indeed, be measured in part by their success.
But still it has bounds, beyond which a nation cannot go with dignity.
Spain has insisted upon the cession of Gibraltar as a preliminary to a
peace. This is, of itself, a considerable compensation for any damage
she may have sustained. Should she carry her demands further, and
agreeably to the ideas of the Spanish Ministers, expect to have any
exclusive right to the Gulf of Mexico, and the river Mississippi, she
must not only demand East and West Florida of the British, but she
must support the claims of Great Britain against those of America, the
claims of an enemy against the rights of a friend, in order that she
may make still further demands.

Will it consist with the dignity of his Catholic Majesty to ask, for
the short space in which he has been engaged in the war, not only
Gibraltar, but the two Floridas, the Mississippi, the exclusion of
Great Britain from the trade to the Bay of Honduras; while the other
branch of the House of Bourbon, who engaged early in the controversy,
confines her demands to the narrowest limits? Will he expose himself
to the imputation of despoiling an ally, (for such we are in fact,
though we want the name) at the instant that he is obtaining the
greatest advantages from the distress, which that ally has, at least
in part, contributed to bring upon his enemy? And this too, without
the least necessity, when he may, by accepting and purchasing our
title, appear to have contended for the rights of the United States.
This will then make no part of the satisfaction to which he is
entitled from Great Britain; he may justly extend his demands to other
objects; or exalt his character for moderation, by limiting them to
narrower bounds. This mode of reasoning will come with more weight,
when we display our rights before impartial mediators, and show that
recent conquests have been added to our ancient title, for it cannot
be doubted, that