to disturb the peace between the United States and Spain. There is good
cause to presume from the delicate manner in which this sentiment has
been conveyed that it is founded in a belief as well as a desire that
our just objects may be accomplished without the hazard of such an
extremity.

On full consideration of all these circumstances, I have thought it my
duty to submit to Congress whether it will not be advisable to postpone
a decision on the questions now depending with Spain until the next
session. The distress of that nation at this juncture affords a motive
for this forbearance which can not fail to be duly appreciated. Under
such circumstances the attention of the Spanish Government may be
diverted from its foreign concerns, and the arrival of a minister here
be longer delayed. I am the more induced to suggest this course of
proceeding from a knowledge that, while we shall thereby make a just
return to the powers whose good offices have been acknowledged, and
increase by a new and signal proof of moderation our claims on Spain,
our attitude in regard to her will not be less favorable at the next
session than it is at the present.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _May 9, 1820_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to Congress a correspondence which has taken place
between the Secretary of State and the envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary of His Catholic Majesty since the message
of the 27th March last, respecting the treaty which was concluded
between the United States and Spain on the 22d February, 1819.

After the failure of His Catholic Majesty for so long a time to ratify
the treaty, it was expected that this minister would have brought with
him the ratification, or that he would have been authorized to give
an order for the delivery of the territory ceded by it to the United
States. It appears, however, that the treaty is still unratified and
that the minister has no authority to surrender the territory. The
object of his mission has been to make complaints and to demand
explanations respecting an imputed system of hostility on the part of
citizens of the United States against the subjects and dominions of
Spain, and an unfriendly policy in their Government, and to obtain new
stipulations against these alleged injuries as the condition on which
the treaty should be ratified.

Unexpected as such complaints and such a demand were under exist