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Adams–Onís Treaty
Adams–Onís Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819,[1]
also known as the Transcontinental
Treaty or the Purchase of Florida[2]
was a treaty between the United States
and Spain in 1819 that gave Florida to
the U.S. and set out a boundary
between the U.S. and New Spain (now
Mexico). It settled a standing border
dispute between the two countries and
was considered a triumph of American
diplomacy. It came in the midst of
increasing tensions between the U.S.
and Spain regarding territorial rights at
a time of weakened Spanish power. In
addition to ceding Florida to the
United States, the treaty settled a
boundary dispute along the Sabine
Map showing results of the Adams–Onís Treaty.
River in Texas and firmly established
the boundary of U.S. territory and
claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean, in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims
against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing its own claims on parts of Texas west
of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase.
History
The treaty was negotiated by John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State under U.S. President James Monroe, and
the Spanish foreign minister Luis de Onís.[3]
Spain's colonies
Spain had long rejected repeated American efforts to purchase Florida. But by 1818, Spain was facing a troubling
colonial situation where the cession of Florida made sense. Spain had been exhausted by the Peninsular War and
needed to rebuild its credibility and presence in its colonies. Revolutionaries in Central America and South America
were beginning to demand independence. Spain was also unwilling to make any further investment in Florida and it
worried about the border between New Spain (today's Mexico) and the United States. Spain had almost no military
or government presence in Florida and was unable to stop Seminole warriors who routinely crossed the border and
raided American villages and farms.[4]
By 1819 Spain was forced to negotiate because it was losing its hold on its American empire, with its western
colonies primed to revolt. While fighting escaped African-American slaves, outlaws, and Native Americans in
U.S.-controlled Georgia during the First Seminole War, Andrew Jackson had pursued them into Spanish Florida, but
at the same time, he attacked and captured Spanish forts in Florida that he felt were assisting the raids into American
territory.
To stop the Seminole Indians based in East Florida from raiding Georgia settlements, and offering havens for
runaway slaves, U.S. Army led increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including the 1817–1818
campaign by Andrew Jackson that became known as the First Seminole War. The United States now effectively
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Adams–Onís Treaty
controlled East Florida. Control was necessary according to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams because Florida
had become "a derelict open to the occupancy of every enemy, civilized or savage, of the United States, and serving
no other earthly purpose than as a post of annoyance to them.".[5] Spain requested British intervention, but London
declined to assist Spain in the negotiations. Some of President James Monroe's cabinet demanded Jackson's
immediate dismissal, but Adams realized that it put the U.S. in a favorable diplomatic position. Adams was able to
negotiate very favorable terms.[6]
Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or garrisons. Madrid therefore decided
to cede the territory to the United States through the Adams–Onís Treaty.
Louisiana
Spain and the United States disagreed over the territory of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Spain considered it to
comprise the west bank of the Mississippi River and the city of New Orleans. The United States on the other hand
claimed that the land they bought extended all the way to the Summit of the Rocky Mountains.[7] Eventually the U.S.
conceded in their claim to only go as far west as the Sabine River but Spain insisted upon the Arroyo Hondo
boundary.
Details of the treaty
The treaty was signed at Washington, February 22, 1819, by John Quincy Adams, secretary of state, and Luis de
Onís, Spanish minister. Ratification was postponed for two years, because Spain wanted to use the treaty as an
incentive to keep the United States from giving diplomatic support to the revolutionaries in South America. As soon
as the treaty was signed, the U.S. Senate ratified unanimously; because of Spain's stalling, a new ratification was
necessary and this time there were objections. Henry Clay and other Western spokesman demanded that the Spain
also give up Texas. This proposal was defeated by the Senate, which ratified the treaty a second time on February 19,
1821. Ratifications were exchanged three days later and the treaty was proclaimed on February 22, 1821, two years
after the signing.[8]
The Treaty closed the first era of United States expansion by providing for the cession of East Florida, the
abandonment of the controversy over West Florida (which had been seized by the United States), and creation of a
boundary with the Spanish province of Mexico that clearly made Texas a part of Mexico, thus ending the vagueness
of the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. Spain also ceded to the United States its claims to the Oregon Country.
The U.S. did not pay Spain for Florida but did agree to pay the legal claims of American citizens against Spain, to a
maximum of $5 million.[9] Pinckney's Treaty of 1795 between the U.S. and Spain was to remain in force. Spanish
goods received certain tariff privileges in Florida ports.
The U.S. received ownership of Spanish Florida (British East and West Florida 1763-1783). The U.S. relinquished
its own claims on parts of Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas.
The Adams–Onís Treaty settled the dispute by attempting to draw clearer borders, roughly granting Florida and
Louisiana to the U.S. while giving to Spain everything west of Louisiana from Texas to California. The new
boundary was to be the Sabine River north from the Gulf of Mexico to the 32nd parallel north, then due north to the
Red River, west along the Red River to the 100th meridian west, due north to the Arkansas River, west to its
headwaters, north to the 42nd parallel north, and finally west along that parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Informally this
has been called the "Step Boundary", although the step-like shape of the boundary was not apparent for several
decades—the source of the Arkansas, believed to be near the 42nd parallel, was not known until John C. Frémont
located it in the 1840s, hundreds of miles south of the 42nd parallel.
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Adams–Onís Treaty
Oregon
The claims of Spain on the Oregon Country dated to the papal bull of 1493 which had granted to Spain the rights to
colonize the western coast of North America and to the actions of Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513, when he claimed
all the "South Sea" (the Pacific Ocean) and the lands adjoining the Pacific Ocean for the Spanish Crown. To solidify
these 250-year old claims, in the late 18th century Spain established a military and trading outpost in today's British
Columbia and performed "acts of sovereignty" in Alaska. As a result of the Adams–Onís Treaty, the United States
acquired the claims of Spain to the Oregon Country north of the 42nd parallel.[10]
For the United States, this treaty meant that its claimed territory now extended far west from the Mississippi, all the
way to the Pacific Ocean. For Spain, it meant that it kept its colonies in Texas and also kept a buffer zone between its
colonies in California and New Mexico and the U.S. territories. Historians consider the treaty to be a great
achievement for the U.S., as time validated Adams's vision that it would allow the U.S. to open trade with the Orient
across the Pacific.[11]
Implementation
Washington set up a commission, 1821 to 1824, that handled American claims against Spain. Many notable lawyers,
including Daniel Webster and William Wirt, represented claimants before the commission. During its term, the
commission examined 1,859 claims arising from over 720 spoliation incidents, and distributed the $5 million in a
basically fair manner.[12] The treaty reduced tensions with Spain (and after 1821 Mexico), and allowed budget
cutters in Congress to reduce the army budget and reject the plans to modernize and expand the army proposed by
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun.
The treaty was honored by both sides, although inaccurate maps from the treaty meant that the boundary between
Texas and Oklahoma remained unclear for most of the 19th century. The American boundary was expanded in 1848
by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico.
Later developments
The treaty was ratified by Spain in 1820,
and by the United States in 1821 (during the
time that Spain and Mexico were engaged in
the
prolonged
Mexican
War
of
Independence). Spain finally recognized the
independence of Mexico with the Treaty of
Córdoba signed on August 24, 1821. While
Mexico was not initially a party to the
treaty, in 1831 Mexico had ratified the
treaty, including setting the 42nd parallel as
the northern boundary of California.
However, by the mid-1830s, a controversy
developed regarding the border with Texas,
during
which
the
United
States
demonstrated that the Sabine and Neches
An 1833 map of the United States in the shape of an eagle
rivers had been switched on maps, moving
the frontier in favor of Mexico. As a consequence, the eastern boundary of Texas was not firmly established until the
independence of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and not agreed upon until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848
which concluded the Mexican-American War. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo also formalized the cession by
Mexico of Alta California and today's American Southwest except for the territory of the Gadsden Purchase.[13]
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Adams–Onís Treaty
Another dispute occurred after Texas joined the Union. The treaty stated that the boundary between the French
claims on the north and the Spanish claims on the south was Rio Roxo de Natchitoches (Red River) until it reached
the 100th meridian as noted on John Melish's map published in 1818. The problem was that the 100th meridian on
the Melish map was some 90 miles east of the true 100th meridian and the Red River forked about 50 miles east of
the 100th meridian. Texas claimed the land south of the North Fork and the United States claimed the land north of
the South Fork (later called the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River). In 1860 the area was organized as Greer County,
Texas. The matter was not settled until a United States Supreme Court ruling in 1896 upheld federal claims to the
territory, after which it was added to Oklahoma.
References
[1] formally titled the "Treaty of Amity, Settlement, and Limits Between the United States of America and His Catholic Majesty"
[2] Britannica Online entry "Transcontinental Treaty (http:/ / www. britannica. com/ EBchecked/ topic/ 602475/ Transcontinental-Treaty)
[3] William E. Weeks, John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=t0rlgdR_Sx8C& lpg=PP1&
pg=PA170) (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002), 170-175.
[4] Weeks (2002)
[5] Alexander Deconde, A History of American Foreign Policy (1963) p. 127
[6] Weeks (2002)
[7] Hämäläinen, Pekka (2008), The Comanche Empire, New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 156, ISBN 978-0-300-12654-9.
[8] Deconde, History of American Foreign Policy, p 128
[9] The U.S. commission established to adjudicate claims considered some 1800 claims and agreed that they were worth $5,454,545.13. Since the
treaty limited the payment of claims to $5 million, the commission reduced the amount paid out proportionately by 8⅓ percent.
[10] Brooks (1939)
[11] Howard Jones, Crucible of power: a history of American foreign relations to 1913 (2009) p. 112
[12] Cash, Peter Arnold (1999), "The Adams-Onís Treaty Claims Commission: Spoliation and Diplomacy, 1795-1824", DAI (PhD dissertation U.
of Memphis 1998) 59 (9): pp. 3611-A. DA9905078 Fulltext: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
[13] Brooks (1939) ch 6
This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Adams–Onís Treaty", which is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
Further reading
• Bailey, Hugh C. (1956), "Alabama's Political Leaders and the Acquisition of Florida" (http://fulltext10.fcla.
edu/DLData/SN/SN00154113/0035_001/35no1.pdf), Florida Historical Quarterly 35 (1): 17–29,
ISSN 0015-4113.
• Bemis, Samuel Flagg (1949), John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy, New York:
A. A. Knopf, the standard history.
• Brooks, Philip Coolidge. Diplomacy and the borderlands: the Adams-Onís treaty of 1819 (1939)
• Weeks, William E. (1992), John Quincy Adams and American Global Empire, Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky, ISBN 0-8131-9058-4.
Sources
• Avalon Project – Treaty Text (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/spain/sp1819.htm)
• Text of the Adams-Onís Treaty (http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/adamonis.htm)
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Adams–Onís Treaty
External links
• PBS' The Border: Adams-Onís Treaty (http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/history/timeline/2.html)
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Adams-Onis Treaty (http://digital.library.okstate.edu/
encyclopedia/entries/A/AD004.html)
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
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