The minister of his Most Christian Majesty applied to the executive of the United States for a sum of money which would enable him to preserve this valuable colony, to be deducted out of the debt to his sovereign; and the request was granted in a manner evincing the interest taken by the administration in whatever might concern France.
On the part of Spain, a desire had been expressed to adjust the subjects in controversy between the two nations by negotiations to be carried on at Madrid; and Mr.Carmichael, and Mr.Short, had been appointed commissioners, with powers equal to the object.

In the mean time, the officers of that nation persisted in measures which were calculated to embroil the United States with the southern Indians.

By their intrigues with the Creeks, the treaty formed in 1790 with M'Gillivray, was prevented from being ratified, and the boundary line then agreed upon was not permitted to be run.

The indefinite claim of territory set up by Spain was alleged to constitute a sufficient objection to any new line of demarcation, until that claim should be settled; and her previous treaties and relations with the Creeks were declared to be infringed by their stipulation, acknowledging themselves to be under the protection of the United States.
An official diplomatic intercourse had at length been opened with Great Britain also.

Mr.Hammond, the minister plenipotentiary of that nation to the United States, arrived at Philadelphia in the autumn of 1791; upon which, Mr.Thomas Pinckney, a gentleman of South Carolina, who was highly and justly respected, had been charged with the interests of his country at the court of London.[64] Soon after the arrival of Mr.Hammond, the non-execution of the treaty of peace became the subject of a correspondence between him and the secretary of state, in which the complaints of their respective nations were urged in terms manifesting clearly the sense entertained by each of the justice of those complaints, without furnishing solid ground for the hope that they would be immediately removed on either side.
[Footnote 64: In consequence of these nominations of foreign ministers, a motion was made in the senate on a point which is of some importance in settling the principles of the American government.