58 The Purchase of Florida

"Interesting considerations," writes Jefferson to Carmichael
and Short, "require that we should keep ourselves free to
act in this case according to circumstances, and consequently
that you should not by any clause of treaty bind us to guar-
antee any of the Spanish colonies against their own inde-
pendence nor indeed against any other nation. For when
we thought we might guarantee Louisiana on their ceding
Florida to us, we apprehended it would be seized by Great
Britain, who would thus completely encircle us with her
colonies and fleets. This danger is now removed by the
concert between Great Britain and Spain and the times will
soon enough give independence and consequent free com-
merce to our neighbors, without our risking the involving
ourselves in a war for them." ^ For Louisiana or the Floridas
to fall into the possession of hostile England, it had been
felt, would be ample ground for actual intervention on the
part of the United States. In the hands of decadent and
paralytic Spain it was thought that in time they would
certainly gravitate into American possessions.
The commissioners met at Madrid about the first of
February, 1793, but in the kaleidoscopic change of events
circumstances were now vastly different from those which
had induced their appointment. The ministerial power of
Spain which had been transferred from Count d'Aranda,
had again been shifted, and was now held by Godoy, the
notorious libertine and paramour of the Spanish queen.
