THE SPANISH BOUNDARY.--South of Oregon and west of the mountains lay the possessions of Spain, with which country in 1819 we made a treaty, fixing the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase. We began by claiming as far as the Rio Grande, and asking for Florida. We ended by accepting the line shown on the map, p. 278, and buying Florida. [19] SUMMARY 1. The treaty of peace in 1814 left several issues unsettled; it was therefore followed by a trade treaty with Great Britain, an agreement to limit naval power on the northern lakes, and (1818) a treaty about fisheries in British waters. 2. The suspension of specie payments by the state banks during the war caused such disorder in the currency that a national bank was chartered to regulate it. 3. The embargo, by cutting off importation of British goods, encouraged home manufactures. Heavy importations after the war injured home manufactures, and to help them Congress enacted a protective tariff law. 4. Despite commercial troubles and the war, the people were prosperous. New towns were founded, travel was improved, the steamboat was introduced, and the West grew rapidly. 5. After 1815 a great wave of population poured over the West. 6. Seven new states were admitted between 1812 and 1821. 7. A struggle for the trade of the growing West led to the building of the Erie Canal. 8. A struggle over slavery led to the Missouri Compromise (1820). 9. By treaties with Great Britain and Spain, boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase were established, Florida was purchased, and the Oregon country was held jointly with Great Britain. [Illustration: AN OLD STAGECOACH.] FOOTNOTES [1] A serious quarrel over the West Indian trade now arose and was not settled till 1830. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp. 483-487. [2] The agreement of 1817 provided that each power might have one armed vessel on Lake Ontario, two on the upper lakes, and one on Lake Champlain. Each vessel was to have but one eighteen-pound cannon. All other armed vessels were to be dismantled and no others were to be built or armed. In Europe such a water boundary between two powers would have been guarded by strong fleets and forts and many armed men. [3] The fishery treaty provides (1) that our citizens may _forever_ catch and dry fish on certain parts of the coasts of Newfoundland and of Labrador; (2) that they may not catch fish within three miles of any other of the coasts of the British dominions in America; (3) that our fishermen may enter the harbors on these other coasts for shelter, or to obtain water, or wood, or to repair damages, "and for no other purpose whatever." [4] As to the straits to which people were put for small change, read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, pp. 297-298.