=324. The Acquisition of Florida.=—Diplomacy with Spain was more definitely successful. Ever since the purchase of Louisiana the United States had claimed that it was entitled to the strip of land along the Gulf known as West Florida; but Spain had refused to admit this, or to sell the territory, in spite of persistent offers to purchase made by Jefferson. In 1810 Madison took possession of the region by proclamation, although it now seems certain that the nation had better claims on Texas. His action, and the invasion of Florida by General Andrew Jackson while he was in pursuit of Indians convinced Spain, however, that she would do well to sell while she could the outlying peninsula of East Florida. Accordingly, on February 22, 1819, Adams negotiated a treaty by which the Floridas were ceded,[140] and the western boundary of Louisiana was settled along the Sabine, Red, and Arkansas rivers to the forty-second parallel, and then along that to the Pacific. This treaty strengthened American claims to the Oregon region, and also helped to settle various Indian and slave troubles connected with East Florida, which had served as a place of refuge for runaway negroes and other bad characters. So much disturbance had indeed been caused by these marauders and by the Seminole Indians, that in 1818 General Andrew Jackson had had to invade Florida, and had actually taken two towns and done other rather high-handed acts which nearly led to his being court-martialed.[141] Spain for two years delayed ratifying the treaty, but finally yielded to the inevitable. =325. The Occasion of the Monroe Doctrine.=—A few years later relations with Spain again became important. Revolutionary principles had spread in the Spanish colonies to the south, and by 1822 Spain had lost all her provinces on the mainland. But the so-called “Holy Alliance,” formed by the principal sovereigns of continental Europe after the fall of Napoleon, had for its chief object the repression of revolutionary doctrines and outbreaks, and it seemed not unlikely that a concerted effort might be made by Europe, not to restore her colonies to Spain, but to distribute them among the great powers. This was naturally not to the liking of a people who had themselves revolted, nor was Great Britain anxious to allow the Alliance to gain too much headway. Besides, Russia was endeavoring to establish a colony on the North Pacific, and she and other powers might easily find pretexts to seize upon territory nearer to the United States—perhaps upon California. Hence, while overtures for a joint protest, made by the British statesman, George Canning, to our Minister to England, Richard Rush, were declined, the administration soon found it necessary to take a stand in the matter.