On 22 February, 1819, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State, signed with Luis de Onis, Spanish Minister to the United States, an agreement known as the Treaty of Friendship, Cession of the Floridas, and Boundaries. Just exactly two years elapsed before the treaty was ratified and proclaimed. The delay was caused by Spain's fear that the United States was about to recognize the independence of the revolted Spanish American colonies. Article III of this treaty affects the Oregon case in two ways. It fixes the southern boundary of the Oregon country along the forty-second parallel of latitude and it passes to the United States a quitclaim to any title that Spain may have in lands lying north of that boundary.[226] Adams surely sensed the importance of this item at the time. It was frequently cited and urged in subsequent negotiations. In 1821, the Czar of Russia claimed the coast of America from the frozen seas in the North to the fifty-first parallel of latitude. On 17 July, 1823, Secretary of State Adams told Baron Tuyl, Russian Minister to the United States, that the time had passed for further colonization by European powers in the lands of America. On the first Monday of the following December, President Monroe gave to Congress the famous message that embodies the Monroe Doctrine. Russia's claim to part of Oregon provoked a part of that Doctrine. Henry Middleton, United States Minister to Russia, was directed to begin negotiations which resulted in the convention as to the Pacific Ocean and Northwest Coast of America, bearing the date of 17 April, 1824. Article III of this convention fixes the northern boundary of the Oregon country at fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of north latitude. At this juncture, Gallatin had returned to private life, but Clay was still Speaker of the House and Adams was Secretary of State. When the ten-year limit of the joint occupancy feature of the Convention of 1818 was about to expire, our three diplomats were sharply confronted with the Oregon Question once more. John Quincy Adams had become President, Henry Clay was his Secretary of State, and Albert Gallatin, who had refused a cabinet position and a nomination for vice president, now consented to serve as United States Minister to Great Britain. In sending Minister Gallatin instructions under date of 19 June, 1826, Secretary of State Clay said: "You are then authorized to propose the annulment of the third article of the Convention of 1818, and the extension of the line on the parallel of 49, from the eastern side of the Stony Mountains, where it now terminates, to the Pacific Ocean, as the permanent boundary between the territories of the two powers in that quarter. This is our ultimatum, and you may so announce it."