James Monroe, referring to this suggestion in a letter written to Governor Henry of Virginia, said: “The object of this is to break up the settlements on the western waters * * * so as to throw the weight of the population eastward and keep it there, to appropriate the vacant lands in New York and Massachusetts.” Jay in 1794 was appointed as an envoy to England for the purpose of negotiating a treaty between that country and the United States. Relations were strained because of British aggression against our commerce in retaliation for very open sympathy for France and a belief that a secret treaty existed between France and the United States. While he was yet on the ocean, a great meeting was held at Lexington, on May 24, 1794, protesting against his appointment and mission and the following resolution was adopted and published: “* * * That the inhabitants west of the Appalachian Mountains are entitled by nature and by stipulation to the free and undisturbed navigation of the river Mississippi. “That we have a right to expect and demand that Spain should be compelled immediately to acknowledge our right or that an end be put to all negotiations on that subject. “That the injuries and insults done and offered by Great Britain to America call loudly for redress and that we will to the utmost of our abilities support the General Government in any attempt to obtain redress. “That the recent appointment of the enemy of the Western Country to negotiate with that nation and the tame submission of the General Government, when we alone were injured by Great Britain, make it highly necessary that we should at this time state our just demands to the President and Congress. * * *” Jay succeeded in his mission; a treaty was made, followed in May, 1796, by the surrender of the British forts in the Northwest Territory; which finally relieved Kentucky from British accessorial influence in the Indian aggressions. In 1795, Governor Carondelet, of Louisiana, renewed the efforts instituted by Miro and Wilkinson to separate Kentucky from the Union. As Wilkinson at the time was a general in the United States army and no longer a resident of Kentucky, his chief agent in Kentucky was Judge Sebastian. Carondelet’s agents soon discovered that the people of Kentucky no longer cared to surrender their interest in the Union in exchange for Spanish commercial privileges. On October 25, 1795, a treaty was entered into between Spain and the United States by Article IV of which it was stipulated that: “His Catholic Majesty has likewise agreed that the navigation of the said river in its whole breadth from its source to the ocean shall be free only to his subjects and the citizens of the United States unless he should extend this privilege to the subjects of other powers by special convention.” On August 2, 1796, this treaty became operative by presidential proclamation.