On the authority of this principle as above stated, Messrs. Pinckney and Monroe contended that "by the discovery and possession of the Mississippi in its whole length, and _the coast adjoining it_, the United States are entitled to the whole country dependent on that river, the waters which empty into it, and their several branches, _within the limits on that coast_. The extent to which this would go it is not in our power to say; but the principle being clear, dependent on plain and simple facts, it would be easy to ascertain it."
It will have been observed, that the opposition of France and Spain to the pretensions of Great Britain is adduced by Messrs. Pinckney and Monroe, as giving the highest sanction to this principle. A passage in Mr. Calhoun's letter of Sept. 3, 1844, to Mr. Pakenham forms a striking contrast. Having alluded to the claims of France and Great Britain, first conflicting on the banks of the Ohio, he writes: "If the relative strength of these different claims may be tested by the result of that remarkable contest, that of continuity westward must be pronounced to be the stronger of the two. England has had at least the advantage of the result, and would seem to be foreclosed against contesting the principle--particularly as against us, who contributed so much to that result, and on whom that contest, and her example and her pretensions from the first settlement of our country, have contributed to impress it so deeply and indelibly." In other respects Mr. Calhoun adopts the same view of the early European settlements in North America, that the respective nations "claimed for their settlements usually, specific limits _along the coasts_ or bays on which they were formed, and generally a region of _corresponding width_ extending across the entire continent to the Pacific Ocean."
That the hypothesis of Mr. Calhoun's argument was meant to be affirmed, may be inferred from Mr. Gallatin having categorically asserted the same fact in 1826, as being notorious. It does not however appear from the protracted negotiations prior to the Treaty of Paris, that any conflicting principles of international law were advanced by the two parties, or any question of disputed title set at rest by the treaty. On the contrary, it was intimated in the course of the negotiations, by Great Britain, that she considered France to have the natives on the left bank of the Mississippi under her protection, when she proposed that the King of France should "consent to leave them under the protection of Great Britain."