The contracting powers agree not to have recourse to armed force for the recovery of contract debts claimed from the government of one country by the government of another country as being due to its nationals.
This undertaking is, however, not applicable when the debtor state refuses or neglects to reply to an offer of arbitration, or, after accepting the offer, prevents any "compromis" from being agreed on, or, after the arbitration, fails to submit to the award.[258]
[244] For. Rel., 1895-96, Part I, p. 552.
[245] "Messages and Papers of the Presidents," Vol. IX, p. 655.
[247] Moore's "Digest of Int. Law," Vol. VI, pp. 368-604, especially Mr. Fish's Report on Relations with the Spanish-American Republics of July 14, 1870, pp. 429-431.
[249] Foreign Relations, 1901, p. 193; 1903, p. 429.
[250] Foreign Relations, 1903, pp. 419, 454; Moore, "Digest of Int. Law," Vol. VII. p. 140.
[251] Moore, "Digest of Int. Law," Vol. VI, p. 590.
[252] Thayer, "Life and Letters of John Hay," Vol. II, pp. 286-288.
[254] Venezuelan Arbitrations of 1903 (Sen. Doc. No. 316, Fifty-eighth Cong., Second Sess.); Foreign Relations, 1904, p. 871.
[255] Foreign Relations, 1904, p. 506. For a full report of the case see Sen. Doc. No. 119, Fifty-eighth Cong., Third Sess.
[257] _Am. Journal of Int. Law_, Vol. II, p. 78.
[258] _Am. Journal of Int. Law_, Vol. II, Supplement, p. 82.
THE ADVANCE OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE CARIBBEAN
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Spain was still in possession of all the shores of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, but the downfall of her vast colonial empire was rapidly approaching. By the secret treaty of San Ildefonso she agreed to cede Louisiana back to France, and in 1803 Napoleon sold the entire province to the United States. This was our first acquisition of territory on the Gulf of Mexico, and it insured a free outlet for the vast region of the Mississippi valley. The boundaries of the province were indefinite, and there ensued a long controversy with Spain as to whether Louisiana included West Florida on the one hand and Texas on the other. These questions were finally adjusted by the Florida treaty of 1819, which ceded both East and West Florida to the United States and fixed the western boundary of Louisiana on the Gulf at the Sabine river. By this treaty the United States gained undisputed possession of the region extending from Mobile bay to the Mississippi, but abandoned the claim to Texas.