Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===The Louisiana Purchase===
In order to obtain a port on the Gulf of Mexico with secure access for Americans, United States diplomats in Europe were instructed to try to purchase the Isle of Orleans and West Florida from whichever country owned them. When [[Robert R. Livingston (chancellor)|Robert Livingston]] approached France in 1803 about buying the Isle of Orleans, the French government offered to sell it and all of Louisiana as well. While the purchase of Louisiana exceeded their authorization, Livingston and [[James Monroe]] (who had been sent to help him negotiate the sale) in the deliberations with France pursued a claim that the area east of the Mississippi to the [[Perdido River]] was part of Louisiana.  As part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase treaty, France repeated verbatim Article 3 of its 1800 treaty with Spain, thus expressly subrogating the United States to the rights of France and Spain.<ref name="Curry">{{cite journal |journal=Magazine of American History |title=The Acquisition of Florida |first=J. L. M. |last=Curry |pages=286–301 |volume=XIX |date=April 1888 }}</ref><sup>p.&nbsp;288–291</sup>

The ambiguity in this third article lent itself to the purpose of U.S. envoy James Monroe, although he had to adopt an interpretation that France had not asserted, nor Spain allowed.<ref name="Cox"/><sup>p 83</sup> Monroe examined each clause of the third article and interpreted the first clause as if Spain since 1783 had considered West Florida as part of Louisiana. The second clause only served to render the first clause clearer. The third clause referred to the treaties of 1783 and 1795 and was designed to safeguard the rights of the United States. This clause then simply gave effect to the others.<ref name="Cox"/><sup>p 84–85</sup>  According to Monroe, France never dismembered Louisiana while it was in her possession. (He regarded 3 November 1762, as the termination date of French possession, rather than 1769, when France formally delivered Louisiana to Spain).

President Thomas Jefferson had initially believed that the [[Louisiana Purchase]] included West Florida and gave the United States a strong claim to Texas.<ref>Stagg. p 40–41</ref>  President Jefferson asked U.S. officials in the border area for advice on the limits of Louisiana, the best informed of whom did not believe it included West Florida.<ref name="Cox">{{cite book |title=The West Florida Controversy, 1798–1813 – a Study in American Diplomacy |author=[[Isaac Joslin Cox|Cox, Isaac Joslin]] |publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore, Maryland |date=1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/westfloridacont01coxgoog |quote=isaac cox west florida. }}</ref><sup>p 87-88</sup> Later, in an 1809 letter, Jefferson virtually admitted that West Florida was not a possession of the United States.<ref name="Chambers"/><sup>p 46–47</sup>

During his negotiations with France, U.S. envoy [[Robert R. Livingston (chancellor)|Robert Livingston]] wrote nine reports to Madison in which he stated that West Florida was not in the possession of France.<ref name=" Chambers">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/westfloridaitsre00cham |title=West Florida and its relation to the historical cartography of the United States |first=Henry E. |last=Chambers |publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore, Maryland |date=May 1898 }}</ref><sup>p 43–44</sup> In November 1804, in response to Livingston, France declared the American claim to West Florida absolutely unfounded.<ref name="Cox"/><sup>p 113–116</sup> Upon the failure of Monroe's later 1804–1805 mission, Madison was ready to abandon the American claim to West Florida altogether.<ref name="Cox"/><sup>p 118</sup> In 1805, Monroe's last proposition to Spain to obtain West Florida was absolutely rejected, and American plans to establish a customs house at Mobile Bay in 1804 were dropped in the face of Spanish protests.<ref name="Curry"/><sup>p 293</sup>

The United States also hoped to acquire all of the Gulf coast east of Louisiana, and plans were made to offer to buy the remainder of West Florida (between the Perdido and Apalachicola rivers) and all of East Florida. It was soon decided, however, that rather than paying for the colonies, the United States would offer to assume Spanish debts to American citizens{{refn|group=Note|American claims against Spain arose from the use of Spanish ports by French warships and privateers that had attacked American vessels during the [[Quasi-War]] of 1798–1800<ref>Stagg. p 43</ref>}} in return for Spain ceding the Floridas. The American position was that it was placing a lien on East Florida in lieu of seizing the colony to settle the debts.<ref>Stagg. p. 42–43</ref>

In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain, forced [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand VII]], King of Spain, to abdicate, and installed his brother [[Joseph Bonaparte]] as King. Resistance to the French invasion coalesced in a national government, the [[Cortes of Cádiz]]. This government then entered into an alliance with Britain against France. This alliance raised fears in the United States that the British would establish military bases in Spanish colonies, including the Floridas, and as such potentially compromise the security of the southern frontiers of the U.S.<ref>Cusick. p. 14</ref>