Note 69 — SEVENTH CONGRESS.—SECOND SESSION.

A double movement was going on at the same time in relation to the violation of the right of deposit at New Orleans: one by the Administration, commencing with an embassy both to France and Spain to negotiate for the desired places; the other by the opposition, who held negotiation to be unworthy of the country in circumstances of such wrong and insult, and preferred the immediate seizure of New Orleans. Mr. Ross, a Pennsylvania Senator, from the west of the State, whose trade went to New Orleans, was the leader of this forcible movement—in which he was well sustained by the feeling of the whole West. It was on Mr. Ross's resolutions that this violation of the right of deposit at New Orleans was publicly debated; and as it concerned the free navigation of the Mississippi, it was called the "Mississippi question."