Surveying the Early Republic: The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, U.S. Boundary Commissioner in the Old Southwest, 1796–1800 ed. by Robert D. Bush

The present-day state boundaries separating the southeastern parishes of Louisiana from Mississippi and the panhandle of Florida from Georgia and Alabama appear benign on our maps. The borders along the thirty-first parallel may appear to be just another rational division of territory made at a distance along a line of latitude. The journal of Andrew Ellicott is a poignant reminder that the circumstances surrounding the division of this territory were anything but straightforward. Ellicott was a Pennsylvania Quaker who served as the surveyor for the Mason-Dixon Line, the western border of Pennsylvania, the southwestern boundary of New York, and the District of Columbia. Following the Treaty of San Lorenzo between the United States and Spain in 1795 that established the boundary between US and Spanish territory in the Old Southwest, President Washington appointed Ellicott as the US commissioner for the survey.

This edition of Ellicott's journal is organized into ten chapters that provide a detailed account of the surveyor's activities and correspondence from 1796 to 1800. In the opening two chapters, Ellicott describes his journey from Philadelphia to Natchez, including his observations of the land and people along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. In chapters 3 through 5, the delicate diplomacy and mutual distrust between Americans and Spanish officials is presented through Ellicott's correspondence with local citizens, Spanish officials, and Secretary of State Timothy Pickering. Following each letter is Ellicott's explanation of the context and his interpretation of the political situation. The final five chapters provide Ellicott's account of the boundary survey, his observations on the land and rivers along the Gulf Coast, and his reports on the activities of colorful conspirators and adventurers in the region such as William Augustus Bowles. Throughout these chapters, editor Robert Bush has inserted helpful footnotes that provide context and additional sources to consult. In his introduction, Bush offers five reasons for studying Ellicott's journal: (1) it provides "insight into the daily lives of settlers and the tumultuous history of the Old Southwest during the 1790s"; (2) the correspondence between Ellicott and Spanish officials is "key to understanding their nations' relationship and respective positions"; (3) Ellicott's scientific observations "fostered … a thirst among his colleagues for more knowledge about the frontier"; (4) Ellicott's Federalist political positions are evident throughout his commentary and thus "reflect the ideology of that political party during the administration of President John Adams"; and (5) "Ellicott's repeated observations on the political and military weaknesses of the Spanish administration in the Old Southwest … provided a wealth of information" for American politicians, particularly President Thomas Jefferson (2–4). The introduction also includes three maps that provide an overview of the historical geography of the disputed territories and the ultimate boundary agreement, as well as a biographical overview of Ellicott and the publication history of his journals.

Those interested in the minutiae of late eighteenth-century diplomacy between the United States and Spain will find much to enjoy in Ellicott's journal. Historical geographers with an interest in geopolitics, territory, and nation-building in the early republic will also wish to consult this work. The appeal of Ellicott's journal may be limited to these specific audiences, though. Despite my interest in this region and period, I found the diplomatic correspondence to be tedious reading and the travel portions of the journal to lack the allure of other narratives from this era. As with any edited edition, however, the quality of the volume has much to do with the editor's introduction, footnotes, illustrations, and bibliography. In this regard, Bush is successful in three of these four components. The introduction, footnotes, and bibliography all provide the reader with valuable context and up-to-date sources of scholarship for further reading. I was disappointed, though, to find that the volume includes few maps and no reproductions of Ellicott's sketches, portraits of key individuals, or other such illustrations. It is troublesome that one of the three maps in the book is marred by a typo that labels the Treaty of San Lorenzo line as 1759 instead of the correct 1795. Historical geographers may be disappointed that Bush did not employ a cartographer to create accurate and detailed maps to better illustrate the geographical relationships at play during this tense political episode. Despite these shortcomings, the student of historical geography who reads Ellicott's journal will come away with a new appreciation for the perilous politics that were at play in the drawing of a seemingly benign border.