Lessons From Spanish West Florida, 1803

Spain was about to learn the danger of encouraging American settlers. They might be loyal only as it suited them, and efforts to halt more settlement could arouse the ire of those already there. Once opened, West Florida would be hard to close.

From The Rogue Republic: How Would-Be Patriots Waged the Shortest Revolution in American History. Similar lessons were drawn from the story of Anglo settlement in what was to become the Republic of Texas in Patrick J. Buchanan's State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.