1. Richard McCall was U.S. consul at Barcelona. His 3 Mar. 1816 letter to Dallas (3 pp.) covered two Spanish state documents obtained illicitly from the office of Pedro Cevallos. State Department chief clerk John Graham copied McCall’s letter to Dallas and made translations of the two Spanish documents (DLC: U.S. Department of State, Spanish Affairs, 1810–1816). McCall reported that “the American character stands very low in Spain […]. The court at Madrid attributes the Revolution in South America to the Republican Principles that have emanated from our Country and firmly believes that we not only have, but still continue to foment by every secret means in our power the resistance of their Colonies […]. Prime Minister Cevallos, with all the Court Party literally detest us, and be assured that nothing but a sense of their own weakness, prevents them from declaring a ruthless war against us.”

The first of the illicit documents, a “memoir” to the king of Spain (ibid.; 10 pp. in Spanish), dated 23 Dec. 1814, with Graham’s translation (19 pp.), was composed by Bruno Vallerino, a member of the Supreme Council of the Indies. Vallerino outlined the history of Spain’s relations with the new American republic: the diplomacy of the Mississippi question of the 1790s; the divergent interpretations of the 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso and the Louisiana Purchase; and American filibustering activities in West Florida, East Florida, and Texas after 1810. Vallerino proposed a nine-point plan to “put a stop to the ambitious views of the Americans,” including exchanging East and West Florida for west Louisiana, and he urged the king to “take advantage of the present favorable circumtances (the United States being involved in war with Great Britain) by means of well directed Diplomatic Negotiations to establish an advantageous dividing line between the two states.”

The second document, headed “Report of the Regency to the Cortes of Spain relative to the Measures taken by the UStates” (ibid.; 25 pp. in Spanish, dated 31 Dec. 1812), accompanied by an eleven-page translation by Graham, was a catalogue of American transgressions against Spain, including fomenting rebellion in South America and Mexico and plotting to deprive Spain of its Florida provinces. The report added that the regency has not “omitted to stimulate the British Govt. scarcely less interested than Spain that the United States should not obtain the command of the Gulph of mexico or that they shall not secure the Territory of new Spain.” JM was already familiar with this document, having received an earlier version from Tobias Lear in 1813 (PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (10 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends 5:538–40).