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John Jay’s Draft of Washington’s Address to the Senate, 24 July 1789

John Jay’s Draft of Washington’s Address to the Senate

[New York, post 24 July 1789]1

Gentlemen of the Senate

Mr. Gardoqui, the plenipotentiary Encargado de negocios of his Catholic Majesty, informs me, that having obtained Permission to return to Spain, in order to attend for a while to his domestic affairs, he purposes to avail himself of the first good opportunity that may offer.

The Papers accompanying this, will inform you of the negociations which were depending between Spain, and the United States under the authority of the late congress,2 who for the Reasons stated in their act of the    Day of   3 last referred them to the present Government. It is natural for Spain to expect, that the Suspension of these negociations should not continue longer, than until the present Government shall be in a Situation to take the proper Measures for resuming them.4

If it should be deemed adviseable for the United States to conclude a Treaty with Spain, on the Terms to which she seems willing to accede, it may probably be done before the Departure of Mr. Gardoqui.5

I wish that no Delays in public affairs, which may be judged inconvenient to the United States, and which may be in my Power to avoid, should take place. The Policy of concluding a Treaty on those Terms, involves Questions of great Magnitude and Difficulty. I submit it to your Consideration, and request your advice. In my opinion it is expedient, that Nothing which may pass on this Subject in your Body, should at least for the present transpire, that in Case the Negociations should not proceed, the public Mind may not be unnecessarily agitated.—6 [Qv.]7

This latter Hint however proper, is capable being improperly used, tho’ I do not think it probable.

AD, DLC: Washington, ser. 4 (EJ: 10602). Addressed: “The President of the United States”. Endorsed. Notation in GW’s hand: “Note / The enclosed Papers were / never acted upon—unless / the Sentiments in that / marked A / were communicated by / Mr. Jay at the Presidts. / request to the Encargado / of Spain / Mr. Gardoqui.”

1The date assigned is based on the date of JJ’s letter to GW of 24 July, above, forwarding Gardoqui’s note announcing his intention to return to Spain. The announcement gave urgency to a discussion GW had recently initiated about whether, when, and how to reopen negotiations over navigation of the Mississippi River. See GW to JJ, 14 July, above. JJ had then drafted an address from GW to the Senate, written prior to the announcement of Gardoqui’s impending departure, that requested its advice on two questions “1st. whether it is expedient now to renew those negotiations?”, and, if that should be the case, then “2dly what Terms ought, on the part of the United States[,] to be insisted on—”. Dft, DLC: Washington (EJ: 10606).

2The planned enclosures cannot be certainly identified, but probably included copies of some or all of the records of the Jay-Gardoqui negotiations and of Gardoqui’s letter and note regarding his departure. According to the OFA Journal description begins Daily Journals, Office of Foreign Affairs, 1784–1790, 2 vols., Papers of the Continental Congress, RG 360, item 127, National Archives (M247). Accessed Fold3.com description ends entry for 25 July, GW then returned to the office the book of records of the Jay-Gardoqui negotiations that JJ had sent him on 14 July, together with Gardoqui’s letter and enclosed note of 24 July. The enclosure marked “A” referred to JJ’s undated draft of a proposed order from GW directing him to assure Gardoqui that the President wished to see the negotiations for a treaty resumed and completed as quickly as possible and that nothing on GW’s part would be wanting to promote that object. Dft, DLC: Washington (EJ: 10603).

On 27 July the OFA journal records that on 26 July JJ had submitted to GW a draft of a letter to Gardoqui in answer to his note, which being approved of (probably in revised form), JJ then wrote to Gardoqui accordingly. See JJ to GW, 24 July, above, and to Gardoqui, 27 July, below; and OFA Journal description begins Daily Journals, Office of Foreign Affairs, 1784–1790, 2 vols., Papers of the Continental Congress, RG 360, item 127, National Archives (M247). Accessed Fold3.com description ends , 14, 25, and 27 July 1789 (EJ: 03801).

Sometime during this period GW posed new questions regarding renewed negotiations in an undated memorandum. Where he had previously wondered whether resumption of negotiations could be made to appear as a result of Gardoqui’s initiative, GW now asked whether he could justifiably take action in light of Gardoqui’s impending departure without asking the Senate’s advice if there was a “majority—or large minority” there that favored “continuing the negotiations (maugre the difficulty with respect to the navigation of the Mississippi) from an Opinion that the terms, upon the whole, ought to be acceded to.” GW stressed that the American claim to navigation rights should not be weakened by any negotiations whatever, and queried whether there was anything in JJ’s letter to Gardoqui that could be construed as a relaxation on this point. Finally, GW asked whether it would be improper, without weakening the American claim to navigation rights, to “convey verbally (taking a memorandum of it)” to Gardoqui that the United States could never lose sight of use of the river however it might be restrained, and to remind Gardoqui that both nations would derive reciprocal advantages from a just and liberal policy with regard to the river. It would be better, GW asserted, that Gardoqui return with our ideas to this effect “delicately and tenderly expressed” than with any hope that the United States would give up a navigation “tenaciously contended for by a large part of the Union.” GW evidently decided that conducting negotiations when there was no hope of resolving the issue of navigation of the Mississippi River was useless and risked dividing the union: he therefore did not formally address Congress on the subject. While it is probable that GW discussed his queries informally with JM or other congressmen, no documentation to that effect has been found. See GW’s “Queries,” n.d. [1789], DLC: Washington (EJ: 10605); PTJ description begins Julian T. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (42 vols. to date; Princeton, N.J., 1950–) description ends , 19: 498–505; PJM description begins William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series (17 vols.; Chicago and Charlottesville, Va., 1962–91) description ends , 12: 310–11; GWF, 30: 486–87.

3Spaces left blank in manuscript. On the act of 16 Sept. 1788, which suspended negotiations for a treaty, see JJ’s report regarding Navigation of the Mississippi River, 2 Sept. 1788, above.

4On 5 Sept. 1787, Floridablanca had instructed Gardoqui not to sign any treaty with the United States until it had a stable government in place. Nevertheless, on 19 Sept. 1788, three days after the Continental Congress had decided to defer negotiations, Gardoqui, who had not yet been officially informed of this decision, detailed a number of problems, including frontier conflicts and commercial issues that proved the advisability of establishing “the Rights of both Nations on Principles of Equity and Justice” as soon as possible. Once advised of Congress’s decision, Gardoqui then decided to request permission to return to Spain. See the editorial note “Negotiations with Gardoqui Reach an Impasse,” JJSP description begins Elizabeth M. Nuxoll et al., eds., The Selected Papers of John Jay (4 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 2010–) description ends , 4: 364–78; and JJ’s report of 2 Sept., Gardoqui to JJ, 19 Sept., and JJ to Gardoqui, 17 Oct., all 1788, above.

5Gardoqui sailed for Bilboa in October 1789; he did not return to the United States, but instead was appointed director of the Department of Commerce of the Indies and secretario del despacho de Hacienda. See JJ to Gardoqui, 27 July and 7 Oct., 1789, below; PGW: PS description begins Dorothy Twohig et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series (19 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1987–) description ends , 3: 299–300; 6: 228; 7: 171–73. For an abortive attempt to resume negotiations for a treaty with Spain, initiated by TJ in 1791, see Bemis, Pinckney’s Treaty description begins Samuel Flagg Bemis, Pinckney’s Treaty: America’s Advantage from Europe’s Distress, 1783–1800 (New Haven, Conn., 1960) description ends , 163–72.

6On the congressional injunction mandating secrecy with regard to JJ’s negotiations with Gardoqui, see the editorial note “Negotiations with Gardoqui Reach an Impasse,” cited in note 4, above. The injunction was removed by Congress’s act of 16 Sept. 1788.

7“Quod vide” for “which see”. The preceding sentence is marked by a dotted line in the left margin directing the reader to the sentence below, which begins in the left margin at the bottom of the page.

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