RC (DLC); in an unidentified hand, signed by Yznardi; at foot of text: “Rt. Honble Thomas Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ, on enclosure, as received 8 Jan. 1801 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Mariano Luis de Urquijo to Yznardi, 13 Jan. 1800, noting that Spain wished to maintain good harmony with the United States and authorizing Yznardi to assure the government that any difficulties would be resolved “on the best terms of friendship”; to obtain better intelligence from the United States, as had previously been the case through David Humphreys, the Spanish government was sending a person who would “expressly carry proper instructions, more Enlarged” (Tr in DLC in TJ Papers, 106:18128–9; in Spanish with English translation, both in the same hand as the letter above).

Yznardi had acted as deputy to his son, who received the appointment as U.S. consul at Cadiz in 1793 (Vol. 27:60n). The letter of the 21st of October last was probably one of October 1800 recorded in SJL as received from Philadelphia on 3 Nov. along with another from Yznardi dated 1 Oct.; neither letter has been found. On 22 Sep. TJ acknowledged receipt of Yznardi’s communication of 20 Aug.—probably a letter, not found, recorded in SJL as written 24 Aug. and received from Baltimore on 5 Sep.—and noted that he had received no other correspondence from him since a letter of 5 Sep. 1799 that he had received when he was about to leave Philadelphia—again, not found but recorded in SJL as received from Cadiz on 14 May 1800. TJ assured Yznardi that the charges against him in the newspapers had made no impression, for rumors in the press merited little confidence (Tr in AHN: Papeles de Estado, Legajo 3891 bis, expediente 1, no. 109, in Spanish, possibly only an extract, recipient identified as “J.Y.”; Miguel Gómez del Campillo, comp., Relaciones Diplomáticas entre España y los Estados Unidos, 2 vols. [Madrid, 1944–46], 1:121–2; 2:490). Yznardi had come to the United States to answer charges made by several people, including Joseph Israel, master of the Trial, and John M. Pintard, U.S. consul at Madeira, who owned the vessel, that he had failed to protect the rights of American ships at Cadiz. Timothy Pickering wrote to John Marshall in Yznardi’s defense, saying that American captains were “too apt to expect & demand unreasonable attentions and indulgences” and noting that any consul resisting “their demands, would not fail to incur their displeasure” (Marshall, Papers description begins Herbert A. Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, Charles F. Hobson, and others, eds., The Papers of John Marshall, Chapel Hill, 1974–2006, 12 vols. description ends , 6:55–6; Yznardi to John Marshall, 10 Nov. 1800, enclosing “Vindication to the charges,” in DNA: RG 59, CD; see also Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends No. 3267, a printed set of documents that TJ catalogued for his library as Yznardi’s “Letter in vindication of his conduct as pro-consul at Cadiz,” p. 23; Vol. 27:60n).

Yznardi had previously sent the secretary of state a copy of the letter from Urquijo, who was Spain’s minister of state for foreign affairs until late in 1800. On 27 Aug. Marshall forwarded it to President Adams with the observation that it “merits some attention. The conduct of the spanish government towards that of the United States has furnished cause for complaints much more serious & extensive than have ever been made. To me it seems that compensation for every American vessel condemnd by the french consular courts in the dominions of spain is justly demandable from the spanish government & that it is not yet too late to make the demand” (Marshall, Papers description begins Herbert A. Johnson, Charles T. Cullen, Charles F. Hobson, and others, eds., The Papers of John Marshall, Chapel Hill, 1974–2006, 12 vols. description ends , 4:247–8; Germán Bleiberg, ed., Diccionario de Historia de España, 2d ed., 3 vols. [1968–69], 3:851–2; Salvador Bermúdez de Castro y O’Lawlor, Marqués de Lema, Antecedentes Políticos y Diplomáticos de los Sucesos de 1808, 2d ed. [Madrid, 1912], 13).

HCM: His Catholic Majesty. For the disagreement between Spanish diplomat Carlos Fernando Martínez de Irujo (YRUJO) and Timothy Pickering over implementation of Pinckney’s Treaty, see Vol. 30:53–5. Adams requested Irujo’s recall, so in 1800 the Spanish government named Nicolás Blasco de Orozco as the new minister to the United States, appointing Irujo minister to the Cisalpine Republic. Irujo, however, elected to stay in America until his replacement arrived. That did not occur before TJ’s inauguration, and at TJ’s request the Spanish retained Irujo as minister to the U.S. (Samuel F. Bemis, Pinckney’s Treaty: America’s Advantage from Europe’s Distress, 1783–1800 [New Haven, 1960], 309n; Gómez del Campillo, Relaciones Diplomáticas, 1:120, 251; 2:481, 496; Vol. 30:194n; TJ to Yznardi, 26 Mch. 1801).

In Spanish the name of the Yznardi family, which was of Italian origin, is usually spelled Iznardi (sometimes Iznardi), and Joseph or Josef generally appears as José. However, for consistency despite variations in signatures and contemporary usage, we have continued to employ for both father and son the form used by the younger man in his earlier correspondence with TJ: Joseph Yznardi (Alberto García Carraffa and Arturo García Carraffa, Enciclopedia Heráldica y Genealógica Hispano-Americana, 88 vols. [Madrid, 1952–63], 46:175; Julián B. Ruiz Rivera, El Consulado de Cádiz: Matrícula de Comerciantes, 1730–1823 [Cadiz, 1988], 172; Gómez del Campillo, Relaciones Diplomáticas, 1:114–15; 2:501–2; Vol. 27:499).