To John Jay from the President of Congress (Samuel Huntington), 15 February 1781
From the President of Congress (Samuel Huntington)
[Philadelphia] February 15. 1781
Sir,
Congress having since their Instructions to you of the 29th of September 1779 and the 4th of October 1780,1 relative to the Claim of the United States to the free Navigation of the river Mississippi, and to a free Port or Ports below the 31st Degree of North Latitude, resumed the Consideration of that Subject, and being desirous to manifest to all the World, and particularly to his Catholic Majesty, the Moderation of their Views, the high Value they place on the Friendship of his Catholic Majesty and their Disposition to remove every reasonable Obstacle to his Accession to the Alliance subsisting between his most Christian Majesty and these United States, in order to unite the more closely in their Measures & Operations three Powers who have so great an Unity of Interests, and there by compel the common Enemy to a speedy, just and honorable Peace, have resolved, and you are hereby instructed to recede from the Instructions above referred to, so far as they insist on the free Navigation of that Part of the River Mississippi which lies below the 31st Degree of North Latitude, and on a free Port or Ports below the same, provided such Cession shall be unalterably insisted upon by Spain and provided the free Navigation of the ^said^ River above the said Degree of North Latitude shall be acknowledged and guaranteed by his Catholic Majesty to the Citizens of the United States in Common with his own Subjects.2 It is the Order of Congress at the same Time that you exert every possible Effort to obtain from his Catholic Majesty the Use of the River aforesaid with a free Port or Ports below the said 31st Degree of North Latitude, for the Citizens of the United States, under such Regulations and Restrictions only as may be a necessary safe Guard against illicit Commerce—3
By order of Congress.4
Saml. Huntington President
The Honble: John Jay Esqr
1. No instructions of 29 Sept. have been found. On 28 Sept. 1779, Congress adopted a semifinal version of the instructions contained in the President of Congress to JJ, 16 Oct. 1779. See : 716–18; and Instructions from Congress to John Jay, 4 Oct. 1780, above.
2. In the proposals for a treaty that he presented to Floridablanca on 22 Sept. 1781 (below), JJ specified that the United States might withdraw its offer to cede its claim to navigate the Mississippi below the southern boundary of its territory if Spain had not agreed to a treaty prior to a general peace.
3. For Congress’s rejection of a suggestion by Robert Morris that JJ be given latitude to make further concessions with regard to the Mississippi if this would induce Spain to grant substantial financial aid, see James Lovell to JJ, 15–16 Aug. 1781, below.
4. JJ acknowledged receipt of these instructions in his letter to the President of Congress of 3 Oct. 1781, below, in which he mentioned that he had received an unofficial copy of them from Lovell on 18 May. He noted in his letter to Charles Thomson of 23 Apr. 1781, below, however, that their contents were known in Europe before they arrived.