To James Madison from John Armstrong, 1 June 1806
From John Armstrong
1. June 1806. Paris.
Sir,
I avail myself of Mr. Washington’s return to America to inform you that after three weeks of much anxious endeavor I have received assurances that his Imperial majesty interests himself in the amicable adjustment of our differences with Spain and that he has taken measures for bringing that power into an early negotiation1 on the subject of them. I hope in a few days to be able to transmit the official answer of this court to my applications and it may not then be improper to state the circumstances which have so long delayed its determination. Of news I have but two articles to communicate. The Pope is about to retire into a Convent within the Diocese of which he was Bishop before his elevation to the Papal see. Cardinal Fesch will be his spiritual successor Napoleon his temporal.
The fate of Switserland is at length determined. It is to be divided between Baden Wurtemburg and France.
I have thought it the wiser course to ask no explanation from, nor make any reproaches to Mr. B. with regard to the circumstance mentioned in my letter of the 4th.2 To you, he and Mr. E. will owe an explanation of their motives, and I hope ⟨i⟩t may be satisfactory. The former is much piqued at the incivility or neglect with which he has been, and is treated here. The cause is however evident, and does not seem to admit a cure. I am, Sir, with great consideration and respect your most obedient and most humbl Servt,
John Armstrong.
RC, two copies, and enclosures (DNA: RG 59, DD, France, vol. 10). First RC marked “(Du)plicate”; in a clerk’s hand, signed by Armstrong; docketed by Wagner; interlinearly decoded by JM. Italicized words are those encoded by Armstrong’s clerk in a State Department code also used by John Quincy Adams at St. Petersburg and by Jacob Lewis at Saint-Domingue. Decoding here is by the editors from a partially reconstructed key with omissions supplied by JM’s decoding. Second RC 1 p.; written and encoded by Armstrong; docketed by Wagner; not decoded. For enclosures, see n. 2.
1. Coded “negotiations”; decoded “negotiation.” For the proposed talks, see JM to Armstrong and James Bowdoin, 13 Mar. 1806, and Armstrong to JM, 26 Apr. and 4 May 1806, 11:378–83, 504, 537–39.
2. Armstrong to JM, 4 May 1806, ibid., 537–39. Filed with the RC, and docketed by Wagner as “Recd. in Genl. Armstrong’s 1 June 1806” are copies of Armstrong’s correspondence with James Bowdoin, 2–4 May 1806 (14 pp.), consisting of efforts by Bowdoin to ascertain whether Armstrong had withheld information and documents concerning their joint mission while acting independently thereon, and Armstrong’s defense of his conduct. The crux of the exchange was Bowdoin’s assertion and Armstrong’s denial that the former should be included in discussions with the French government and the Spanish ambassador in Paris regarding Francisco de Miranda’s expedition against Venezuela in the Leander (for the expedition, see , 11:xxv).