To James Madison from Carlos Martínez de Yrujo, 15 May 1804
From Carlos Martínez de Yrujo
Philadelphia 15 May 1804
Sir.
The explanations, which the government of France, has given to his Catholic Majesty concerning the sale of Louisiana to the United States, and the amicable dispositions on the part of the King my master towards these States, have determined him to abandon the oposition, which at a prior period and with the most substantial motives, he had manifested against that transaction.1 In consequence and by special order of His Majesty, I have the pleasure to communicate to you his Royal intentions on an affair so important; well perswaded that the American government will see in this conduct of the King my master a new proof of his consideration for the United States, and that they will correspond, with a true reciprocity, with the sincere friendship of the King, of which he has given them so many proofs. God preserve you many years. [B Mo. de V.S. Su mas ato. y sego Sr
El Marqués de casa Yrujo]
RC (DNA: RG 59, NFL, Spain, vol. 2); Tr and translation (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 8A-D1). RC in Spanish; in a clerk’s hand except for Yrujo’s complimentary close and signature; docketed by Wagner as received 21 May, with his notation: “renunciation of the Spanish objection to the transfer of Louisiana”; copytext is Wagner’s interlinear translation. Tr headed: “Copy of a letter from the Marquis of Casa Yrujo to the Secretary of State.” Tr and translation transmitted by Jefferson to Congress on 8 Nov. 1804 and printed in , Foreign Relations, 2:583.
1. For the Spanish protests against the U.S. acquisition of Louisiana, see Yrujo to JM, 4 and 27 Sept. 1803, , 5:378, 464.