To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 3 August 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State August 3. 1796
Sir,
In my letter of the 30th ulto which was forwarded by post the first instant, I had the pleasure to mention the arrival of the Spanish treaty, ratified by His Catholic Majesty.1 I now do myself the honor to transmit the treaty itself (being a duplicate original) with a proclamation, for your signature, in order to promulgate the same to the citizens of the U. States.2 I also inclose for your information, a translation of the form in which the treaty was ratified by his Catholic Majesty;3 and am, with the highest respect, sir, your most obt servant
Timothy Pickering.
ALS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, Domestic Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State.
2. GW replied to Pickering from Mount Vernon on 8 Aug.: “Your letter of the 3d instant, accompanying the ratified copy of the Spanish Treaty, by His Catholic Majesty, came to my hands by the last Post.
“The Proclamation annexed thereto, has received my Signature, and is herewith returned” (ALS, NjP: De Coppet Collection; LS [retained copy], DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State). The signed proclamation, dated 2 Aug., with a duplicate original of the treaty, is in DNA: RG 11, Treaty Series 325.
The treaty appears in The Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser for 12 Aug. 1796.
3. The translation, filed with Pickering’s letter to GW, reads: “Don Carlos, by the Grace of God … having seen and examined the said twenty three Articles, have approved and ratified, the contents thereof … wholly, in the most ample and best possible form, promising on the Word and Faith of King to fulfil and observe them, and to cause the same to be completely fulfilled and observed, as if I myself had signed them” (DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters).