From John Jay to Montmorin, 2 July 1781
To Montmorin
Madrid 2 July 1781
Sir
I have the Honor of transmitting to your Exy herewith enclosed a copy of a Letter I have this Day written to his Exy the Count De Florida Blanca. ^I have thereby informed him of my^ Being authorized to remove the objections hitherto made by the Court of Spain to a Treaty of Alliance with the United States, I have communicated it to his Exy and again requested that ^& again requested that the Measures necessary^ for that ^the^ Purpose may now be taken—
Permit me Sir to request that the favorable Interposition of Franc our kind and generous Ally may be exe with his Cath. Majesty may be exerted to commence, & bring, the proposed Negoticiation, & bring it to a speedy & happy [Con?] Conclusion. the Confidence justly reposed in by America in the amity & assurances of his most Christian Majesty, will not permit ^forbids me^ to press ^urge^ this Request by any arguments, as being persuaded that the many valuable repeated and unequivocal proofs we have recd of his Friendship convince us that ^[in margin] Persuasives being indelicate where there ought to be no ^^not warrented by^^ Doubts of Inclination^ ^and I am happy in reflecting that his Instructions on this Subject are committed to the Execution of a Minister^ from whose Attachments as well as from whose Talents &
Address may promise themselves much the American Cause may expect to derive advantage—1
Many Reasons induce me to to view the present moment as particularly favorable to the Completion of this Business
I have the Honor to be with perfect real Esteem & Regard Yr Exy’s most obt. & most h’ble Servt.
His Exy. the Count DeMontmorin Embassador of France &c.
Dft, NNC (EJ: 7990). Cs, enclosed in JJ to the President of Congress, 3 Oct. 1781, below. C, in French, FrPMAE: CP-E, 605: 5 (EJ: 4009). LbkCs, DNA: PCC, item 110, 1: 448–49 (EJ: 4167); NNC: JJ Lbks. 1 and 6; CSmH (EJ: 3416). Enclosure: JJ to Floridablanca, 2 July 1781, above.
1. The instructions alluded to in Vergennes’s letter to JJ of 13 Mar. 1780, above, which were less positive than the construction JJ here implies. For JJ’s awareness that Montmorin could not actively support him, see his letters to the President of Congress, 6 Nov. 1780, above, and 3 Oct. 1781, below. In his dispatch of 6 July, Montmorin informed Vergennes that JJ had received Congress’s instructions allowing JJ to cede navigation of the Mississippi if Spain insisted on it. Montmorin then expressed his belief that, even with this concession, there was little prospect of a satisfactory relationship between Spain and the United States before a general peace. See FrPMAE: CP-E, 609: 59–60.