To John Jay from Diego de Gardoqui, 15 September 1780
From Diego de Gardoqui
[Sn. Ildefonso 15th. Sepre. 1780.]
The following answer1 has been dictated to me in his Excellency’s name by Sr. Dn. Bernardo del Campo to be deliver’d to the Honble. John Jay Esqr.
That it is not his majesty’s intention to stop assisting the States whenever means can be found to do it, but that it will be impossible to suply with money in Europe, there being none to spare, for that which ought to have come this year from America will neither come nor is it known when will, & that which wou’d have facilitated a far advanced negociation, is likely to produce no effect in a great measure, thro’ the undermining of some persons of rank in France.—2
The States not giving timely advise nor haveing taken his Majesty’s previous consent, he cou’d not arrenge his affairs before hand, in order to assure the acceptance & payment of the bills they have drawn, for which reasons & that Congress has not to this day given any tokens of a recompence, his Majesty might have just cause of dissgust, but notwithstanding he does not nor will change his Ideas, & will always retain those of humanity, friendship, & compassion that has had towards the Colonies. That consequently if Mr. Jay or his Constituents shou’d find money upon credit to the sum of one hundred or one hundred & fifty thousand dollars, that his Majesty will be answerable to said sum payable in the space of three years. That his Majesty will besides exert all that is possible to assist them with cloathing3 & other things, & finally in order that his Majesty may extend his further dispossitions, it is precisely necessary that they shou’d give sure & effective tokens of a good correspondence, proposing reciprocal measures of a compensation that may establish a solid freindship & confidence, without reducing it to words & protests of mere compliment. This being the substance, wou’d further sett into Mr. Jay’s consideration that the continuance of assisting the States by answering the sum expressed in a manner much more publick than that of paying the money privatly, shews plainly the sincerity of his Majesty altho’ the States have not to this day proposs’d any equivalent to the assistance already given, & to the expenses occasion’d by a war which has it’s true origin from them, to all which must be add, (tho’ by the way, no creditt is given to it) that there are hints of some understanding between the Colonies & the Metropoly of England.4
James Gardoqui.
LS, NNC (EJ: 8241). Endorsed: “Mr. Gardoqui / 15 Sep 1780 / Red. Do. / A: 18”. C, in French, FrPMAE: CP-E, 601: 465–67. C, enclosed in JJ to Vergennes, 22 Sept, below, DLC: Franklin (EJ: 10301). LbkCs, embedded in JJ to the President of Congress, 6 Nov., below, DNA: PCC, item 110, 1: 285–87 (EJ: 4136); NNC: JJ Lbk. 1; CSmH.
1. See JJ to Floridablanca, 14 Sept., above.
2. On the obstruction by Jacques Necker, the French finance minister, of a loan Spain was attempting to raise at this time, see the editorial note “John Jay’s Conference with Floridablanca” on pp. 98–99 and the notes to Notes on John Jay’s Conference with Floridablanca, 11 May, above. Gardoqui’s letter led JJ to write the President of Congress on 16 Sept. (below) to advise him that Congress should, for the present, draw no more bills on him.
3. Floridablanca had first suggested he might be able to supply clothing in the course of his conference with JJ on 11 May. The issue may have also been raised in the conference of 2 June, but it is not mentioned in Carmichael’s notes of that date (above). Floridablanca eventually made available clothing captured by Córdova, on which, and on the loan guarantee, see Notes on John Jay’s Conference with Floridablanca, 23 Sept., below.
4. For the Spanish text of the communication from Floridablanca, see Miguel Gómez del Campillo, Relaciones diplomáticas entre España y los Estados Unidos según los documentos del Archivo Histórico Nacional (Madrid, 1944), 1: xxv–xxvi, where the editor suggests that the remark about an understanding with the English referred to Carmichael’s contacts with Cumberland. Gardoqui presented this letter to JJ unsigned. JJ suspected the omission was deliberate and raised the issue with Gardoqui, who reluctantly agreed to sign it. See JJ to the President of Congress, 6 Nov., below. JJ indignantly denied that the United States was seeking any understanding whatever with Britain. He deferred discussion of this allegation to his conference with Floridablanca on 23 Sept.