Congressional Resolution Changing John Jay’s Instructions for Negotiating a Treaty with Spain, 25 August [1785]

Congressional Resolution Changing John Jay’s Instructions for Negotiating a Treaty with Spain

August 25th. [1785]

On a Report of a Committee to whom was referred a letter of the 15th. from the Secretary for foreign Affairs—

Resolved That the last paragraph in the instructions to the Secretary to the United States for the department of foreign Affairs passed July 20th 1785 for entering into a treaty compact or Convention with the Encargado de Negocios of his Catholic Majesty in the words following

“That the Secretary to the United States of America for the department of foreign Affairs, be and he is hereby instructed previous to his making propositions to Don Diego de Gardoqui, or agreeing with him on any Article compact or Convention to communicate to Congress the propositions to be made or received relative to such Article Compact or Convention” be repealed, and that the following be substituted in its place.—

That the Secretary to the United States for the department of foreign Affairs, be, and he hereby is instructed in his plan of a treaty with the Encargado de Negocios of his Catholic Majesty particularly to stipulate the right of the United States to their territorial bounds and the free Navigation of the Mississippi from the source to Ocean as established in their Treaties with great Britain1—And that he neither conclude or sign any Treaty compact or Convention with the said Encargado de Negocios until he hath previously communicated it to Congress and received their Approbation.2—

Cha Thomson secy.

C, signed by CT, DNA: PCC, item 6, 3: 303–4; C, DNA: PCC, item 5, 2: 1074–75; D, in hand of James Monroe, DNA: PCC, item 25, 2: 441; LbkC, DNA: PCC, item 125, 20–21 (EJ: 3699); JCC, description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends 29: 657–58. This report on JJ’s letter to the President of Congress of 15 Aug. (above), was read in Congress on 17 Aug. and passed verbatim on 25 Aug. JCC, description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends 29: 631n.

1. This paragraph closely parallels the instructions for a United States minister to Spain drafted in December 1784 by a committee of Congress on which JJ sat. See JCC, description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends 27: 705–6.

2. JJ subsequently requested a controversial alteration in these instructions in his letter to the President of Congress of 29 May 1786, below. See the editorial note “Negotiations with Gardoqui Reach an Impasse,” below.

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Source Project: Jay Papers
Title: Congressional Resolution Changing John Jay’s Instructions for Negotiating a Treaty with Spain, 25 August [1785]
Date: 25 August 1785

Reference

Cite as: “Congressional Resolution Changing John Jay’s Instructions for Negotiating a Treaty with Spain, 25 August [1785],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-04-02-0065. [Original source: The Selected Papers of John Jay, vol. 4, 1785–1788, ed. Elizabeth M. Nuxoll. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, pp. 162–163.]