To George Washington from Timothy Pickering, 30 July 1796
From Timothy Pickering
Department of State July 30. 1796.
Sir,
With very sincere pleasure I announce to you the ratification of the treaty with Spain. I received the ratified copy this day by the mail from New-York, with a certificate signed by the Prince of Peace and Mr Rutledge of the exchange of the ratifications, as on the 25th of April. I do not know why the certificate and the ratification on the part of Spain bear that date; for the treaty ratified by the Executive of the U. States did not get to Mr Rutledge’s hands until the third of May; unless it was to bring the transaction within the six months allowed by the treaty for the exchange of the ratifications: the treaty having been signed on the 27th of October.1
A letter, also recd to-day, from Mr Simpson, our Consul at Gibraltar, dated the 18th of June, mentions that he had been alongside a Swedish brig from Algiers, which she left on the 7th and tells the unwelcome news that the plague had broken out in that city; 15 to 20 dying in a day, agreeably to the bill of health from Consul Skjoldebrand:2 but the master of the brig assured Mr Simpson that no American or other captive had then fallen a victim to it. The Swedish Captain said also that Mr Donaldson had not returned from Leghorn when he left Algiers—June 7th.3 I am most respectfully sir, yr obt servt
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.
1. Article XXIII of the 27 Oct. 1795 treaty of friendship and navigation with Spain specified that ratifications should be exchanged within six months “or sooner if possible” ( 338; see also GW’s Notes on the Treaty with Spain, 22–26 Feb. 1796; GW to the U.S. Senate, 26 Feb., and n.1 to that document; and GW to Pickering, 6 March, and n.4).
Charles Rutledge (1773–1821) was the U.S. charge d’affaires at Madrid.
2. Simpson is referring to the Swedish consul at Algiers, Mathias (Mattias) Arkimboldus Skjöldebrand (1765–1813), rather than his brother Pierre Eric (Per Erik) Skjöldebrand (1769–1826), who had declined an offer to become U.S. consul at that place.
3. James Simpson’s letter to Pickering dated 18 June 1796 is in DNA: RG 59, Consular Despatches, Gibraltar. For the reason Joseph Donaldson, Jr., traveled to Leghorn, see Pickering to GW, 27 July.
GW replied to Pickering from Mount Vernon on 5 Aug.: “With much pleasure did I receive the information, contained in your letter of the 30th Ulto, of the ratification of the Treaty with Spain, by the Government of that Country. The unwelcome news of the Plague being at Algiers, is an Alloy thereto; but we must trust that Providence will prevent our unhappy fellow-citizens at that place from suffering by that malady.
“Much is it to be regretted that so many untoward accidents should have prevented the redemption money from getting to that Regency before this event took place; but as there has been no want of exertion in the government to accomplish this; no blame attaches itself, whatever may happen” (ALS, MHi: Pickering Papers; copy, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters; LB, DNA: RG 59, GW’s Correspondence with His Secretaries of State).