Volume 2 of The Selected Letters of John Jay opens in January 1780
with John Jay’s arrival in Spain on his first diplomatic mission
abroad. It ends in June 1782 with his departure for France to join
Benjamin Franklin as one of the American commissioners to negotiate
a peace treaty with Great Britain. Jay was accompanied by his wife,
Sarah Livingston Jay, his brother-in-law and private secretary,
Henry Brockholst Livingston, and his young nephew, Peter Jay Munro,
and by his official secretary William Carmichael. The travellers’
personal letters supplement the public correspondence with
American, Spanish, and French officials and financiers. The
documents provide a case study of the perils of negotiating from a
position of political, military, and, especially, financial
weakness, and delineate the conflicts that plagued Spanish-American
relations for decades. They also demonstrate the additional strains
on Jay’s household caused by social isolation, insufficient
funds, separation from their often endangered families, and routine
detention and inspection of their mail. Jay’s mission was to seek
Spanish recognition of American independence, a treaty of alliance,
and financial aid. Thwarted by Spain’s refusal to acknowledge
American independence or to receive any American diplomat as
representative of an independent nation, he soon despaired of real
progress in his treaty negotiations. The ministry was
unsympathetic, the military situation was unpropitious, and America
could offer little in exchange for Spanish aid. What Spain wanted
most, exclusive control of the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf of
Mexico, required American abandonment of western land claims and
insistence on the right to navigate the Mississippi River,
concessions congressional instructions forbade. Further undermining
Jay’s negotiating position were the “cursed bills” Congress
drew on him in anticipation of loans it hoped Jay would obtain, but
which Spain was unwilling and unable to grant. Jay became ever more
critical of Spain's ""jealous and absolute"" government, which had
""little money, less wisdom, no credit, nor any right to it.""
Although Jay secured some Spanish funding, American credit was
rescued primarily by further aid from France. Jay appreciated
French assistance but, mindful of France’s obligations to its
Spanish ally, became increasingly wary of subordinating American
interests to French direction. Jay’s Spanish experience set the
stage for his independent stance during the peace negotiations and
magnified his determination to create a stronger, more unified
nation that would be treated with respect abroad. Access to people,
places, and events in the volume is facilitated by detailed
annotation, illustrations, and a comprehensive index.
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