On October 7, 1795, the Ambassador Thomas Pinckney agreed to the first treaty between the US and Spain. During the Revolutionary War, Spain had used the American rebellion against Britain to attack British colonies and territories. Spain, however, was not interested in independence. Spain controlled a vast system of colonies that controlled the western portion of North America and all of central and South America other than Brazil and a few other small colonies. It also controlled the largest and wealthiest colonies in the Caribbean.
King Carlos was in no hurry to join the spirit of revolution and liberty that had infected France and eventually led to the overthrow of King Louis. He was also in no hurry to encourage the colonies under Spanish control to think that fighting for independence was a good idea.
Spanish Louisiana
When Spain first received the Louisiana Territory from France at the end of the Seven Years War, it really wasn’t sure what to do with it. Most of the territory was inhabited by Indian tribes, with very few colonists from any European power. Almost all the colonists that were there were French. Spain mostly ignored the colony, leaving many French officials in power for years, even after it took ownership.
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| Thomas Pinckney |
O’Reilly had come to crush a rebellion against Spanish rule. Spain, however, was not interested in displacing the French-speaking colonists. It had no one who really wanted to settle there. Instead, the French population and the Spanish government reached an accommodation, much like the French colonists in Quebec did with their new British leaders.
After Spain joined the war with Britain in 1779, Louisiana became vulnerable to attack, and also useful as a staging area for Spanish offensives into British territory along the Gulf Coast. Bernardo de Gálvez took command there and pushed Spanish control as far east as Pensacola. Gálvez also encouraged more Spanish immigrants to move to Louisiana, pushing many people from the Canary Islands to move there.
When the Revolution ended, Spain found its interests in direct conflict with those of the United States. Spain retook control of East and West Florida, which it had held until the end the Seven Years War, then received back when Britain ceded it at the end of the Revolutionary War. This resulted in Spanish borders pushing up against US borders in Georgia.
America’s peace treaty with Britain also gave the US control of all lands east of the Mississippi River, meaning that the US bordered directly against Spanish Louisiana along a more than 2000 mile border.
Colonization and Trade
Spain’s concern was that the US was growing in power and in size, and aggressively expanding its population westward into new territories. It was only a matter of time before US growth would threaten control of Spanish territories.
Spain needed a larger population to counter this American pressure. After the Revolution, officials encouraged a new wave of immigrants. In 1785 it was the Acadians.
Recall that the Acadians were French colonists who had lived in what is today called Nova Scotia in Canada. When Britain took control of that region at the beginning of the Seven Years War, it expelled the Acadians. Some of them moved to Louisiana at that time. A great many others moved to French Guyana or the Falkland Islands. Some moved back to France, settling in Poitou. These refugees were generally unhappy, so when Louisiana welcomed them, more than 1500 Acadians moved there.
Moving French colonists into this former French colony may have created concerns that France might someday reclaim the colony. But at the time. Spanish officials were more concerned about the American threat. Having fellow Catholics as colonists was better than uncontrolled land that might get snatched up by American frontiersmen.
By this time Galvez had moved on to other commands, becoming governor of Cuba for a time and then to serve as Viceroy of New Spain, what is today Mexico and most of the American Southwest. Esteban Miró took over in Louisiana, but he asked to return to Spain in 1791. He was succeeded by the Baron de Carondelet.
Governor Carondelet continued the efforts to attract more colonists. In the era of the French Revolution, Carondelet invited French royalists to find refuge in Louisiana. These invitations came with generous land grants, and even paid for transportation costs and basic supplies to help them get started. One agreement granted every family 400 acres plus a cash bonus of one hundred pesos. Invitations went out to all Europeans, particularly Catholics. Flemish, German, and Italian immigrants took up these offers.
Spain wanted to keep the Americans away. This is why they kept the Mississippi River closed to American commercial traffic. American frontier communities had no other feasible way to get their products to market. By shutting down the option of the Mississippi River, Spanish authorities hoped to discourage western expansion in America and therefore slow down the eventual border disputes that would inevitably arise.
New Orleans continued to grow at a rapid rate. In 1788, however, a fire swept through New Orleans destroying virtually every building in the town. The fire also destroyed all of the food, meaning the population was homeless and starving. Governor Miro, dropped his orders to block American commerce. He sent out word that trade was welcome from American shipping, both from the east coast and down the Mississippi. He pardoned those currently in prison for illegally bringing American products to town, and sent them off trying to request that they bring more.
By 1794, the city had recovered, when another fire struck. This one took out only around 15%-20% of the city since many of the buildings had been rebuilt with brick or stone instead of wood. Still, the fire’s devastation created more need for American trade.
Governor Carondelet also installed the city’s first street lighting, added night watchmen for security, and divided the city into four wards that were used to organize police and fire departments.
New Orleans came to accept that it needed more trade to survive and thrive. Even after opening free trade to all French colonies, New Orleans was still suffering. As much as officials wanted to discourage American growth by blocking trade with them, they eventually determined that they could not survive without it.
Officials mostly tried to control this with tariffs for any vessels using the Mississippi River. Spain controlled both banks of the Mississippi below the Ohio River and imposed a fee on any boats or rafts carrying cargo. These fees could be up to 25% of the cargo’s value. Attempts to evade these tariffs could result in fines, jail, and confiscation of all cargo.
I should also mention that King Charles III of Spain died in 1788, leading to the reign of his son, Charles IV. The younger Charles was not as active in leading Spain as was his father, and did not demand such a confrontational policy against America. However, he mostly left his policies up to his ministers, particularly relying on Foreign Minister Manuel de Godoy for matters involving America.
James Wilkinson
Spain liked having the benefits of trade with frontier settlements along the Mississippi. What they did not like was the fact that these settlements represented US expansion and a long term threat to Spanish control of Louisiana. To break this threat while keeping the trade benefits, Spain embarked on a plan to break off the western states from the eastern states so that these western areas would become dependent on Spain.
The key to their plan was an American, James Wilkinson. I’ve talked about Wilkinson’s history in past episodes. He was an up and coming Continental officer in the Revolutionary War. By 1777, he was a 20 year old colonel, breveted as a brigadier general. But his role as an aide to Horatio Gates came to an end when his gossip revealed the Conway Cabal. Later, Congress appointed him clothier general, but his poor performance forced his resignation from that role in 1781.
Wilkinson briefly served as a general in the Pennsylvania militia, but then moved to Kentucky after the war. He played an active role in separating Kentucky from Virginia, and also was a leading voice against ratifying the US Constitution.
Before the Constitutional Convention completed its work, and the Confederation Congress was falling apart, America’s future looked bleak. Over 1785 and 1786, John Jay as the Confederation’s secretary for foreign affairs, tentatively agreed to a treaty with Spain that would have prevented American use of the Mississippi River for 25 years.
Spain was demanding this concession for the same reason that the US frontier hated it. Blocking use of the river would kill western settlements. Jay seemed willing to sell out western interests in exchange for benefits that would help eastern merchants. Ultimately, the US refused to ratify any treaty at that time, but the ill feelings of westerners remained raw.
It was in this environment that Wilkinson travelled to New Orleans in 1787 to meet with Governor Miró. He offered his services as a Spanish agent, and took a secret oath of allegiance to the King of Spain. Wilkinson encouraged Spain to deny American frontier towns access to the Mississippi River, believing that this would eventually force Kentucky to abandon the US and join with Spain.
He arranged for special exceptions for himself and some of his friends to use the Mississippi, essentially giving himself a trade monopoly on the river that would enrich him. On top of that, he received pay from Spain and negotiated for lifetime pensions for himself and others who would help bring Kentucky under Spanish influence. Spain authorized a $200,000 bribe fund to encourage the leaders of Kentucky to separate from the Union and form an alliance with Spain.
In addition to enriching himself, Wilkinson envisioned himself as the leader of a new buffer country between the US and Louisiana, controlling what is today the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
After Kentucky ratified the Constitution, Spain largely gave up on the idea that this would happen anytime soon, but still kept Wilkinson on the Spanish payroll as Agent 13. Wilkinson would go on to play important roles in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion and Indian resistance in Ohio, all while remaining a Spanish agent. While some Americans suspected Wilkinson’s duplicity, he remained a senior officer in the US Army.
Pinckney Treaty
In 1795, Spain finally decided it needed a treaty with the US. Spanish minister Godoy sent word that they would like to discuss the matter.
Thomas Pickney, the US ambassador to Britain ended up being tasked with the negotiations.. Pinckney came from a prominent South Carolina family. His mother, Eliza Lucas Pickney introduced indigo as a cash crop in South Carolina. His father moved the family back to England when he was three, so Thomas grew up there. After studying law at Oxford and Middle Temple, he returned to America in 1774, just before the war began. He received a commission as a captain in the Continental Army and served as an aide-de-camp to Horatio Gates. He was captured at Camden and spent more than a year on parole. After being exchanged, he fought under Lafayette in Virginia.
Pickney got elected Governor of South Carolina in 1787. In 1792, he accepted an appointment from President Washington to serve as ambassador to Britain. During the disputes with Britain, Pinckney was unable to reach any agreement. That was when Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to negotiate with British leaders. Pinckney assisted Jay with those negotiations.
It was the results of these negotiations, the Jay Treaty, that finally got Spain’s attention. To Spain, the Jay Treaty marked the establishment of a new Anglo-American alliance that would probably work to Spain’s detriment. Officials even feared that there might be secret articles in that treaty that agreed to a joint British and American invasion of Spanish colonies in America.
Following word of the Jay Treaty, Spain saw itself in a difficult situation. Spain had joined Britain in the war with Revolutionary France in 1793. Spain suspected that France would be weak and disorganized after the execution of King Louis. France was also at war with Prussia, the Netherlands, several German states, and had just gone to war with Britain.
Spain looked on the situation as would any European power at the time; their neighbor was weak, so this was a good time to attack and take some territory from them. Spain joined the coalition against Revolutionary France and went to war. The war did not go as Spain had hoped, resulting in the ministry wanting to bail and end the war with France.
During treaty negotiations with France, Spain wanted the return of certain border regions that the French Army had taken from them. In return, French negotiators demanded the return of Louisiana, but Spain refused. Instead, Spain gave France its claims on Santo Domingo, where French Haiti shared the island with Spanish Dominica in the West Indies. France would now control the entire island.
The negotiations, which took place in Basel, Switzerland, not only ended the war between Spain and France. Prussia and Hesse-Kassel also reached agreements with France. This left Britain without its major allies in its war with France. These peace agreements angered Britain, which began attacking Spanish shipping. The result was that Spain was in an even weaker position, especially if America was allying itself with Britain. So Spanish officials were motivated to get on America’s good side by signing an agreeable treaty.
Even before the Basel treaty between Spain and France was signed, Spanish minister Godoy invited Secretary of State Pinckney to Madrid to begin talks. Pinckney arrived in Spain at the end of June, 1795, just days before Spain completed its peace treaty with France.
Godoy hoped to join the US into a triple alliance with France and Spain to fight against Britain. Pickney would not agree to anything like that. President Washington’s policy was to remain neutral and to stay out of all European alliances that might drag the US into war.
Pinckney wanted a treaty that would establish the borders between Spain and the US, and which would guarantee free US navigation of the Mississippi River. For the first month or so of negotiations, neither side seemed willing to cede much.
One of the big disputes, other than use of the Mississippi River, was over the southern US border. East of the Mississippi, Spain controlled all the land along the gulf coast. Spain had established military outposts as far north as Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, about 170 miles north of New Orleans. This area between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee Rivers covers about one third of the modern day states of Mississippi and Alabama. Spain claimed that all of this was Spanish territory. Britain had made it part of East and West Florida, which it had ceded to Spain after the Revolution.
US negotiators countered that Britain had set the southern border at 31 degrees parallel in its peace treaty with the US. This was about 100 miles south of the border that Spain wanted. At first, neither side seemed willing to budge on this issue.
Once the Treaty of Basel became public in August though, everything seemed to change. Godoy was ready to agree to just about any treaty with the US, just hoping to keep them from acting in an alliance with Britain.
Spain gave in on just about everything. It set the east-west border in the center of the Mississippi River and guaranteed free navigation of the river out to the Gulf of Mexico. The only limitation would be that free navigation would only be for Americans and Spanish. Third parties were still prohibited from using the river.
Spain accepted the US southern border at 31 degrees parallel. It abandoned all claims north of that line and agreed to evacuate all of its forts in the territory within six months after treaty ratification.
Finally, Spain dropped its demands for any sort of military alliance with the US. The US would not be under any obligation to protect any Spanish land claims against third parties, not even in America.
There were a few other minor disputes to be worked out, such as the requirement that US merchants pay government fees for goods stored in New Orleans. The two parties agreed that there would be no such fees for at least three years. There was also a dispute over US merchant ships that Spain had already seized. The parties agreed on the establishment of a commission to hear those claims.
US Reaction
The two parties signed the treaty at the end of October, 1795 at San Lorenzo el Real, the summer residence of the Spanish Court.
Some Spanish officials were aghast at the terms that Spain had given away. Louisiana Governor Carondelet was convinced the treaty would never be finalized when the king saw the terms to which Godoy had agreed. Spanish colonial leaders saw the treaty as a complete sellout of everything they had worked for, for years. Despite these feelings, King Carlos approved the treaty.
In the US, the feeling was quite different. News of the treaty reached Philadelphia in January, 1796 and a copy arrived a few weeks later. The treaty gave the US everything it wanted, especially the long sought-after use of the Mississippi River, and required almost no concessions. It mostly sought the good will of America, which was happily given.
There was virtually no opposition or concerns expressed about the terms. The Senate unanimously ratified the treaty in March, 1796. The final formal ratifications were exchanged in Spain on April 25. Pinckney became the toast of America.
Next Week: The Yazoo Land Scandal in western Georgia
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Next Episode 393 Yazoo Land Scandal (coming soon)
Previous Episode 391 Washington Admin Scandals and Resignations
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Further Reading
Websites
Treaty of San Lorenzo/ Pinckney’s Treaty, 1795 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/pickney-treaty
Pinckney Treaty 1795 - Transcript https://www.emersonkent.com/historic_documents/pinckney_treaty_1795_transcript.htm
Whitaker, Arthur Preston. “New Light on the Treaty of San Lorenzo: An Essay in Historical Criticism.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 15, no. 4, 1929, pp. 435–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1897880
Young, Raymond A. “Pinckney’s Treaty-A New Perspective.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 43, no. 4, 1963, pp. 526–35. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2509900
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Bemis, Samuel F. Pinckney’s Treaty: A Study of America’s Advantage from Europe’s Distress, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1926.
De Pedro, Jose The Spanish in New Orleans and Louisiana, Gretna: Pelican Publishing, 2000. (borrow only)
Din, Gilbert C. (ed) The Spanish Presence in Louisiana 1763-1803, Center for Louisiana Studies, 1996 (borrow only).
Gayarre, Charles History of Louisiana: The Spanish Domination, New York: Redfield, 1854.
Holmes, Jack D.L. A Guide to Spanish Louisiana, [self-published] 1970 (borrow only).
Monette, John W. History of the discovery and settlement of the valley of the Mississippi, by the three great European powers, Spain, France, and Great Britain, and the subsequent occupation, settlement, and extension of civil government by the United States, until the year 1846. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848.
Pickney, Charles C. The Life of General Thomas Pinckney, Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Co. 1895.
Robertson, James A. Louisiana Under the Rule of Spain, France and the United States 1785-1807, Vol. 2, Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co. 1911.
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism: The Early American Republic, 1788–1800, Oxford Univ. Press, 1993 (borrow on archive.org).
Linklater, Andro An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson, Walker Publishing, 2009.
Roderiguez, John E. Spanish New Orleans: An Imperial City on the American Periphery, 1766–1803, LSU Press, 2021.
Winik, Jay The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800, HarperCollins, 2007.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
