Jefferson, Thomas: [Pinckney's Treaty]:

$37,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON AS SECRETARY OF STATE TO SPANISH AMBASSADORS JOSE IGNACIO DE VIAR AND JOSE DE JAUDENES Y NEBOT, REGARDING THE NEGOTIATION FOR THE FREE NAVIGATION OF ... The establishment of the Northwest Territory and westward settlement following the American Revolution brought forward a critical conflict with Spain, which would culminate with the Louisiana Purchase and the opening of the American West: the right to free navigation of the Mississippi and use of New Orleans for the import and export of American goods.Indeed, in the confederation period, the threat of political and economic disunion over the right to navigate the Mississippi would prove a serious dilemma for Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, George Washington, and the other founding fathers. The Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolution set the western boundary of the United States at the Mississippi River. While the treaty with Great Britain called for free navigation, this put the United States squarely in conflict with Spain who controlled the lower part of the river, and importantly its mouth, and who closed the river to American navigation in 1784. Years of intermittent and unsuccessful negotiations ensued, largely between Jay and Spanish diplomat Don Diego de Gardoqui, with northern and southern states and eastern and western interests endangering the stability of the nascent republic. Indeed, it was largely this conflict that resulted in the provision at the Constitutional Co

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