Article 31. The act of ratification, on our part, may require a twelvemonth from the date of the treaty, as the Senate meets regularly but once a year; and to return it to Madrid, for exchange, may require four months more. It would be better, indeed, if Spain would send her ratification to be exchanged by her representative here.
The treaty must not exceed twelve or fifteen years' duration, except the clauses relating to boundary, and the navigation of the Mississippi, which must be perpetual and final. Indeed, these two subjects had better be in a separate instrument.
There might have been mentioned a third species of arrangement, that of making special agreements on every special subject of commerce, and of setting a tariff of duty to be paid on each side, on every particular article; but this would require in our commissioners a very minute knowledge of our commerce, as it is impossible to foresee every proposition of this kind which might be brought into discussion, and to prepare them for it by information and instruction from hence. Our commerce, too, is, as yet, rather in a course of experiment, and the channels in which it will ultimately flow, are not sufficiently known to enable us to provide for it by special agreement. Nor have the exigencies of our new government, as yet, so far developed themselves, as that we can know to what degree we may or must have recourse to commerce for the purposes of revenue. No common consideration, therefore, ought to induce us, as yet, to arrangements of this kind. Perhaps nothing should do it with any nation, short of the privileges of natives in all their possessions, foreign and domestic.
It were to be wished, indeed, that some positively favorable stipulations respecting our grain, flour, and fish, could be obtained, even on our giving reciprocal advantages to some other commodities of Spain, say her wines and brandies.
But, 1st. If we quit the ground of the most favored nation, as to certain articles for our convenience, Spain may insist on doing the same for other articles for her convenience, and thus our commissioners will get themselves on the ground of a treaty of detail, for which they will not be prepared.
2d. If we grant favor to the wines and brandies of Spain, then Portugal and Spain will demand the same; and in order to create an equivalent, Portugal may lay a duty on our fish and grain, and France, a prohibition on our whale oils, the removal of which will be proposed as an equivalent.
This much, however, as to grain and flour, may be attempted. There has, not long since, been a considerable duty laid on them in Spain. This was while a treaty on the subject of commerce was pending between us and Spain, as that court considers the matter. It is not generally thought right to change the state of things pending a treaty concerning them. On this consideration, and on the motive of cultivating our friendship, perhaps the commissioners may induce them to restore this commodity to the footing on which it was, on opening the conferences with Mr. Gardoqui, on the 26th day of July, 1785. If Spain says, "do the same by your tonnage on our vessels," the answer may be, that our foreign tonnage affects Spain very little, and other nations very much; whereas the duty on flour in Spain affects us very much, and other nations very little. Consequently, there would be no equality in reciprocal relinquishment, as there had been none in the reciprocal innovation; and Spain, by insisting on this, would, in fact, only be aiding the interests of her rival nations, to whom we should be forced to extend the same indulgence. At the time of opening the conferences, too, we had, as yet, not erected any system; our government itself being not yet erected. Innovation then was unavoidable on our part, if it be innovation to establish a system. We did it on fair and general ground; on ground favorable to Spain. But they had a system, and, therefore, innovation was avoidable on their part.
It is known to the commissioners that we found it expedient to ask the interposition of France, lately, to bring on this settlement of our boundary, and the navigation of the Mississippi. How far that interposition has contributed to produce it, is uncertain. But we have reason to believe that her further interference would not produce an agreeable effect on Spain. The commissioners, therefore, are to avoid all further communications on the subject with the ministers of France, giving them such explanations as may preserve their good dispositions. But if, ultimately, they shall find themselves unable to bring Spain to agreement on the subject of the navigation and boundary, the interposition of France, as a mutual friend, and the guarantee of our limits, is then to be asked, in whatever light Spain may choose to consider it.
Should the negotiations on the subject of navigation and boundary assume, at any time, an unhopeful aspect, it may be proper that Spain should be given to understand, that, if they are discontinued without coming to any agreement, the Government of the United States cannot be responsible for the longer forbearance of their western inhabitants. At the same time the abandonment of the negotiation should be so managed as that, without engaging us to a further suspension of the exercise of our rights, we may not be committed to resume them on the instant. The present turbid situation of Europe cannot leave us long without a safe occasion of resuming our territory and navigation, and of carving for ourselves those conveniences, on the shores, which may facilitate and protect the latter effectually and permanently.
We had a right to expect that, pending a negotiation, all things would have remained in statu quo, and that Spain would not have proceeded to possess herself of other parts of our territory. But she has lately taken and fortified a new post on the Walnut hills, above the mouth of the Yazoo river, and far above the 31st degree. This garrison ought to have been instantly dislodged; but for our wish to be in friendship with Spain, and our confidence in her assurances "to bide by the limits established in our treaty with England," complaints of this unfriendly and uncandid procedure may be brought forward or not, as the commissioners shall see expedient.