TO THE COUNT DE FLORIDA BLANCA.
Madrid, July 2d, 1781.
"Sir,
"When Congress were pleased to order me to Spain, with the commission of which I have had the honor of presenting a copy to your Excellency, I left my country with the most sanguine expectations, that the important objects of it would be speedily accomplished. The proofs they had received of his Majesty's friendship for them, the interests of a common cause, and the information they had received from persons whom they conceived in capacity to give it, all conspired to infuse these hopes.
"On my arrival, your Excellency gave me to understand, that the realising these expectations would turn on one point, and I have uniformly since been informed, that this point was the navigation of the Mississippi below the territories of the United States, in which Congress desired to retain a common right, but of which the maxims of policy adopted by his Majesty required the exclusive use.
"I have now the honor of informing your Excellency, that Congress, in order to manifest in the most striking manner the sincerity of their professions to his Majesty, and with a view that the common cause may immediately reap all the advantages naturally to be expected from a cordial and permanent union between France, Spain, and the United States, have authorised me to agree to such terms relative to the point in question, as to remove the difficulties to which it has hitherto given occasion.
"Permit me, therefore, to hope, that his Majesty will now be pleased to become the ally of the United States, and for that purpose authorise some person or persons to adjust with me the several points of compact necessary to form a union, which, by being founded on mutual interest, may be no less satisfactory than it certainly will be important to both countries.
"Your Excellency will oblige me exceedingly, by putting it in my power to give Congress early, explicit, and, let me add, agreeable information of his Majesty's pleasure and intentions on the subject of this letter.
"I have the honor to be, &c.
JOHN JAY."