[374] Jefferson to [Morris], August 12, 1790. (Works or Writings, under date.)
[375] Morris, Diary and Letters, I, 647; entry for September 15, 1790.
[376] This rumor was traced to Miranda, who, it was reported, said that he had seen it in a letter to Campo, the Spanish ambassador. (See Hamilton to Washington, September 21, 1790, Hamilton, Works, IV, 71; see also Humphreys to the Secretary of State, London, October 20, 1790; Ford, The United States and Spain in 1790, 31.)
[377] Jefferson to Short, August 10, 1790. (Jefferson, Writings, V, 218.)
[378] Jefferson to Carmichael, August 2 and 22, 1790. (Id., 216 and 225.)
[379] See Am. Hist. Rev., VII, 720.
[380] Short to Jefferson, Paris, October 21, 1790. (MSS. Dept. of State, Washington, Dispatches, France, Vol. II.)
[381] Humphreys to the Secretary of State, Madrid, January 3, 1791. (Ford, The United States and Spain in 1790, 32.) It seems that very little news from Carmichael had been received, and that the Government at New York had become impatient at his dilatory conduct. He must have received a severe reprimand from Jefferson, if one can judge from his reply of January 24, 1791 (Id., 37). It begins: “SIR: Colonel Humphreys delivered to me your letter of the 6th of August on the 15th of last month. Nothing could equal my astonishment at finding that I have been employing my time in a situation that has been for many years disagreeable—so little to my own credit or to the satisfaction of my country.” The rest of the letter indicates that his dispatches had miscarried. He attributed the fact to personal enemies. He said that he was sending copies of some of his last dispatches.
This letter from Carmichael and that from Humphreys referred to above make interesting comments on the court intrigues in Spain—the dominance of the Queen’s corrupt influence and the decline of Floridablanca’s prestige.
[382] See [Chapter VIII].