President George Washington Writes Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Echoing His Farewell Address, Seeks to Avoid Being Drawn Into Foreign Entanglements

Letters of George Washington to Thomas Jefferson as President/Secretary of State are incredible rarities, as we are only aware of three others having reached the market in the past forty years

When the United States achieved independence, Spain, which controlled the Louisiana and Florida Territories, was the new republic’s neighbor. There was territory in dispute between the two, as well as a difference on the key question of whether Americans would be entitled to freely navigate the length of the Mississippi River. But early negotiations to settle the borders failed. Moreover, Spain had lucrative trading relations with the Indians in the western lands, as well as the British who were allowed access. But it did not want to foment a war with the U.S. just to satisfy the Indians, and tried to ignore the entire problem to make it go away. But the Indians realized that they might benefit from a U.S./Spanish rivalry, and as long as land was in dispute the U.S. would not have total sovereignty over the territory it acquired from Britain in the Revolution. The Americans, however, wanted talks with Spain to get the border and river navigation matters attended to quickly.

Thomas Jefferson became President Washington’s Secretary of State in March 1790, and he found Alexander Hamilton already in place as Secretary of the Treasury. Their rivalry has become legend.

The Nootka Crisis was an international series of incidents between Spain and Britain that brought these countries close to war, triggered by events in the Western Hemisphere.  Nootka Sound is a network of inlets on the west coast of Vancouver Island, today part of the Canadian province of British Columbia.  The crisis revolved around major issues about sovereignty claims, and rights of navigation and trade. Between 1774 and 1789 Spain sent several expeditions to the Pacific Northwest to reassert its long-held navigation and territorial claims to the area. Some years later several British fur trading vessels entered the area to which Spain had laid claim. A complex series of events led to these British vessels being seized by the Spanish Navy at Nootka Sound. When the news reached Europe, Britain requested compensation and the Spanish government refused. Both sides prepared for war and sought assistance from allies.

Meanwhile, late in 1789, President Washington, at the urging of Alexander Hamilton, sent his trusted friend Gouverneur Morris to Europe for the purpose of conducting unofficial negotiations with the British for a treaty to place U.S./British affairs and business relations on a better footing. Later, he sent David Humphreys to the Court of Spain as a secret liaison there to join the official representative to Madrid, William Carmichael.

Tension along the Mississippi River worried Jefferson, who in mid-March 1791 asked Carmichael to clarify the position of the Spanish regarding navigation of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio River. The Americans wanted access and free navigation, and the Spanish were not allowing that.  Indeed, self-serving rumors were circulated in Spain that the Americans did not really even want free passage along the river through the Gulf, because it would come at the expense of the commerce of the Atlantic states.

At this crucial moment, with the Americans seeking a new agreement with Spain, with Morris in London meeting unofficially with the Duke of Leeds and his Majesty’s government, and with Spain and Britain nearing war, the British decided to make mischief.  The British representative to Madrid presented the Spanish with a paper purportedly containing a summary of President Washington’s instructions to Morris, misrepresenting it to mean that America would take Briitain’s side in the case of war.  This was not true of course but would have strengthened the British position in its talks with Spain, while weakening prospects of a U.S./Spanish agreement.

On April 2, 1791, Jefferson wrote Washington, starting out by discussing navigation of the Mississippi, and saying that Spain’s crisis with Britain is now passed, while the U.S. was still engaged in negotiations, and focusing on whether the paper the British had presented to Spain was authentic or forged. “Colo. Humphreys says ‘the minister had intimations from del Campo of the conferences between Mr. Morris and the Duke of Leeds, which occasioned him to say with warmth to Mr. Carmichael now is your time to make a treaty with England. Fitzherbert availed himself of these conferences to create apprehensions that the Americans would aid his nation in case of war.’ Your genuine letter could have made no impression.”

Washington was mortified by the British acting falsely to draw the U.S. into the Anglo-Spanish dispute, and wanted the situation clarified immediately. He wanted to unambiguously press for U.S. navigation of the Mississippi, and echoing his famed Farewell Address in 1796, also to be kept out of just these types of foreign entanglements.  He felt it appropriate to inform the Spanish not only of the original of his letter to Morris but also of the details of events between Morris and the Duke of Leeds.

Autograph letter signed, as President, Richmond, April 13, 1791, to Jefferson. ”Your letter of the 2d came to my hands at this place. Part of it did as you supposed, and might well suppose, astonish me exceedingly. I think it not only right that Mr. Carmichael should be furnished with a copy of the genuine letters to Mr. G. Morris, but that Mr. Morris should make known the result of his conferences with the Duke of Leeds at the Court of Madrid. The contents of my public letters to him you are acquainted with.  My private ones were few, and nothing in either of them respecting England or Spain; how it comes to pass therefore that such interpretations as the extracts recite, should be given, he best can account for.

“Being hurried, I shall only add that I shall proceed on my journey tomorrow, and from good information have a dreary one before in parts of it.” In a postscript Washington notes, “The footing upon which you have placed Mr. Carmichael’s application is good.” This is Washington’s draft of the letter, the sent copy being in the Jefferson papers. Washington’s correspondence in draft form was passed down to his heir, Bushrod Washington, and was sold at the turn of the 19th century by Bushrod’s heirs.

This letter of Washington is fascinating, because it shows Washington acting in accordance with his famous policy of avoiding foreign entanglements. It also finds him dealing with the British deceit just years after he had successfully concluded a war that featured her as the prime antagonist.

Letters of George Washington to Thomas Jefferson are incredibly rare, with only 3 others having reached the market in at least four decades.  This is our second.