Th: Jefferson.




LETTER LVI.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, March 19, 1791


TO WILLIAM SHORT.

Philadelphia, March 19, 1791.

Dear Sir,

Your letter of November the 6th, No. 46, by Mr. Osmont came to hand
yesterday, and I have just time before the departure of Mr. Terrasson,
the bearer of my letter of the 15th instant, and despatches accompanying
it, to acknowledge the receipt, and inform you that it has been laid
before the President. On consideration of the circumstances stated in
the second page of your letter, he is of opinion, that it is expedient
to press at this moment a settlement of our difference with Spain. You
are therefore desired, instead of confining your application for the
interference of the court of France to the simple case of St. Marie,
mentioned in my letter of the 12th, to ask it on the broad bottom of
general necessity, that our right of navigating the Mississippi be at
length ceded by the court of Madrid, and be ceded in such form, as to
render the exercise of it efficacious and free from chicane. This cannot
be without an _entrepôt_ in some convenient port of the river, where
the river and sea craft may meet and exchange loads, without any control