character is so well known to you as to need no recommendations from
me. The present appearances of war between our two neighbors Spain, and
England, cannot but excite all our attention. The part we are to act
is uncertain, and will be difficult. The unsettled state of our dispute
with Spain may give a turn to it, very different from what we would
wish. As it is important that you should be fully apprized of our way
of thinking on this subject, I have sketched, in the enclosed paper,
general heads of consideration arising from present circumstances. These
will be readily developed by your own reflections and in conversations
with Colonel Humphreys; who, possessing the sentiments of the executive
on this subject, being well acquainted with the circumstances of the
western country in particular, and of the state of our affairs in
general, comes to Madrid expressly for the purpose of giving you a
thorough communication of them. He will, therefore, remain there as
many days or weeks, as may be necessary for this purpose. With this
information, written and oral, you will be enabled to meet the minister
in conversations on the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi,
to which we wish you to lead his attention immediately. Impress him
thoroughly with the necessity of an early, and even an immediate
settlement of this matter, and of a return to the field of negotiation
for this purpose: and though it must be done delicately, yet he must be
made to understand unequivocally, that a resumption of the negotiation
is not desired on our part, unless he can determine, in the first
opening of it, to yield the immediate and full enjoyment of that
navigation. (I say nothing of the claims of Spain to our territory north
of the thirty-first degree, and east of the Mississippi. They never
merited the respect of an answer; and you know it has been admitted at
Madrid, that they were not to be maintained.) It may be asked, what need
of negotiation, if the navigation is to be ceded at all events? You know
that the navigation cannot be practised without a port, where the sea