The Jay–Gardoqui Treaty (also known as the Liberty Treaty with Spain) of 1786 between the United States and Spain was not ratified. It would have guaranteed Spanish exclusive right to navigate the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

for 25 years. It also opened Spain's European and West Indian ports to American shipping. However, the Treaty was opposed by Virginia leaders

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

and

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

who secured its rejection by the Continental Congress. With a weak central government that delegated most decisions to individual states, American foreign policy was disjointed. European powers looked at the new nation as a weakling, and tried to run roughshod over it. American nationalists realized the problem, and used the weakness in dealing with foreign powers as one of the reasons for installing a new constitution in 1789. Spain had numerous schemes to keep the new nation weak, including closing the Mississippi River to its traffic, and forming alliances with Indian tribes along its southern border. On the other hand, Spanish merchants welcomed trade with the new nation, which had been impossible when it was a British colony. Madrid therefore encouraged the United States to set up consulates in Spain's New World colonies. American merchants and Eastern cities likewise wanted to open trade with the Spanish colonies which had been forbidden before 1775. A new line of commerce involved American merchants importing goods from Britain, and then reselling them to the Spanish colonies. When Spain closed the port of New Orleans to American commerce in 1784, Congress sent

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

to Madrid to achieve terms to open the Mississippi to Americans. Gardoqui, however, arrived in New York in June 1785 and Spanish-American treaty negotiations began soon after. A year's worth of diplomacy resulted in the ambassadors signing an agreement that ignored the problem of the Mississippi in exchange for commercial advantages benefiting the Northeast (the Jay–Gardoqui Treaty). Congress rejected the treaty, and the issue smoldered for ten more years. Congress also claimed lands in the west still occupied by the British and Spaniards, but could not forcefully challenge those nations for control of the land.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay-Gardoqui Treaty Ordinances of the Continental Congress Treaties of the United States 1786 in American law 1786 in Spain Treaties of the Spanish Empire John Jay

See also

References