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January
26-February 1, 1803
Further Thoughts from the Spanish Ambassador
By the end of January the Spanish Ambassador had become
aware of President Jefferson's request for funds contained in the
confidential message to the Senate. He reported back to his superior,
the Spanish Foreign Minister, that Jefferson intended to continue
with the expedition, but that forces in the Senate were likely to
oppose the plan. Again, this was to prove too optimistic an assessment.
Portrait of an unidentified Spanish diplomat
painted by Francisco Goya, c. 1800.
Image from Goya 1746-1828 by
Jose Gudiol (volume III, 605).
Sources:
Translated from Spanish and published in A. P. Nasatir,
Before Lewis and Clark II, 715f., and reprinted in
Donald Jackson, Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
item 9.
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Full text of
the letter:
The Marqués de Casa Yrujo to Most Excellent Señor
Don Pedro Cevallos.
“Gives notice of the President having passed to the Senate
the project of sending travelers to explore the course of the
Missouri, of which he gave account in letter no. 313 [of December
2, 1802, described earlier].”
Most Excellent Señor
Dear Sir:
In my letter No. 313 I notified Your Excellency that the President
of the United States had a project directed to send travelers
in order to explore the course of the Missouri River, who continuing
their expedition up to the North West Coast, they were to examine
the possibility or impossibility of communications by water,
between the Atlantic Ocean and the southern [Pacific] Ocean,
and contribute to advance the geography of the North of America.
I also told Your Excellency the conversation which pertaining
to this project, the President had with me concerning this plan,
he desiring to know whether our Court would refuse to grant
the necessary passports to the travelers, and all of which I
judged opportune to reply to you concerning the particular.
I thought that in consequence he would desist in his attempt,
and in this way I hinted this to Your Excellency, but later
I have learned that he has communicated his design to the Senate,
which has already taken a step towards the execution. Nevertheless
I have understood that the good judgment of the Senate does
not see the advantages that the President proposes in this expedition,
and that on the contrary, they feared it might offend one of
the European nations, and consequently it is very probable that
the project will not proceed. But since I promised to give to
Your Excellency news of any latest occurrence, I thought I should
communicate this to you for your intelligence.
May God keep Your Excellency many years.
Washington, January 31, 1803. |
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