Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-06-03

Wy Oho aIiiNai Nv NeW 1Ork, the theL
seat of Congress, of Don Diego Gardo
qui, in quality of ambassador from
that court, some time in the spring OF
l7S5, about two years after the peace
at Paris. This gentleman had an audi
ence and presented his credentials, by
which it appeared that he was invested
with authority to treat with the United
States on the subject of commercial
arrangements. Congress, without de
lay, appointed John Jay, ESQ.,, then
Secretary of foreign affairs, to enter
into negotiation with him, being
specially enjoined to make the right OF
the United States to the free naviga.
tion OF the Mississippi, from.its source
to the ocean, the leading feature of any
treaty which should be made by the
contracting parties. This claim of the
United States was brought forward
and pressed at very early period of
the negotiation, and continued to be
presented in different shapes through
the whole course of a very lengthy
and tedious transaction, which took
place between the Congressional agents
on the subject of commercial treaty.
Mr.. Gardoqui received the assertion of
this right with affected surprise; denied
its admissibility as part of the con.
templated treaty, and asserted with
vehemence, that his court could never
assent to its validity on any principles.
He invariably manifested an irritation
of temper, whenever our right to the
navigation of the Mississippi was urged
upon him; this intemperanoe of the
ambassador was deemed symptom attic
OF the spirit which prevailed on that
subject at his court, with which, from
the circumstances before hinted at. a
good policy dictated to America the
propriety of observing the strictest
harmony. Thus circumstanced, the
American negotiator resorted to the
project of ceding to Spain the exclu.
sive navigation Of the Mississippi for
twenty five years, which was intended
to operate not as an abandonment of
the right of the United States, but as
the means to obtain an end, the recog-
milton of thatright on the part of Spain,
after the expiration of the above stipu-
lated period. 1t was we'll known that
the proposal of this measure was still
sore to the recollection of the citizens
on the western waters, and that it
created great alarms in the minds of
the Inhabitants of the Atlantic States
also. Candor required that this link
in the chain of historical facts should
be unfolded to view. and in the same
spirit of candor it could be asserted to
the people of Kentucky, that the propo.
sition alluded to, as it stood presented
on the records of Congress, was not in
tended to generate renunciation, but
on the contrary, an acknowledged es-
tablishment of the right of the United
States to the free use of the Mississippi
upon this principle, that if Spain ac-
cepted of the cession from the United
States, to the exclusive right of the
navigation of that river for stipulated
time, the acknowledgment of their
right to the navigation, followed as an
unavoidable consequence; for the
United States must have possessed the
right before they could transfer it, and
the acceptance of the cession was an
acknowledgment of the possession.
The discord which this proposed expe-
dent produced in the councils of
America, was too notorious to require
repetition; it occupied not only the at
tention of Congress for many months,
but the subject was taken up also by
some of the legislatures who denounced
the measure as unconstitutional, de-
structive and dishonorable. In fact,
this negotiation which had exhausted
much time and had progressed so far
as to reduce into shape some specific
articles for future arrangement be-
tween the two nations, was arrested in
its course, and it was ultimately
deemed proper by the then Congress,
that the whole business of the Spanish
treaty. which from the management of
it, had very much agitated the public
mind of America, should be dismissed
from further discussion and turned
over as an object for the consideration
of the present Government of America,
which was adopted and was then upon
the eve of being put into action. Much
about the same period too, Mr.. Gardo.
qui received permission from his court
to 60 back to Spain on his own private
affairs, intending to return to reassume
the treaty as soon as the new govern.
ment system should be fully organized
and should begin its functions. 1t SO
happened, however, that after the in.
stitution of the general government,
Mr.. Gardoqui, the only person EN-.
powered by the Spanish court to treat
with the United States, did not, &C.
cording to expectations founded on his
own assertions, return to America; and
the Secretary of State who was ap
pointed in September, 1889, to whose
department this species of executive
business appertained, having not ar
rived from France, the affair of the
treaty with Spain could not be imme