Real cedula de S.M. y señores del consejo, en que se manda observar y guardar el Tratado de Amistad, Límites y Navegacion concluido y ratificado entre su Real Persona y los Estados Unidos de America
A UNIQUE OFFICIAL PRINTING OF PINCKNEY’S TREATY
GRANTING AMERICANS THE RIGHT OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMERCE
Toledo: Don Isidro Martin Marqués, 1796.
Pot folio (11 3/8” x 8”, 288mm x 203mm): π1 A14 χ1 [$7 signed][1]. 16 leaves, pp. 1-3 (title, blank, text) 4-31, blank.
Bound in modern vellum. On the spine, the title “Real Cedula Tratado de Amistad con Estados Unidos de America” and imprint in ink manuscript.
Fine. With the ink rubric of Josef de Covos, the notary responsible for promulgating the treaty in Toledo, against his printed name (p. 31).
In 1784, Spain limited Americans’ right to sail the Mississippi River and closed the port of New Orleans to American goods, stymieing production and export in the new United States interior. Even with a distant eye on Manifest Destiny, for the U.S. to expand westward at all, an open Mississippi River (and outlet to the Gulf of Mexico) was economically indispensable. For the decade that followed, frustrated Americans along the eastern Mississippi watershed protested violently, sparks aimed at two powder-kegs on a global stage. The resolution of the question revealed some of the earliest north-south divisions in the new Union; northern states, not dependent on river trade, pressed for an advantageous economic treaty in exchange for navigation rights, southern states took a stronger line in favor of territory.
Negotiations to resolve the question begain in June 1795, with Thomas Pinckney, former governor of South Carolina, sailing to Madrid as Washington’s representative. Manuel de Godoy, negotiating on behalf of Carlos IV, feared an Anglo-American alliance that would threaten Spanish holdings in the Caribbean. Godoy conceded unchecked access to the Mississippi and New Orleans, as well as the establishment of 31°N as the U.S.-Florida border — both major priorites of the southern states — as well as suspending Spanish pledges of military assistance to Native Americans, diminishing their ability to defend themselves against colonists. The treaty was signed 27 October 1795, ratified by the U.S. Senate 7 March 1796, by Spain 25 April 1796 and finally proclaimed 2 August 1796. This paved the way for the Spanish retrocession of Louisiana Territory in 1800 to the French, who held it for just three years before selling it to the United States in 1803.
The treaty (also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo) has long been a bibliographic prize for collectors of Americana; the Maggs-Streeter-Beinecke copy achieved $5,000 at Streeter’s sale (part III, lot 1524) in 1967. That example was the Madrid printing, the commonest in institutional collections (21). OCLC also locates one example of a Segovia printing (Madrid, Complutense BH FOA 2490), one of a Valencia printing (BNE, R/24432(17)) and two Barcelona printings (LoC KKT150 1796 Kislak Coll and the Ateneu Barcelonès); the lot description for the present item notes an Alcala printing and a San Sebastian printing as well, perhaps in trade. There are no records, however, of the present Toledo printing. The royal arms on the title-page and the rubric (a flourish) of Don Josef de Covos against his printed name (indicating that he was responsible for the promulgation of the treaty in Toledo) indicate that this is a certified copy, i.e., bearing the force of law.
(All Madrid): Palau 250427-II; Medina 5765; Streeter Sale III.1524.
[1] Likely π and χ are geminate, but have been split to accommodate the binding; as an unicum it is difficult to assess.
Item #JLR0327
Price: $18,000