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 América
THE McKINNEY COPY OF PINCKNEY’S TREATY
GRANTING AMERICANS THE RIGHT OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMERCE
Madrid: Imprenta real, 1796.
Pot folio (11 7/8” x 8 ¼”, 302mm x 210mm): π1 A14 χ1 [$7 signed]. 16 leaves, pp. 1-3 (title, blank, text) 4-31, blank.
Bound in later red morocco with a gilt fillet border and corner fleurons. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel. Imprint gilt to the tail. Marbled end-papers.
A little sunning to the spine. Foxing to the first and last leaves, scattered and to the edges of the text-block. Signed bookplate of Bruce McKinney to the front paste-down.
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 began 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 priorities 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. The present example was purchased at the 2 December 2010 Bonham’s New York sale of Bruce McKinney (“The American Experience,” lot 132). McKinney founded the Americana Exchange, now Rare Book Hub, the central database of book auction records. His own formidable collection of books (still growing) has been dispersed at several landmark sales.
Palau 250427-II; Medina 5765; Streeter Sale III.1524.
Item #JLR0679
Price: $18,000