Real cédula 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
PINCKNEY’S TREATY, GRANTING
AMERICANS THE RIGHT OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER COMMERCE
ONE OF THREE KNOWN EXAMPLES OF THE 1797 PAMPLONA EXPANSION
Pamplona: Viuda de Ezquerra, 1797.
Pot folio (10 7/8” x 7 ¾”, 276mm x 198mm): A2 B-L2 [$1 signed]. 22 leaves, pp. 1-2 (title, blank) 3-43, blank.
Stab-bound.
A stain to the verso of the final leaf, with some creasing at the fore-corners. Sometime stab-bound with two holes an inch deep from the gutter, with loss to a handful of letters. Near fine.
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 present edition of the work, published in Pamplona in 1797, prints (pp. 38-43) for the first time the “Real Cédula Auxîliatoria” of 4 September 1796, implementing the treaty proper (27 October 1795); the “Pedimento del Señor Fiscal,” i.e., the advice of the Attorney General to do with the promulgation of the treaty in the colonies themselves, including via the Viceroy; and the “Dispositiva” (settlement), dated 3 November 1797. This additional material makes visible the mechanics of circulating and enforcing changes in the laws of a global empire.
OCLC traces just two examples of the 1797 edition: University of Florida F.04 S733t and University of Miami E313 .S6 1797.
Medina V.5765; cf. Sabin 96587 and Streeter Sale III.1524 (both Madrid 1796).
Item #JLR0685
Price: $7,500