University of Virginia Library

TO HEZEKIAH NILES.[29]

In Ramsay's History of the American Revolution vol: 2,
pa. 300–301 is the following passage

"Mr. Jay was instructed to contend for the right of the U.
States to the free navigation of the river Mississippi. and if an
express acknowledgement of it could not be obtained, he was
restrained from acceding to any stipulation by which it should
be relinquished. But in February 1781, when Lord Cornwallis
was making rapid progress in overruning the Southern States,
and when the mutiny of the Pennsylvania line and other unfavorable
circumstances depressed the spirits of the Americans,
Congress, on the recommendation of Virginia, directed him to
recede from his instructions so far as they insist on the free
navigation of that part of the Mississippi which lies below
the thirty first degree of North Latitude, provided such cession
should be unalterably insisted on by Spain, and provided the
free navigation of the said river above the said degree of
North Latitude should be acknowledged and guaranteed by
his Catholic Majesty, in common with his own subjects."

In this account of the instruction to Mr. Jay to relinquish
the navigation of the Mississippi below the Southern boundary
of the U. States, the measure would seem to have had its origin
with the State of Virginia.

This was not the case: and the very worthy historian, who
was not at that period a member of Congress, was led into his
error by the silence of the journals as to what had passed on
the subject previous to Feby 15, 1781, when they agreed to
the instruction to make the relinquishment, as moved by the
Delegates of Virginia in pursuance of instructions from the
Legislature. It was not unusual with the Secretary of Congress

to commence his entries in the Journal with the stage
in which the proceedings assumed a definitive character;
omitting, or noting on separate & informal sheets only, the
preliminary stages.

The Delegates from Virga had been long under instructions
from their State to insist on the right to the navigation of the
Mississippi; and Congress had always included it in their
ultimatum for peace. As late as the 4th of Ocr 1780 (see the
secret Journals of that date) they had renewed their adherence
to this point by unanimously agreeing to the report of a
Committee to whom had been referred "certain instructions
to the delegates of Virga by their constituents and a letter
of May 29 from Mr. Jay at Madrid," which report[30] prohibited
him from relinquishing the right of the U. States to the free
navigation of the River Mississippi into and from the sea, as
asserted in his former instructions. And on the 17th of the
same month, October (see the secret Journals of that date)
Congress agreed to the report of a Committee explaining the
reasons & principles on which the instructions of October
the 4th were founded.

Shortly after this last measure of Congress, the Delegates
of S. Carolina & Georgia, seriously affected by the progress
and views of the Enemy in the Southern States, and by the
possibility that the interference of the Great neutral powers
might force a peace on the principle of Uti possidetis, whilst
those States or parts of them might be in the military occupancy
of G. Britain, urged with great zeal, within & without doors,
the expediency of giving fresh vigour to the means of driving
the enemy out of their country by drawing Spain into an
alliance, and into pecuniary succours, believed to be unattainable
without yielding our claim to the navigation of the Mississippi.
The efforts of those Delegates did not fail to make
proselytes till at length it was ascertained that a number was
disposed to vote for the measure sufficient without the vote
of Virginia and it happened that one of the two delegates

from that State concurred in the policy of what was proposed
[see the annexed letter of Novr 25 & extract of Decr 5. 1788,
from J. Madison to Jos. Jones].

In this posture of the business, Congress was prevailed on
to postpone any final decision untill the Legislature of Virginia
could be consulted; it being regarded by all as very desirable,
when the powers of Congress depended so much on the individual
wills of the States, that an important member of the
Union, on a point particularly interesting to it, should receive
every conciliatory mark of respect, and it being calculated
also that a change in the councils of that State might have
been produced by the causes producing it in others.

A joint letter bearing date Decr 13, 1780 [which see annexed]
was accordingly written by the Delegates of Virginia to
Governor Jefferson to be laid before the Legislature then in
session simply stating the case and asking instructions on the
subject; without any expression of their own opinions, which
being at variance could not be expressed in a letter to be signed
by both.

The result of these communications from the Delegates was
a repeal of the former instructions and a transmission of
different ones, the receipt of which, according to an understanding
when the decision of Congress was postponed, made
it incumbent on the two Delegates to bring the subject before
Congress. This they did by offering the instruction to M
Jay agreed to on the 15th of Febr. 1781 and referred to in the
historical passage above cited.

It is proper to add that the instant the menacing crisis was
over the Legislature of Virginia revoked the instruction to her
Delegates to cede the navigation of the Mississippi and that
Congress seized the first moment also for revoking theirs to
Mr. Jay.

I have thought a statement of these circumstances due to
truth; and that its accuracy may be seen to depend not on
memory alone the copies of contemporary documents verifying
it are annexed.

In the hope that this explanation may find its way to the
notice of some future Historian of our Revolutionary transactions
I request for it a place, if one can be afforded, in your
Register, where it may more readily offer itself to his researches
than in publications of more transient or diffusive contents.