TO THE U. S. MINISTER TO PORTUGAL (DAVID HUMPHREYS) J. MSS. - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 7 (Correspondence 1792-1793) [1905]
Edition used:
The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 7
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TO THE U. S. MINISTER TO PORTUGAL
(DAVID HUMPHREYS)J. MSS.
Philadelphia Mar. 22. 1793.
Dear Sir,—
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letters from No. 60 to No. 67, inclusive. You cannot be too vigilant against any such treaty as that mentioned in No. 60, which by giving the exclusive supply of wheat to Naples, would altogether debar the U. S. from it. This would bear so hard on us, that not only an exclusion of their wines from the U. S. ought to be expected on their part, but every other measure which might open to us a market in any other part of the world, however Portugal might be affected by it, and I must for ever repeat it that, instead of excluding our wheat, we must continue to hope that they will open their ports to our flour, and that you will continue to use your efforts, on every good occasion, to obtain this without waiting for a treaty.
As there appears at present a probability of a very general war in Europe, you will be pleased to be particularly attentive to preserve for our vessels all the rights of neutrality, and to endeavor that our flag be not usurped by others to procure to themselves the benefits of our neutrality. This usurpation tends to commit us with foreign nations, to subject those vessels truly ours to rigorous scrutinies & delays to distinguish them from counterfeits and to take the business of transportation out of our hands.
Continue, if you please, your intelligence relative to the affairs of Spain, from whence we learn nothing but thro’ you, to which it will be acceptable that you add any leading events from other countries, as we have several times received important facts thro’ you, even from London, sooner than they have come from London directly.
The letters inclosed for Mr. Short & Mr. Carmichael are of very secret nature. If you go by Madrid, you will be the bearer of them yourself; if not, it would be better to retain them than to send them by any conveyance which does not command your entire confidence. I have never yet had a letter from Mr. Carmichael but the one you brought from Madrid. A particular circumstance will occasion forbearance yet a little longer. * * *
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