upture
with Spain.

As to the sending a minister here, they made excuses at the first
conference, seemed disposed to it in the second, and in the last express
an intention of so doing.

Their views being thus sufficiently ascertained, I have directed
Mr. Morris to discontinue his communications with them.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, _February 18, 1791_.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

The aspect of affairs in Europe during the last summer, and especially
between Spain and England, gave reason to expect a favorable occasion
for pressing to accommodation the unsettled matters between them and us.
Mr. Carmichael, our charge d'affaires at Madrid, having been long absent
from his country, great changes having taken place in our circumstances
and sentiments during that interval, it was thought expedient to send
some person, in a private character, fully acquainted with the present
state of things here, to be the bearer of written and confidential
instructions to him, and at the same time to possess him in full and
frequent conversations of all those details of facts and topics of
argument which could not be conveyed in writing, but which would be
necessary to enable him to meet the reasonings of that Court with
advantage. Colonel David Humphreys was therefore sent for these
purposes.

An additional motive for this confidential mission arose in the same
quarter. The Court of Lisbon had on several occasions made the most
amicable advances for cultivating friendship and intercourse with
the United States. The exchange of a diplomatic character had been
informally, but repeatedly, suggested on their part. It was our interest
to meet this nation in its friendly dispositions and to concur in the
exchange proposed. But my wish was at the same time that the character
to be exchanged should be of the lowest and most economical grade. To
this it was known that certain rules of long standing at that Court
would produce obstacles. Colonel Humphreys was charged with dispatches
to the prime minister of Portugal and with instructions to endeavor to
arrange this to our views. It happened, however, that previous to his
arrival at Lisbon the Queen had appointed a minister _resident_ to the
United States. This embarrassment seems to have rendered the difficulty
completely insurmountable. The minister of that Court in his conferences
with Colonel Humphreys, professing every wish to accommodate, yet
expresses his regrets that c