1805 Apr 20, James Monroe and Charles Pickney, from Aranjuez, Spain (extract, transcript)

Letterbook, 1804-1805, of diplomatic correspondence (from the library of James Bowdoin III) probably compiled for Bowdoin for his use as Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain and as co-commmissioner, with John Armstrong, US Minister to France, in negotiations with their Spanish counterparts. Letterbook contains transcripts, written contemporaneously, of 29 letters sent between the key diplomatic figures from the United States, the Court of Spain, and France relating to US claims to West Florida arising from the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The correspondence provides documentation of diplomatic negotiations led by James Munroe to settle competing United States and Spanish claims to West Florida, the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, and to negotiate other claims. Correspondents included in the letterbook are: US Secretary of State James Madison, US ministers James Monroe, Charles Pinckney (Court of Spain), John Armstrong (France), and US Governor of Orleans Territory William C.C. Claiborne; representing France, Foreign Minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; and from Spain Secretary of State Pedro Cevallos, de facto Prime Minister Manuel Godoy y Alvarez de Faria, Ambassador to the United States Marquis Carlos Martínez de Yrujo, and former Spanish governor of Louisiana Marquis de Casa Calvo.