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Pinckney Treaty 1795 - Transcript
Also called
Pinckney's Treaty or
Treaty of San
Lorenzo.
Treaty of Friendship, Limits,
and Navigation
Between the United States of America
and his Catholic Majesty
His Catholic Majesty and the
United States of America, desidering to consolidate on a
permanent basis the friendship and good correspondence which
happily prevails between the two parties, have determined to
establish by a convention several points, the settlement
whereof will be productive of general advantage and
reciprocal utility to both nations.
With this intention his Catholic
Majesty has appointed the Most Excellent Lord Don Manuel de
Godoy, and Alvarez de Faria, Rios, Sanchez, Zarsosa, Prince
de la Paz, Duke de la Alcudia, Lord of the Soto de Roma and
of the state of Albala, grandee of Spain, of the first
class, perpetual regidor of the city of Santiago, Knight of
the illustrious Order of the Golden Fleece, and Great-Cross
of the Royal and distinguished Spanish order of Charles the
III., commander of Valencia del Ventoso, Rivera, and
Acenchalan, that of Santiago; Knight and Great-Cross of the
religious order of St John; Counsellor of State; First
Secretary of State and Despacho; Secretary to the Queen;
Superintendent General of the posts and highways; Protector
of the Royal Academy of the Noble Arts, and of the royal
societies of natural history, botany, chemistry, and
astronomy; Gentleman of the King's Chamber in employment;
Captain general of his armies, Inspector and Major of the
royal corps of body guards etc. etc. etc.
And the President of the United
States with the advice and consent of their Senate has
appointed Thomas Pinckney, a citizen of the United States,
and their envoy extraordinary to his Catholic Majesty.
And the said Plenipotentiaries
have agreed upon and concluded the following articles.
ART. I.
There shall be a firm and inviolable peace and sincere
friendship between His Catholic Majesty, his successors and
subjects, and the United States and their citizens, without
exception of persons or places.
ART.
II.
To prevent all disputes on the subject of the boundaries
which separate the territories of the two high contracting
parties, it is hereby declared and agreed as follows, to
wit: The southern boundary of the United States, which
divides their territory from the Spanish colonies of East
and West Florida, shall be designated by a line, beginning
on the river Mississippi at the northernmost part of the
thirty-first degree of latitude north of the equator, which
from thence shall be drawn due east to the middle of the
river Apalachicola or Catahouche [Corahsuche], thence along
the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint; thence
straight to the head of St. Mary's River, and thence down
the middle thereof to the Atlantic Ocean. And it is agreed
that, if there should be any troops, garrisons, or
settlements of either party in the territory of the other,
according to the above mentioned boundaries, they shall be
withdrawn from the said territory within the term of six
months after the ratification of this treaty, or sooner if
it be possible; and that they shall be permitted to take
with them all the goods and effects which they possess.
ART.
III.
In order to carry the preceding article into effect, one
commissioner and one surveyor shall be appointed by each of
the contracting parties, who shall meet at Natchez on the
left side of the river Mississippi, before the expiration of
six months from the ratification of this convention, and
they shall proceed to run and mark this boundary according
to the stipulations of the said article. They shall make
plates [plans], and keep journals of their proceedings which
shall be considered as part of this convention, and shall
have the same force as if they were inserted therein. And if
on any account it should be found necessary that the said
commissioners and surveyors should be accompanied by guards,
they shall be furnished in equal proportion by the
commanding officer of his Majesty's troops in the two
Floridas, and the commanding officer of the troops of the
United States in their southwestern territory, who shall act
by common consent and amicably, as well with respect to this
point as to the furnishing of provisions and instruments,
and making every other arrangement which may be necessary or
useful for the execution of this article.
ART.
IV.
It is likewise agreed that the western boundary of the
United States, which separates them from the Spanish Colony
of Louisiana, is in the middle of the channel or bed of the
river Mississippi, from the northern boundary of the said
States to the completion of the thirty-first degree of
latitude north of the equator. And his Catholic Majesty has
likewise agreed that the navigation of the said river, in
its whole breadth from its source to the ocean, shall be
free only to his subjects and the citizens of the United
States, unless he should extend this privilege to the
subjects of other powers by special convention.
ART. V.
The two high contracting parties shall by all the means in
their power maintain peace and harmony among the several
Indian nations who inhabit the country adjacent to the lines
and rivers which, by the proceeding articles, form the
boundaries of the two Floridas. And the better to obtain
this effect, both parties oblige themselves expressly to
restrain by force all hostilities on the part of the Indian
nations living within their boundaries, so that Spain will
not suffer her Indians to attack the citizens of the United
States, nor the Indians inhabiting their territory. Nor will
the United States permit those last-mentioned Indians to
commence hostilities against the subjects of his Catholic
Majesty, or his Indians, in any manner whatever.
And whereas several treaties of friendship exist between the
two contracting parties and the said nations of Indians, it
is hereby agreed that in future no treaty of alliance or
other whatever (except treaties of peace) shall be made by
either party with the Indians living within the boundary of
the other; but both parties will endeavor to make advantages
of the Indian trade common and mutually beneficial to their
respective subjects and citizens, observing in all things
the most complete reciprocity, so that both parties may
obtain the advantages arising from a good understanding with
the said nations, without being subject to the expense which
they have hitherto occasioned.
ART.
VI.
Each party shall endeavor, by all means in their power, to
protect and defend all vessels and other effects belonging
to the citizens or subjects of the other, which shall be
within the extent of their jurisdiction by sea or by land,
and shall use all their efforts to recover and cause to be
restored to the right owners their vessels and effects which
may have been taken from them within the extent of their
said jurisdiction, whether they are at war or not with the
power whose [with the subjects who have] subjects have taken
possession of the said effects.
ART.
VII.
And it is agreed that the subjects or citizens of each of
the contracting parties, their vessels or effects, shall not
be liable to any embargo or detention on the part of the
other by [for] any military expedition or other public or
private purpose whatever. And all cases of seizure,
detention, or arrest for debts contracted, or offences
committed by any citizen or subject of the one party within
the jurisdiction of the other, the same shall be made and
prosecuted by order and authority of law only, and according
to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases.
The citizens and subjects of both parties shall be allowed
to employ such advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and
factors, as they may judge proper in all their affairs and
in all their trials at law in which they may be concerned
before the tribunals of the other party. And such agents
shall have free access to be present at the proceedings in
such causes, and at the taking of all examinations and
evidence which may be exhibited in the said trials.
ART.
VIII.
In case the subjects and inhabitants of either party, with
their shipping, whether public and of war, or private and of
merchants, be forced through stress of weather, pursuit of
pirates or enemies, or any other urgent necessity for
seeking of [taking] shelter and harbor to retreat, and enter
into any of the rivers, bays, roads, or ports belonging to
the other party, they shall be received and treated with all
humanity, and enjoy all favor, protection, and help. And
they shall be permitted to refresh and provide themselves at
reasonable rates, with victuals, and all things needful for
the sustenance of their persons or reparation of their
ships, and prosecution of their voyage. And they shall no
ways be hindered from returning out of the said ports or
roads, but may remove and depart when and whither they
please without any let or hindrance.
ART.
IX.
All ships and merchandise of what nature soever which shall
be rescued out of the hands of any pirates or robbers on the
high seas, shall be brought into some port of either state,
and shall be delivered to the custody of the officers of
that port in order to be taken care of and restored entire
to the true proprietor as soon as due and sufficient proof
shall be made concerning the property thereof.
ART. X.
When any vessel of either party shall be wrecked, foundered,
or otherwise damaged, on the coasts or within the dominion
of the other, their respective subjects or citizens shall
receive, as well for themselves as for their vessels and
effects, the same assistance which would be due to the
inhabitants of the country where the damage happens, and
shall pay the same charges and dues only as the said
inhabitants would be subject to pay in a like case. And if
the operations of repair should require that the whole, or
any part of the cargo be unladen, they shall pay no duties,
charges, or fees, on the part which they shall relade and
carry away.
ART.
XI.
The citizens and subjects of each party shall have power to
dispose of their personal goods within the jurisdiction of
the other by testaments, donation, or otherwise. And their
representatives, being subjects or citizens of the other
party, shall succeed to their said personal goods, whether
by testament or ab intestato, and they may take
possession thereof, either by themselves or others acting
for them, and dispose of the same at their will, paying such
dues only as the inhabitants of the country wherein the said
goods are shall be subject to pay in like cases.
And in case of the absence of
the representative, such care shall be taken of the said
goods [as] as would be taken of the goods of a native in
like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for
receiving them.
And if questions should arise
among several claimants, to which of them the said goods
belong, the same shall be decided finally by the laws and
judges of the land wherein the said goods are. And where on
the death of any person holding real estate within the
territories of the one party, such real estate would by the
laws of the land descend on a citizen or subject of the
other, were he not disqualified by being an alien, such
subject shall be allowed a reasonable time to sell the same
and to withdraw the proceeds without molestation and exempt
from all rights of detraction on the part of the government
of the respective states.
ART.
XII.
The merchant ships of either of the parties which shall be
making [into ports or into a port] belonging to the enemy of
the other party, and concerning whose voyage and the species
of goods on board her, there shall be just grounds of
suspicion, shall be obliged to exhibit as well upon the high
seas as in the ports and havens, not only her passports but
likewise certificates expressly showing that her goods are
not of the number of those which have been prohibited as
contraband.
ART.
XIII.
For the better promoting of commerce on both sides, it is
agreed that if a war shall break out between the said two
nations, one year after the proclamation of war shall be
allowed to the merchants in the cities and towns where they
shall live for collecting and transporting their goods and
merchandises. And if any thing be taken from them, or any
injury be done them, within that term, by either party, or
the people or subjects of either, full satisfaction shall be
made by the government.
ART.
XIV.
No subject of his Catholic Majesty shall apply for, or take
any commission or letters of marque, for arming any ship or
ships to act as privateers against the said United States or
against the citizens, people, or inhabitants of the said
United States, or against the property of any of the
inhabitants of any of them, from any prince or state with
which the said United States shall be at war.
Nor shall any citizen, subject, or inhabitant of the said
United States apply for, or take any commission or letters
of marque, for arming any ship or ships to act as privateers
against the subjects of his Catholic Majesty or the property
of any of them, from any prince or state with which the said
King shall be at war. And if any person of either nation
shall take such commissions or letters of marque, he shall
be punished as a pirate.
ART.
XV.
It shall be lawful for all and singular the subjects of his
Catholic Majesty, and the citizens, people, and inhabitants
of the United States, to sail with their ships with all
manner of liberty and security, no distinction being made,
who are the proprietors of the merchandises laden thereon,
from any port to the places of those who now are, or
hereafter shall be, at enmity with his Catholic Majesty or
the United States. It shall be likewise lawful for the
subjects and inhabitants aforesaid to sail with the ships
and merchandises aforementioned, and to trade with the same
liberty and security from the places, ports, and havens, of
those who are enemies of both or either party, without any
opposition or disturbance whatsoever, not only directly from
the places of the enemy aforementioned to neutral places,
but also from one place belonging to an enemy to another
place belonging to an enemy, whether they be under the
jurisdiction of the same prince or under several. And it is
hereby stipulated that free ships shall also give freedom to
goods, and that every thing shall be deemed free and exempt
which shall be found on board the ships belonging to the
subjects of either of the contracting parties, although the
whole lading or any part thereof should appertain to the
enemies of either, contraband goods being always excepted.
It is also agreed that the same liberty be extended
[granted] to persons who are on board a free ship, so that,
although they may be enemies to either party, they shall not
be made prisoners or taken out of that free ship, unless
they are soldiers and in actual service of the enemies.
ART.
XVI.
This liberty of navigation and commerce shall extend to all
kinds of merchandises, excepting those only which are
distinguished by the name of contraband; and under this name
of contraband or prohibited goods shall be comprehended
arms, great guns, bombs with the fuses, and other things
belonging to them, cannon balls, gun powder, match, pikes,
swords, lances, spears, halberds, mortars, petards,
grenades, saltpeter, muskets, musket balls, bucklers,
helmets, breast plates, coats of mail, and the kind of arms
proper for arming soldiers, musket rests, belts, horses with
their furniture and all other warlike instruments whatever.
These merchandises which follow shall not be reckoned among
contraband or prohibited goods; that is to say, all sorts of
cloths and all other manufactures woven of any wool, flax,
silk, cotton, or any other materials whatever, all kinds of
wearing apparel together with all species whereof they are
used to be made, gold and silver as well coined as uncoined,
tin, iron, latten, copper, brass, coals, as also wheat,
barley, oats, and any other kind of corn and pulse: tobacco
and likewise all manner of spices, salted and smoked fish,
salted fish, cheese and butter, beer, oils, wines, sugars,
and all sorts of salts, and in general all provisions which
serve for the sustenance of life. Furthermore all kinds of
cotton, hemp, flax, tar, pitch, ropes, cables, sails, sail
cloths, anchors, and any parts of anchors, also ships masts,
planks, wood of all kind, and all other things proper either
for building or repairing ships, and all other goods
whatever which have not been worked into the form of any
instrument prepared for war by land or by sea, shall not be
reputed contraband, much less such as have been already
wrought and made up for any other use: all which shall be
wholly reckoned among free goods, as likewise all other
merchandises and things which are not comprehended and
particularly mentioned in the foregoing enumeration of
contraband goods: so that they may be transported and
carried in the freest manner by the subjects of both
parties, even to places belonging to an enemy, such towns or
places being only excepted as are at that time besieged,
blocked up, or invested. And except the cases in which any
ship of war or squadron shall in consequence of storms or
other accidents at sea be under the necessity of taking the
cargo of any trading vessel or vessels, in which case they
may stop the said vessel or vessels and furnish themselves
with necessaries, giving a receipt in order that the power
to whom the said ship of war belongs may pay for the
articles so taken, according to the price thereof, at the
port to which they may appear to have been destined by the
ship's papers; and the two contracting parties engage, that
the vessels shall not be detained longer than may be
absolutely necessary for their said ships to supply
themselves with necessaries; that they will immediately pay
the value of the receipts, and indemnify the proprietor for
all losses which he may have sustained in consequence of
such transaction.
ART.
XVII.
To the end that all manner of dissensions and quarrels may
be avoided and prevented on one side and the other, it is
agreed that in case either of the parties hereto should be
engaged in a war, the ships and vessels belonging to
subjects or people of the other party, must be furnished
with sea letters or passports expressing the name, property,
and bulk of the ship, as also the name and place of
habitation of the master or commander of the said ship, that
it may appear thereby that the ship really and truly belongs
to the subjects of one of the parties; which passport shall
be made out and granted according to the form annexed to
this treaty. They shall likewise be recalled every year,
that is, if the ship happens to return home within the space
of a year.
It is likewise agreed that such
ships being laden, are to be provided not only with
passports as above mentioned, but also with certificates
containing the several particulars of the cargo, the place
whence the ship sailed, that so it may be known whether any
forbidden or contraband goods be on board the same; which
certificates shall be made out by the officers of the place
whence the ship sailed in the accustomed form; and if any
one shall think it fit or advisable to express in the said
certificates the person to whom the goods on board belong,
he may freely do so; without which requisites they may be
sent to one of the ports of the other contracting party, and
adjudged by the competent tribunal, according to what is
above set forth, that all the circumstances of this omission
having been well examined, they shall be adjudged to be
legal prizes, unless they shall give legal satisfaction of
their property by testimony entirely equivalent.
ART.
XVIII.
If the ships of the said subjects, people or inhabitants of
either of the parties, shall be met with, either sailing
along the coasts or on the high seas, by any ship of war of
the other, or by any privateer, the said ship of war, or
privateer, for avoiding of any disorder, shall remain out of
cannon shot, and may send their boats aboard the merchant
ship which they shall so meet with, and may enter her to
number of two or three men only, to whom the master or
commander of such ship or vessel shall exhibit his passport
concerning the property of the ship, made out according to
the form inserted in this present treaty; and the ship, when
she shall have shown such passport, shall be free and at
liberty to pursue her voyage, so as it shall not be lawful
to molest or give her chase in any manner, or force her to
quit her intended course.
ART.
XIX.
Consuls shall be reciprocally established with the
privileges and powers which those of the most favored
nations enjoy in the ports where their consuls reside, or
are permitted to be.
ART.
XX.
It is also agreed that the inhabitants of the territories of
each party shall respectively have free access to the courts
of justice of the other; and they shall be permitted to
prosecute suits for the recovery of their properties the
payment of their debts, and for obtaining satisfaction for
the damages which they may have sustained, whether the
persons whom they may sue be subjects or citizens of the
country in which they may be found, or any other persons
whatsoever who may have taken refuge therein; and the
proceedings and sentences of the said courts shall be the
same as if the contending parties had been subjects or
citizens of the said country.
ART.
XXI.
In order to terminate all differences on account of the
losses sustained by the citizens of the United States, in
consequence of their vessels and cargoes having been taken
by the subjects of his Catholic Majesty during the late war
between Spain and France, it is agreed that all such cases
shall be referred to the final decision of commissioners to
be appointed in the following manner.
His Catholic Majesty shall name
one commissioner, and the President of the United States, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint
another; and the said two commissioners shall agree on the
choice of a third, or if they cannot so agree, they shall
each propose one person, and of the two names so proposed,
one shall be drawn by lot in the presence of the two
original commissioners; and the person whose name shall be
so drawn shall be the third commissioner. And the three
commissioners so appointed shall be sworn impartially to
examine and decide the claims in question, according to the
merits of the several cases, and to justice, equity, and the
laws of nations.
The said commissioners shall
meet and sit at Philadelphia; and in case of the death,
sickness, or necessary absence of any such commissioner, his
place shall be supplied in the same manner as he was first
appointed, and the new commissioner shall take the same
oaths, and do the same duties. They shall receive all
complaints and applications authorized by this article
during eighteen months from the day on which they shall
assemble.
They shall have power to examine
all such persons as come before them on oath or affirmation
touching the complaints in question, and also to receive in
evidence all written testimony authenticated in such manner
as they shall think proper to require or admit.
The award of the said
commissioners, or any two of them, shall be final and
conclusive, both as to justice of the claim and the amount
of the sum to be paid to the claimants; and his Catholic
Majesty undertakes to cause the same to be paid in specie
without deduction, at such times and places and under such
conditions as shall be awarded by the same commissioners.
ART.
XXII.
The two high contracting parties, hoping that the good
correspondence and friendship which happily reigns between
them will be further increased by this treaty, and that it
will contribute to augment their prosperity and opulence,
will in future give to their mutual commerce all the
extension and favor which the advantage of both countries
may require.
And in consequence of the
stipulations contained in the fourth article, his Catholic
Majesty will permit the citizens of the United States for
the space of three years from this time, to deposit their
merchandises and effects in the port of New Orleans, and to
export them from thence without paying any other duty than
fair price for the hire of the stores; and his Majesty
promises either to continue this permission, if he finds
during that time that it is not prejudicial to the interests
of Spain, or if he should not agree to continue, he will
assign to them on another part of the banks of the
Mississippi an equivalent establishment.
ART.
XXIII.
The present treaty shall not be in force until ratified by
the contracting parties, and the ratifications shall be
exchanged in six months from this time, or sooner if
possible.
In witness whereof, we the underwritten plenipotentiaries of
his Catholic Majesty and of the United States of America
have signed this present treaty of friendship, limits and
navigation, and have thereunto affixed our seals
respectively.
Done at San Lorenzo el Real, this seven and twentieth day of
October, 1795.
THOMAS PINCKNEY
[Seal]
EL PRINCIPE DE LA PAZ
[Seal]
_____
Source: Avalon Project, which in
turn draws from Treaties and Other International Acts of
the United States of America, edited by Hunter Miller,
Volume 2, Documents 1-40 : 1776-1818,
Washington : Government Printing Office, 1931, double
checked with Recueil des principaux traités d'alliance,
de paix, de trčve, de neutralité, de commerce, de limites,
d'échange etc., Volume 6, G.F. von Martens, Carl von
Martens, Göttingen, 1829, which in turn refers to Collection
of State Papers, Vol. III, T.II. p.38., Philadelphia, 1796.
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