, Jay in entire good faith had taken a
step which aroused furious anger in the West. [Footnote: State Dep.
MSS., No. 81, vol. ii., pp. 193, 241, 285, etc.; Reports of Sec'y John
Jay.] Like so many other statesmen of the day, he did not realize how
fast Kentucky had grown, and deemed the navigation question one which
would not be of real importance to the West for two decades to come. He
absolutely refused to surrender our right to navigate the Mississippi;
but, not regarding it as of immediate consequence, he proposed both to
Congress and Gardoqui that in consideration of certain concessions by
Spain we should agree to forbear to exercise this right for twenty or
twenty-five years. The delegates from the northern States assented to
Jay's views; those from the southern States strongly opposed them. In
1787, after a series of conferences between Jay and Gardoqui, which came
to naught, the Spaniard definitely refused to entertain Jay's
proposition. Even had he not refused nothing could have been done, for
under the confederation a treaty had to be ratified by the votes of nine
States, and there were but seven which supported the policy of Jay.

Washington and Lee agree with Jay.

Unquestionably Jay showed less than his usual far-sightedness in this
matter, but it is only fair to remember that his views were shared by
some of the greatest of American statesmen, even from Virginia.
"Lighthorse Harry" Lee substantially agreed with them. Washington, with
his customary broad vision and keen insight, realized the danger of
exciting the turbulent Westerners by any actual treaty which might seem
to cut off their hope of traffic down the Mississippi; but he advocated
pursuing what was, except for defining the time limit, substantially the
same policy under a different name, recommending that the United States
should await events and for the moment neither relinquish nor push their
claim to free navigation of the great river. [Footnote: "The Spanish
Conspiracy," Thos. Marshall Green, p. 31.] Even in Kentucky itself a few
of the leading men were of the opinion that the right of free navigation
would be of little real benefit during the lifetime of the existing
generation. [Footnote: State Dept. MSS., Madison Papers, Caleb Wallace
to Madison, Nov. 21, 1787. Wallace himself shared this view.] It was no
discredit to Jay to hold the views he did when they were shared by
intelligent men of affairs who were actually in the district mos