ng report, which has been made to me by the
Secretary of State:

DECEMBER 22, 1791.

The Secretary of State reports to the President of the United States
that one of the commissioners of Spain, in the name of both, has lately
communicated to him verbally, by order of his Court, that His Catholic
Majesty, apprised of our solicitude to have some arrangements made
respecting our free navigation of the river Mississippi and the use
of a port thereon, is ready to enter into treaty thereon at Madrid.

The Secretary of State is of opinion that this overture should be
attended to without delay, and that the proposal of treating at Madrid,
though not what might have been desired, should yet be accepted, and a
commission plenipotentiary made out for the purpose.

That Mr. Carmichael, the present charge d'affaires of the United States
at Madrid, from the local acquaintance which he must have acquired with
persons and circumstances, would be an useful and proper member of the
commission, but that it would be useful also to join with him some
person more particularly acquainted with the circumstances of the
navigation to be treated of.

That the fund appropriated by the act providing the means of
intercourse between the United States and foreign nations will
insufficiently furnish the ordinary and regular demands on it, and is
consequently inadequate to the mission of an additional commissioner
express from hence.

That therefore it will be advisable on this account, as well as for
the sake of dispatch, to constitute some one of the ministers of the
United States in Europe, jointly with Mr. Carmichael, commissioners
plenipotentiary for the special purpose of negotiating and concluding
with any person or persons duly authorized by His Catholic Majesty a
convention or treaty for the free navigation of the river Mississippi
by the citizens of the United States under such accommodations with
respect to a port and other circumstances as may render the said
navigation practicable, useful, and free from dispute, saving to the
President and Senate their respective rights as to the ratification
of the same, and that the said negotiation be at Madrid, or such
other place in Spain as shall be desired by His Catholic Majesty.

TH. JEFFERSON.

In consequence of the communication from the Court of Spain, as stated
in the preceding report, I nominate William Carmichael, p