User:Acdixon/Spanish Conspiracy

The Spanish Conspiracy was a series of attempts to convince American frontier settlers along the Mississippi River to break away from the United States and submit to Spanish rule. The most prominent incident (sometimes called the Kentucky conspiracy) was spearheaded by James Wilkinson during Kentucky's transition from a county of Virginia to a state in the Union.

Background
As a condition of recognizing American independence, Spain had demanded the concession of controlling trade along the Mississippi River. In 1784, Spain revoked the Americans' right of deposit (the ability to send goods down the Mississippi and deposit them at New Orleans to await overseas shipment.) In so doing, they hoped to discourage westward movement by the Americans and create a buffer region between the United States and the valuable Spanish colonies in Mexico.

In spite of Spanish efforts, the Americans did move west, settling the areas now known as Kentucky and Tennessee. The Virginia House of Delegates created Kentucky County, Virginia on December 31, 1776. These settlers were not long content to be part of Virginia, however. Travel to the state capital of Richmond for judicial appeals and other state matters was prohibitively expensive, and under the Articles of Confederation, the Virginia Assembly could provide neither the funds nor the manpower needed to defend the region from Indian attacks.

In November 1784, Benjamin Logan called a meeting in Danville to discuss the issues facing Kentuckians, including the lack of legal authority to organize a militia for dealing with the Indian threat. Many solutions were discussed, and it was decided to commit the issue to a group of elected delegates at a meeting to convene the following month. Some of the delegates to the December 27 convention proposed statehood for their county; others favored becoming an independent nation. Ultimately, the delegates passed a resolution to separation from Virginia and become a full state under the Articles of Confederation.

Believing the voters had only given them the power to discuss solution and not the authority to request separation, the delegates scheduled a second convention that convened May 23, 1785. This convention drafted a petition to the Virginia legislature requesting separation and promising to join the United States as soon as possible. The delegates felt, however, that more public discussion was warranted, and issued a call for the election of delegates to a third convention. The third convention opened on August 8, 1785, and passed the petition for separation.

Virginia legislators responded favorably to the petition, and passed an enabling act giving Kentuckians the right to proceed with separation. The separation was conditional upon the approval of Congress, and Kentucky's assumption of a share of Virginia's debt and recognition of Virginia's land warrants. The act mandated that a fourth convention be held to determine if accepting the conditions of the act was "the will of the good people of the said district." The convention was scheduled for the fourth Monday in September 1786, with independence to be granted at a date "posterior" to September 1, 1786.

Before the fourth meeting could be convened, Virginia governor Patrick Henry called many of the delegates, George Rogers Clark among them, back into military service for a series of expeditions against the Indians. This delayed the fourth convention until January 1787. In the interim, the Virginia House of Delegates called for another expression of opinion from Kentuckians, and pushed back the date of separation to January 1, 1789. The delegates became frustrated by this legislative action, and Wilkinson prepared to use their frustration to his advantage.

Wilkinson travels to New Orleans
By the mid-1780s, Kentucky was producing surpluses of several crops. Because the state was largely rural, and shipping the surplus overland was cost prohibitive, the only outlet for the produce lay in shipping it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. However, in 1786, western settlers learned that Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay intended to recommend that the United States ratify the proposed Jay-Gardoqui Treaty, which would have surrendered control of the Mississippi to the Spanish for twenty-five years, effectively strangling the economy of the western frontier. Already frustrated by the extensive stipulations for separation that had been proposed by Virginia, a group of prominent Kentuckians began to advocate unconditional separation and the formation of an independent nation free to negotiate alliances of its choosing. James Wilkinson was the leader of this group, which also included John Brown, Benjamin Sebastian, Harry Innes, and Caleb Wallace.

In April 1787, Wilkinson loaded a flatboat with tobacco, bacon, hams, and flour, and began a trek down the Mississippi River to negotiate a trade agreement with Spanish governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró. At Natchez, the usual point of impound by the Spanish, a gift of two fine horses helped convince the local officials to let him proceed to New Orleans. Wilkinson stopped to make some visits as he traveled down the river, and his cargo reached New Orleans before he did. When officials began to impound the cargo, they were warned by merchants that Wilkinson was a very popular figure in Kentucky, and that impounding his goods could provide an impetus for military action. In fact, some speculated that the United States had sent Wilkinson to provoke an incident that would give them justification for annexing the whole of Louisiana.

Wilkinson finally arrived in New Orleans on July 2, 1787. There he met with Spanish officials, telling them that the United States intended to take Louisiana through military action. He also indicated that Kentuckians were so angered by the inaction of the United States generally, and Virginia specifically, in providing protection and economic viability for the western settlers that they were seriously considering separation from the United States. As a delegate to the third and pending fourth Kentucky statehood conventions, Wilkinson claimed to wield enough influence to sway the proceedings to favor Spain. He also promised to increase the number of Kentuckians migrating into Spanish territory, provided they could retain their religion and local government. In return for these favors, he asked that the Spanish government give him a monopoly on all trade along the Mississippi.

To further bolster his credibility with the Spanish government, Wilkinson signed a declaration of expatriation during the summer of 1787, swearing allegiance to the Spanish crown and committing his life to the promotion of Spanish interests. He also wrote a lengthy "memorial" to be forwarded to Miró's superiors. The document outlined the present situation in Kentucky and the details of Wilkinson's proposal for bringing Kentucky under Spanish rule.

Wilkinson so impressed Governor Miró during his time in New Orleans that Miró wrote to his government that "the delivering up of Kentucky unto his Majesty's hands" was Wilkinson's primary objective. While Miró did not explicitly give Wilkinson the monopoly he requested, he did give him permission to ship goods valued at up to $37,000 to New Orleans while Miró waited for a response from Spain. Since no other American had such permission, the edict had the same effect that an explicit monopoly would have.

Fifth convention
The fifth statehood convention for the District of Kentucky assembled in Danville on September 17. By this time, distinct factions had formed within the District's political leadership. The "court faction" desired immediate separation from Virginia and an agreement with Spain that would allow Kentucky use of the Mississippi River. Within this faction were several poor settlers who owned little or no land; these men hoped for a nullification and redistribution of the land grants issued by Virginia. In opposition to the court faction was the "country faction," made up mainly of wealthy landowners whose interest was in remaining a part of Virginia and maintaining the land grants that protected their large estates.

Some key members of the country faction had not been elected as delegates to the fifth convention. Only Wilkinson, who was still in New Orleans, was absent from the court faction. On September 22, the convention voted unanimously to accept Virginia's terms of separation, with two country faction members abstaining. The Cumberland settlements on the western frontier of North Carolina petitioned to be included in the new state, but the convention refused to entertain the matter, unwilling to delay the separation further by involving North Carolina.

Other matters addressed by the convention included petitioning Congress to approve the separation and admit Kentucky as a state as soon as possible. As requested in Virginia's enabling act, a constitutional convention was scheduled for July 1788. Delegates to the convention were to be elected in April, and all free males of the District were declared eligible to vote. The District also requested that the be allowed a representative in Virginia's congressional delegation; Virginia responded by appointing John Brown.

The conspiracy grows
Wilkinson took a circuitous route home from New Orleans that included stops in Charleston, West Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He finally returned to Kentucky on February 24, 1788. Once there, he began to share the details of his exploits with some of his trusted colleagues. He apparently determined how much he confided in a particular individual by his estimation of how willing the individual would be to participate in some sort of arrangement with the Spanish. Because of this, his contemporaries and historians who have studied these events were unable to determine his exact goals. To some, it seemed he genuinely desired Kentucky's separation from the United States and absorption by the Spanish Empire; to others, it appeared he had made empty promises to Spain in order to secure favorable economic concessions for himself.

Wilkinson first shared his plans with Innes, and later with Jefferson County farmer Alexander Scott Bullitt and Isaac Dunn, Wilkinson's trading partner. He instructed Miró to contact Innes and Bullitt if anything were to happen to him. Outside this cabal, Wilkinson advocated only separation from Virginia and some sort of commercial alliance with Spain that would give Kentucky use of the Mississippi. Publicly, he neither advocated an alliance with Spain nor the idea of Kentucky becoming a Spanish colony.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson was making the most of his trade monopoly. As the price for Kentucky commodities rose due to their new outlet to New Orleans, Wilkinson became one of the most popular figures in the District. By January 1789, he had shipped so much tobacco down the river that Miró begged him to stop.

Despite his negotiation of an agreement that was beneficial for both Kentucky and Spain, Wilkinson was not fully trusted by either party. His ability to gain the trade concessions that had eluded John Jay in his negotiations with Miró led some to believe that Wilkinson was being paid by the Spanish government. For his part, Miró wrote to his superiors on June 15, 1788 "Although [Wilkinson's] candor, and the information which I have sought from many who have known him well, seems to assure us that he is working in good earnest, yet I am aware that it may be possible that his intention is to enrich himself at our expense, by inflating us with hopes and promises which he knows to be vain. Nevertheless, I have determined to humor him on this occasion."