In September of 1834, US Secretary of State John Forsyth received word from our minister to Spain, Cornelius P. Van Ness that her Majesty's cabinet was ready to begin negotiations on an arrangement to establish peace and reciprocal trade between Spain and the newly independent countries of South American. This was wonderful news for both South America and the United States, but the joy was short-lived.
In response to the news, both Venezuela and Mexico began plans to appoint a minister to travel to Madrid and begin negotiations with Spain. In April of 1834, General Carlos Soublette of Venezuela arrived in Madrid for the negotiations, and Van Ness sent this news to John Forsyth, Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of State. General Soublette was well received by Spain's Minister of Foreign Affairs M. Martinez de la Rosa, but Soublette could not yet reach a judgement on the treaty. A month later, Van Ness reported that little progress had been made and more importantly, they were still waiting for the Minister from Mexico, Miguel Santa Maria to arrive. María was the minister plenipotentiary at the court of London at the time and had already been instructed to initiate negotiations with Spain for the recognition of Mexican independence. Since 1826, his instructions had been that the Mexico republic would not consider any proposition from Spain unless it was accompanied by an acknowledgement of independence. It was not until June of 1835, that Mexico sent new instructions to Santa María allowing the negotiations to take place. Finally, on September 19, Van Ness sent a letter to Secretary Forsyth that Mr. Santa María had arrived and the "American question will, in all probability, be very soon settled". Apparently, the news that negotiations had begun was receive too late for President Jackson 1835 State of the Union Address. In his address, Jackson lamented that "that simultaneous appointments by all of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been made". No names are mentioned but is very likely that Jackson was referring to the news he received that they were still waiting for the minister from Mexico to arrive.
"Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a lasting peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments of this hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all of them of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire independence. It is to be regretted that simultaneous appointments by all of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been made. The negotiation itself would have been simplified, and this long-standing dispute, spreading over a large portion of the world, would have been brought to a more speedy conclusion."
Unfortunately, negotiations between Venezuela and Spain broke apart late in 1836 and General Soublette left Madrid. The breakdown of negotiations is beyond the scope of this article but is documented in letters from Van Ness to Forsyth between January and November of 1836. These letters can be found here.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. 2020. Seventh Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: <https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/seventh-annual-message-2> [Accessed 25 July 2020].
Manning, W., 1936. Diplomatic Correspondence Of The United States / Inter-American Affairs, 1831-1860. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for Internat. Peace, pp.281-297.
Robertson, William Spence. “The Recognition of the Spanish Colonies by the Motherland.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 1918, pp. 70–91. JSTOR, <www.jstor.org/stable/2506014> [Accessed 25 July 2020].
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