. José Monino, Conde de Floridablanca, Spanish prime minister and foreign minister from
1777 to 1792, provided some clandestine financial support to the American cause, but
opposed American independence because it posed a threat to Spanish possessions in
North America. As a result, he refused to receive Jay officially, much less to negotiate
a Spanish-American treaty or to accede to the Franco-American treaties of 1778 under
the provisions of the “Act Separate and Secret” (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
; Bemis, Diplomacy of the Amer. Revolution
, p. 41, 56, 104).
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2017.