Brooks: Diplomacy and the Borderlands 9

had offered inducements to a Philadelphia newspaper man for the
publication of articles presenting the Spanish side of the Florida
question. And like Merry, the British minister, he developed quite
obvious wrath over the informality of Jefferson's and Madison's
social customs.
 His protests against the Mobile Act were followed by bitter com-
ments on Jefferson's message of 1805 leading to the two-million-
dollar Florida appropriation. At that time, with a request for his
recall, the Cabinet determined to hold no further correspondence
with him. Irujo, unable to communicate directly, voiced his opin-
ions and his complaints against developments, such as the arming
in this country of an expedition to revolutionize Venezuela, by
means of the press and through the French minister, L. M. Turreau
de Garambouville, who took some of his messages to Madison orally.
Irujo's efforts were futile, however, and in 1807 he was removed
to Milan.
 Irujo's departure brought to an end any effective representation
of Spain in this country, although there were two men left to dis-
pute between themselves the rights and duties of encargado de
negocios, or charge d'affaires. Valentin de Foronda had been
consul-general during the ministry of Irujo, and had quarreled
with that minister. The arguments were continued between Fo-
ronda and Jos6 Ignacio Viar, the other encargado, who had been in
the Spanish service in this country as early as 1792." The two re-
ported on affairs in the United States, and attempted to convey
complaints to the government, but did so with difficulty, inasmuch
as they were permitted no official diplomatic intercourse. Finally
in July, 1809, fearing war between England and the United States,
they appealed for the appointment of a minister with sufficient
rank and powers to cope with the situation."
 Their request was in fact anticipated by the appointment of
 Onis in the summer of 1809. He left for the United States at once,
 but was doomed to wait for seven years before he could open official
 negotiations. In order to understand the causes of that embarrass-
 ment, and the difficulties of the r61e Onis undertook, one must turn
 to the development of the civil war in Spain. It was due to the
 ostensibly neutral but really pro-French policy of Madison that
 the government failed to acknowledge Onis' credentials from a
 Spanish patriot assembly.