Apparently neither TJ nor Madison had seen most of the letters before Irujo presented them to the president at Monticello. Charles Pinckney included copies of several of the letters in his dispatches to Madison of 20 Nov. 1803, 4 June 1804, and 20 July, but only the former two had arrived by this time and they contained only Pedro Cevallos’s replies to Pinckney of 5 Oct. 1803 and 31 May 1804 (see Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 6:77-8; 7:281-5, 486-97; and Madison to TJ, 28 Aug.). In his 20 July letter to Madison, Pinckney stated that reliable “secret intelligence” informed him that Cevallos planned to delay ratification of the 1802 convention to “get entirely rid” of all American claims. Writing to Cevallos on 22 June (probably the 20 June letter on the list printed above), Pinckney made a final appeal and demanded to know whether the king would “ratify the convention as it was made or not? considering any alteration at this time as amounting to a refusal.” Responding on 2 July, Cevallos stated that Spain was ready to ratify, but only under certain limitations and conditions. These included extending the time for presenting claims, suppressing the article of the convention regarding American claims for French spoliations carried into Spanish ports, and repealing the law authorizing the Mobile collection district. Pinckney replied on 5 July that if Spain insisted on the second and third conditions, which he deemed “humiliating” to the United States, then he would send circulars to U.S. consuls in Spain and to the commander of the U.S. squadron in the Mediterranean warning of the prospect of a breach in relations between the two nations. He also asked Cevallos to return the original ratification and related papers. Cevallos responded three days later, insisting that the proposed conditions were just and criticizing Pinckney for unilaterally terminating negotiations without transmitting Spain’s terms to his government. The Spanish government had resolved to dispatch a special envoy to acquaint the United States with the state of affairs. The 10 July exchange of letters between Pinckney and Cevallos has not been found, but in a lengthy letter to Cevallos written on 14 July, Pinckney confirmed that he was preparing to return to the United States and asked Cevallos for passports (Trs in DNA: RG 59, NL; printed in ASP description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832-61, 38 vols. description ends , Foreign Relations, 2:618-24).