Browsing: Papers of John Adams, Volume 9

3. 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).