He was confirmed in his belief by the
undoubted corruption and disloyalty to their country, shown by a few of
the men he met, the most important of those who were in his pay being an
alleged Catholic, James White, once a North Carolina delegate and
afterwards Indian agent. Moreover others who never indulged in overt
disloyalty to the Union undoubtedly consulted and questioned Gardoqui
about his proposals, while reserving their own decision; being men who
let their loyalty be determined by events. Finally some men of entire
purity committed grave indiscretions in dealing with him. Henry Lee, for
instance, was so foolish as to borrow five thousand dollars from this
representative of a foreign and unfriendly power; Gardoqui, of course,
lending the money under the impression that its receipt would bind Lee
to the Spanish interest. [Footnote: Gardoqui MSS., Gardoqui to
Floridablanca, December 5, 1787; August 27, 1786; October 25, 1786;
October 2, 1789, etc. In these letters White is frequently alluded to as
"Don Jaime."]
Madison, Knox, Clinton, and other men of position under the Continental
Congress, including Brown, the delegate from Kentucky, were among those
who conferred freely with Gardoqui.
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