The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-01-30 00:00:00

AMERICAN PAPERS.

OUR RP.I.ATIONS WITH SPAIN.
DOCUMENTS TRANSMITTED To CONCUSS.

The Secretary of State of the United States to the Minister
Plenipotentiary of the !Jailed States to Spain, at Mailoiol,
(No 7.) . •
Department of State, Waahington, Nov. 25, IRIS.
SlR—Your dispatches, to No. Ili ineltisivo, with their en•
closures, have been received at this Department. Amore
throw enclosures are the several notes addiessed to you lov
Mr. Pizarro, 111 War to the t clitoris daring the ea tri-
lling's of Getwral Jackson against tne Seminole halite,'
and the banditti of Negroes combined with thrin, Roof par-
ticularly its his proceedings iii Florida, without the Leonida-
s*. of the United States.
in the ram 111 and last of those notes of Mr Pizarro lie loos
given format notice that the King, his master. has issued ..i.-
den fur the suspension of the negociatiou between the United
States end Spain, until ratialsetiosi shall have been made by
the American Government to him fur titter proceedings of
General Jackson, which he cuilsoders as acts of unequivocal
hostility against him, and as outrages upon bus honour and
dignity ; the lolly arceptable atonement for which is stated
to consist in a disavowal of the acts of the America's Ge.
neral thus complained uf, the infliction upon him of a suit-
able punishment fur his supposed mircondnet, and the rerti.
I 'llion of the pusts and territories taken by him from the
Spanish Authorities, with indemnity fur all the property
taken. and all damages and injuries, public or private, sus-
tained in consequence of it.
Within a very few days after this notification, Mr Pizarro
moat have rtceivrol, with copies of the correspondence be-
tel-eta Mr. Dies and this Department, the determination
which had been taken by the President to restore the place
of Pensacola, with the fort of Barrancas, to any pen on pro-
perly antlourised on the part of Spain to receive them ; and
the Fort of St. Mark's to soy Swinish force adequate to its
protection against the Intbaus, by whom its forcible occupa-
tion hail been threatened, for purposes of hostility against
the United States. The Officer commanding at the post has
been directed oo colloid,' VA men as such adequate force;
and in case of their appearance, with proper authority, to
deliver it up to their Commander accordingly.
From the last-mentimied correspondence, the Spanish Go-
vernment must likewise have been satisfied that the uccupa-
tiou of these places in Spanish Florida, by the Cumnsandec
of the American forces, was not by virtue of any order re-
ceiveol by him from this Government to that effect, nor with
any view of wresting the province from the possessiou of
Spain, uor in any spirit of hostility to the Spanish Govern.
meat; that it arose from incidents which occurred in the
prosecution of the war against the Indians—from the itiewls
sent danger in which the Fort of St. Mark's was, of beteg
seized by the India's' themselves—and from the maisifesto.
lions of hostility to the United States by the Commandant elr
St. Mark's and the Govereur of Pensacola, Ike proofs of
which were made known to General Jackson, and impelled
him, from the necessities of seltdefenee, to the steps of
which the Spanish Government complains.
It might be sufficient to leave the vindication of these
measures upon those grounds, and to furnish, in the eat.
closed copies of General Jackson's fetters, and the vouchers
by which they are supported, the evidence of that hostile spi-
rit on the part of the Spanish Commanders, bat (sir the
terms in which Mr. Pizarro speaks of the executiou of two
British subjects, taken, one at the Fort of St Mark's, and the
other at Sitivany, and the intimation that these transactions
may lead to a change in the relations between the two na-
tions, which is dutibtlese intended to he understood as a me,'
Dace of war
It may he, therefore, proper to remind the Govortiment
of his Catholic Majesty of the incidents in which this Se-
minole war originated, as well as of the yisesmelanees con-
nected with it, iii the relations betwereftpain said her Ally,
whom she supposes to hove been injured by the proceedings
of Geiseral Jackson, and to give to the Spanish Cabinet
some precise imfortuatiolo of the nature of the business, pe-
t-OW.ly interesting to Spain, in which these subject's of her
Allies, in whose favour she rakes &hie interest, wereemgageel,
when their projects of every kind were terminated, in cuts-
sequence of their falling into the hands of Geueral Jackson.
In the month of Augnst, 1514, while a war existed be-
tween the United State, and Great Britain, to which Spain
bad formerly declared herself iieutral, a British force, nut in
the fresh pursuit of a defeated and dying evenly—nut over-
stepping an imaginary and equivocal boundary between their
own territories and those belonging, in some sort, as much
to their enemy as to Spain ; bin approaching by sea, fool lay
a broad and open invasion of the Spanish province, at a
thottisand miles, or an ocean's distance from stay British
territory, lauded in Florida, tuuk pOISC4.IOII of Pensacola
and the Fort of Barrancas, and invited, by public proclama-
tions, all the runaway Negroes—all the savage ludians--all
the pirates—and all the traitors to their country, whom they
knew or imagined to exist within reach of their summons, to
join their standard, and wage an exterminating war mg/I'lM
the portion of the United Stales immediately loorderstig upon
this neutral and thus violated territory of Spain. The laud
commander of this British force was a certain Colonel
Nicholls, who, driven from Pensacola by the approach of
General Jackson, actually left, to he blown up, the Spanish
fort of Barrancas, when lie found it could not afford him
protection, and, evacuating that part of the province, landed
at another, established himaell on the Appalachicula river,
and there erected a fort, Irmo which to sully furlh with loss
toothy tribe of black, white, autl red combat:moo, against the
defenceless (orders of the United States in that vicinity. A
part of this force coneisted of a corps of colonial marines,
levied in the British Colowire, in which George Woodbine
was a Captain, and Robert Chrystie 11-2] Ands • was a
Lieutenant.
LIX ] As between the United States and Great Britain,
we shook' I.X ] be willing to bury this transaction in the
same grave of ohlori 0000 with other traosactions of that war,
had the hostilities of Colonel Nicholls terminated with the
war. But he slid not consider the peace which ensued be-
tween the United Slates and Great %dein, as having put
an cud either to his military occupations or to his negocia-
lions with the Indian', against the Cooled States. Seteral
mouths after the ratification of the Treaty of Wiest, lie re-
tained his post and his party.roloured forces 111 militai y
array.
11-2.] By the 9th article of that Treaty, the !Joked States
had stipulated to put an end, immediately after its ratitica.
titan, to hostilities with all the tribes or nation: of Whine
with whom they might be at war at the time allot ratlike.
t tine, and to restore to them all the posseesions which they
had enjoyed iii the year 1811. This article load no smitten.
lion to the Creek nation, with whom the Untied Stairs had
already made peace, by a Treaty concluded on the 9th of An.
gust, 1814, more than four mouths before the Treaty of
Ghent was signed. Yet Col. Nicholls out only affected to
euesider it as opplying to 11w Seminoles of Fluoida, and the
outlawed Red Sticks, whom lie bad induced to jui•hins there,
but actually persuaded them that they were entitled, by vie.
time of the Treaty of Ghent, to all the lauds which bad be.
longed to the Creek nation, within the United Slates, in the
rar 1811, and that the Government of Great Britain would,
11. i. 111 ] support them its that pretension. He asserted also
this doctrine in & correspondence with Col. Hawkins, then the
Ageut of the United States with the Creeks, and gave hint
notice, in their name, with a mockery uf solemnity, that they
had concluded a Treaty of Alliance, offensive sod tidewater,
and is Treaty of Navigation and IX ] Commerce with Greet
Britain, of which more was to be heard after it should he
tatified in England. Colonel Nicholls then evacuated his
fort, which, in some of the enclosed pipers, is called the
Fort at Prospect Bluff, but which lie had denominated the
British post on the A ppalachicula ; took with him the white
portion of his force, slid embarked fur Eoglaaid, with se-
veral of the wretched savages whom he was thus delnoliug to
their fate; among whom was the Prophet Francis, or Hillis
Hadjo ; and left the Fort, amply supplied with military
stores and ammunition, to the Negro department of his
IY. Y.] sllies. It afterwards was known by the sane of Negro
Fort. Col. Hawkins immediately tommunieated to this Go-
vernment the correspondence between him and Nicholls, here
termed to (copies of whir+, marked No. 1 to 0, are herewith
enclosed) upon IX ] whirls Mr. Munroe, then Secretary of
Slate, addressed a letter (copy marked G.) to Mr. Baker, -
the British Charge d'Affaires at Wssltinetun, complaining of
Nirliulle• coudnet, and *hewing that his pretence, that the
south article of the Treaty of Ghent could have any eppli.