The National Register.
London, England, 1819-01-11 00:00:00

,7/7

No. 570.—V0L. XII.

roLiTicAL DisQuisrrioN.

MrASItS. Ar.!SUTIINoT AND ANipitisTEß.

THE proceedings of the North American Court
ll!srtial, which sat upon the trial of Messrs Arbuthnot
end Ambristcr, have arrived this week. The circum-
stances are fresh in the minds of our readers. The
charges—the evidence (if such it can te called)—the
defence of the prisoners—the sentence of the Court,
and the execution of our countrymen; one of whom was
hanged in pursuance of the sentence pronounced upon
him ; while the other was shot by the order of General
Jackson, and in open defiance of, avid contempt for,
the sentence of the Court which tried him ;—all these
are matters too striking and affecting to be soon iurgot.
It is of high importance to the honour of Great Britain,
and of the United States, as well as to the duration of
that friendship which happily subsists between them,
that the whole of this subject should be carefully re-
considered; and that the national judgment on both
shores of the Atlantic should be temperately formed
and gravely recorded. If an injury shall then appear
to have been sustained by England, in the persons of
any number of her unoffending subj.•cts, we doubt not
that ample and amicable redress will follow without
delay. Thus may no uneasy feeling, the certain source
of jealousy and distrust, be left to rankle iu the heart
of either country ; n* consciousness on one side of
having been affronted with impunity ; nor fear, on the
ether, of being visited by future retaliation.

The circumstances under which Messrs. A. Arbuth-
not and Robert C. Ambrister fell into the hands of
General Jackson, commanding the American army
against the Seminole Indians, are too well known to
require that they should be immediately recapitulated.
These gentlemen were resident among the Indians
who inhabited the wild country upon the ill defined
borders of Georgia and the Florida'. They were
taken by the Americans within a Spanish post. A
Court martial was assembled, by General Jackson's
orders, on the 26th of last April, 1818, lo try these
British subjecla for crimes against the United Stows,
of which Court martial General Gaines was President.
The charges against Mr. Arbuthnot were three in
number :

Ist. Exciting the Creek Indians to war against the United States.
be being a subject of Great Meths. with which the said States were
arpesee.

id. Acting as a spy, and aiding the enemy—suirelyini; them with
the meara of war.

31.. Exciting the Indians to municr W. !iambi, and E. Doyle,
sarjects of the Spanish Govcrinnrnt.

With respect to the last charge, however, the Court
having declared its want of Jurisdiction, we shall dis-
miss it from our notice. The evidence in support of
the first allegation, that Mr. Arbuthnot bad "excited
the halms to war" against the United States, consists,
for the most part, of his own letters to 'Governor Ca-
meron, of the Bahamas ; Mr. Bigot, our Ambassador
neWashington ; Colonel Nichol], a British officer ; to
his son ; and to certain of the American agents. The
object of these letters to the British Authortities
was invariably to claim assistance or protection, in
some shape or other, tier the Indian trines, against
what be always represented to Le the attacks, encroach-
ments and erucliies of the Americans. There are
distinct papers bearing the signature of divers Indian
Chiefs, addressed to functionaries, British and Spanis,,,
with a power of attorney delegating extensive trusts
to Mr. Arbuthnot, and which that gentle:m.6n appears
to have drawn up ; there is likewise brousht forward
sme oral testimony, all tending to prove, what it is
needless to deity, his active superintendence neer Indian
anirs, and his sr:unlearnt csertions for what he con-
eviTta to be the Lio:t important interest of that Napless
and persecutes, people. His supply of certain articles
of ammunitiou to the Italians cc ustablishud as an un-