Star.
London, England, 1818-12-24 00:00:00

gal was.

ived by the British Govelnment in the
prompted it, and that a nigociation has
in London, embracing all these objects.
ideratidn of the great extent and marls
=er than twotrust, is
of our distinguishedaet proper
ctioticzeonaism• and,
dis
iiiiellquitee, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minis-
-111anip. mentiery of the United States at Paris has
bow associieed with our Envoy Extraordinary and
Moister Pknipotentiary at London ; to both of whom
eorresposiding instructions have been given ; and they
am saw engaged in the discharge of its duties. It is
to add, that, to prevent any inconvenience re-
sulting:from the delay incident to a negotiation on so
many important subjects, it was agreed, before en-
tering on it, that the existing Convention should be
continued for a term of not less than eight years.
4, Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the
state in which they were at the close of the last Ses-
The Convention of 1/302, providing for the
t of a certain portion of the claims of our
tens for injuries sustained by spoliation, and so
long suspended by the Spanish Government, has at
length been ratified by it ; but no arrangement has
yethmn made for the payment of another portion of
like claims, not less extensive or well founded, or for
other classes of claims, or for the settlement of boun-
daries. These subjects have again been brought un•
der consideration in both countries, but no agree-
ment has been entered into respecting them. In the
meantime, events have occurred which clearly prove
the ill effect of the policy which that Government
has so long pursued on the friendly relations of the
two countries, which, it is presumed, it is at least of
as much importance to Spain as to the United States
to maintain. A state of things has existed in the
Floridas, the tendency of whirls has been obvious to
all who have paid the slightest attention to the pro-
gress of affairs in that quarter. Throughout the
whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish title
extends, the Government of Spain has scarcely been
felt. Its authority has been confined, almost exclu-
sively, to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine,
within which only small garrisons have been main-
tained. Adventurers from every country, fugitives
from justice, and absconding slaves, have found an
asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in
the number of their warriors, remarkable for their
ferocity, and whose settlements extend to our limits,
inhabit those Provinces. These different hordes of
people, connected together, disregarding, on the one
side, the authority of Spain, and protected, on the
other, by an imaginary line which separates Florida
from the United States, have violated our laws pro-
hibiting the introduction of slaves, have practised va-
rious frauds on our revenue, and committed every
kind of outrage on our peaceable citizens which their
proximity to us enabled them to perpetrate. The in-
vasion of Amelia Island last
.year, by a small band
of adventurers, not exceeding 150 in number, who
wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish force sta-
tioned there, and held it several months, during
which a single feeble effort only wac made to recover
it, which failed, clearly Troves how completely ex-
tinct the Spanish authority had become : as the con-
duct of those adventurers, while in possession of the
Island, as distinctly spews the pernicious purposes for
which their combination bad been formed.
" This country had, in fact, become the theatre of
every species of lawless adventure. With little po-
pulation of its own, the Spanish authority, almost ex-
tinct, and the Colonial Government in a state of
revolution, having no pretension to it, and sufficiently
employed in their own concerns, it was in a great
measure derelict, and the object of cupidity to every
adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly
organizing over it, which menaced, in its conse-
quences, the lawful commerce of every nation, and
particularly of the United States ; while it presented
a temptation to every people, on whose seduction its
success principally depended. In regard to the
United States, the pernicious effects of this unlawful
Combination was not confined to the ocean : the In-
dian tribes have constituted the effective force in
klorivia. With these tribes these adventurers had
formed, at an early period, a connexion, with a view
to avail themselves of that force to promote their
own pre?nts of accumulation and aggrandisement.
It is to the interference of some of those adventurers,
in mist epreseuting the claims and titles of the Indians
to land, and in practising on their savage propensi-
ties, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced.
Men who thus connect themselves with savage com-
munities, and stimulate them to war, which is always
attended on their part with acts of barbarity the
most shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light
than the savages. They would certainly have no
claim to an immunity from the punishment which,
according to the rules of warfare practised by the
savages, might justly be inflicted en the savages them-
selves. If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her
from making an indemnity to our citizens, for so
long a time, from her treasury, for their losses by
spoliation, and otherwise, it was always in her power
to have provided it, by the cession of this territory.
Of this, her Government had been repeatedly ap-
prised ; and the cession was the more to be antici-
pated, as Spain must have known that, in ceding it,
she would in effect cede what had become of little
value to her, and would otherwise relieve herself
from the important obligation secured by the treaty
of 1795, and all other cornpromitments respecting
it. If the United States, from consideration of these
embarrassments, declined pressing their claims in a
spirit of hostility, the motive ought at least to have
been duly appreciated by the Government of Spain.
It is well known to her Government that other
Powers have made to the United States an indem-
nity for like losses, sustained by their citizens at the
same epoch. There is, nevertheless, a limit beyond
which this spirit of amity and forbearance can in no
instance be justified. If it was proper to rely on
amicable negotiation for an indemnity for losses, it
would not have been so, to have permitted the ina-
bility of Spain to fulfil her engagements, and to
sustain her authority in the Floridas, to be perverted
by foreign adventurers and savages, to purposes so
destructive to the Neese our fellow-citizens, and the
highest interests of the United States. The right of
self-defence never ceases. k is among the most
sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to indivi-
duals. And, whether the attack be made by Spain
herself, or by those who abuse her Power, it; obli-
gation is not the less strong. The Invaders of Ame-
lia Island had assumed a popular and respected title,
under which they might approach and wound us.—