Star.
London, England, 1818-10-15 00:00:00

SPA* ALLVD, TOII4I4(TED STATES.

- iss PHILADELPHIA AUROItA.
(Concluded from our WO
. The expedition to Pensacola, which was intended
to reduce Spain to the necessity of an immediate
surrender of Florida, has failed ; and it was not until
there was no land to sell, it was discovered that the
expedition was too late—and that the capitulation of,
Barancas, by irrevocably sealing the titles of those
who had obtaitied•tlle last transfers of the soil, had
actually overturned the whole schemes of three mys-
rival years t f diplomacy, not only ludicrous, bit scan-
dalous and disreputable to the understanding of the
nation.
In this course of events is to be found the resolu-
tion' of those extraordinary tricks and impositions
Whiph have been played off to transfer to General
Jackson, the odium of the measures which were ren-
dered inevitable by the very nature of his orders, and
the object which he was sent to accomplish. The ca-
pitulation of the 28th of May, in its terms and cha-
racter, is like the man who made it frank, direct, and
liberal; too upright to be made acquainted with the
dupliCate policy of the administration—and disdain-
ing it as unsuitable to the character of a soldier, he
performed his duty like a General, a Gentliman, and

,

a patriot.
But the answer to the third and eleventh Articles
of the capitulation, plainly explodes the mystical po-
licy of the administratibn in the broad glare of day.
It proves that the Executive could entrust General
Jackson to execute a military. enterprize, but that it
would not venture to trust him with the sc,:i et plan
concerning the lands, which was the true object of in.
&Trinity to our citizens; which was a fair, reason-
able, and just object : General Jackson acting like a
mar. of plain and Unsophisticated mind declares.
ArlfVer to Article 3.—A1l titles of property legally'
derivedfi o:n the Crown of Spain will be respected.
Answer to Article 1 titles legally de- I
rived from the Crown of Spain, prior to this date,
shall be...guaranteed and respected.
Take these solemn clauses, which arc irrevocably
binding on the United States, in connection with Don
o:tis's reply to the Secretary of State, and their force
is immediately perceived, and the utter discomfiture
of our Statesmen, is manifest..
Mr. Secretary Adams, in his letter of the 16th of
January, 'lBlB, says—" No grants of land subse-
quent to the 11th August, 1802, to be valid."
Don Onis replies to this proposition on the 21th ofl
the same month, in these words—" Nor can I omit
to declare to you, that the pretension of annulling
the grants of inland in Flornla since August, 1802,
would be in opposition to all the principles of jus-
tize.—These grants were made in a lawful manner,
and by a lawful authority. Spain was the owner
and possessor of those lands. She had then an indis-
•putable right to make the grants you allude to, as
she now has to the property of the territory after-
wards forcibly taken possession of by the United
States, ober a violent disnossession never deprives an
it.diridstal or a nation ofiheir lawful rights.
If the Reader will again look at General Jackson's
simmers, be will find in them the complete and ho-
nest recognition of those principles. But what must
any rational mild think of a Statesman who should
propose to even Ferdinand the adorable, to invalidate
the acts of Spain for sisteen years—to nullify its own
filth—to unhinge property—and violate the obliga-
tions and the foundations of estate. Had such a pro.
position been made by Spain—the clamors of re-
proach, and the execration of the infamy would have
rung from Maine to Orleans.
Florida nevertheless, according to the engagement,•
must and will come under the authority of the United
States, and the parade made, of withdrawing the
troops from Florida, is only another example of mys-
Illcation, forming part of a disgraceful course of lit-
tleness and duplicity, which if it were to fall upon the
authors alone, rniizlit be considered as ar. act of re-
tributive justice ; bat as it is, affecting the interests
of the plundered merchants, and requiring of the
people a heavy subduction from the ordinary reve-
nue ; or perhaps saddling the country with a new tax
or a new bank loan, it will even thus open another
field to plunder the country by shameless specula-
tions on the public fn: tunes.
Or perhaps the consistent policy of all weak minds
and wicked politicians, will be resorted to. The mer-
chants will be placed in the hands of convenient and
accomn:odating Commissioners ; and those who arc
/dn.:lv-it,: at Court, as in the case of the Louisiana
purchase, and the army contingencies, will be fa-
. roared ; and the man who cannot intrigue, will find
kis hopes blared, his claims screwed down after
years of unavailing supplication for his property, and
ti at property bartered away without remedy—under
the flaming motto of principle non hontines. •
Such is the actual state of the existing relations
with Spain and our title to the Floridas. Meanwhile
the commies formed to manage Me affair of the
lands with the Duke of Alarm and Co.'s agents ; will
probably enter into some compromise ; they have dif-
fered on the sums of 10, 14, and 20 cents an acre ;
and if they -hold out, as they propose doing, the"
highest sum will be given. But the Government will
have no visible concern nor share in those lands ;
they will 'require no land offices: and they will yield
ro revenue to the Treasury.
And upon the returruof Don Sarmiento, we shall
see another Eeid opened for similar transactioos in
Texas. _ _

Hare then we see a true picture of the transactions
of Florida. Whether Congress will enquire further
into those affairs is not now to be ascertained ; the
probability is, that the system which has prevailed
since the administration of Mr. Madison, of tamper—
ing privately w.th the Members, and governing that
body by means of Members devoted to the Cabinet,
who have converted the business of bear-leading into
a system ; that the whole affair will be quashed, or
some accommodating Committee will be raised, like
that on the plunder in the post-office, and the affair
will end with a tohße wasliiog 01 2 compromise; for
territory elsewhere, as in the memorable infamy of
the Yazoo, under the auspices of Mr, Madison.
But it is in vain to attempt concealing the truth—
the tloodrof calumny which the agents and hirelings
of the Administration pour out through their prosti-
tuted presses, against any one who dares to examine
their wretched measures, cannot alter the facts. The
transactions are too plain to* mistakfm. Tbe growth

of corruption, and the enslavement of the press, an
the hire of the most abandoned miscreants as vindi-
cators and hsivocates, cannot long succeed in divert-
ingsublic justice from its course, nor in blinding the.
people to the odious train of measures by which the
Constitution is set aside, laws procured'by stratagem,
and the character of the Government degraded in
the eyes of the whole world.