Star.
London, England, 1819-01-28 00:00:00

DOCUMENTS TR ANSMITTED to CONGRESS.

TES SICIOTAIT Of Mgt Of TITS UNITED mans TO Tile DOWISTIR
ViLTOPOTENTUAT Of Mt MUD OTATTS TO STADI, AT KAMM
Deputment of State, Washington, Nov. se, ma.
"Stn--Your dispatches, to No. 92, inclusive, with
their enclosures, have been received at this Depart-
ment. Among these enclosures are the several notes
addressed to you by Mr. Pizarro, in relation to the
transactions during the campaign of General Jack.
son against the Seminole Indians and the banditti of
Negroes combined with them, and particularly to
his proceedings in Florida, without the boundaries of
the United States.
44 In the fourth and last of those Notes of Mr. Pi-
zarro he has given formal notice that the King, his
master, has issued orders for the suspension of the
negociation between the United States and Spain,
until satisfaction shall have been made by the Ame-
rican Government to him for these proceedings of
General Jackson, which he considers as acts of
equivocal hostility.against him, and as outrages upon
his honour and dignity ; the only acceptable atone-
anent for which is stated to consist in a disavowal of
the acts of the American General thus complained of,
the infliction upon him of a suitable punishment for
his supposed miscouduct, and the restitution of the
posts and territories taken by him from the Spanish
Authorities, with indemnity for all the propetty
taken, and all damages and injuries, public or pri-
vate, sustained in consequence of it.
44 Within a very few days after. this notification,,
Mr. Pizarro must have received, with Copies of the
Corfespondence between Mr. Onis and this Depart-
went, the determination which had been taken by
then President to restore the place of Pensacola, with
the fort of Barrancas, to any person properly autho-
rized on the part of Spain to receive them; and the
Fort of St. Mark's to any Spanish force adequate to
its protectiOn against the Indiens, by 'whom its forci-
ble occupationitad been threatened, for purposes of
hostility against the United States. The Officer com-
Mending at the post has been directed to consider
230 men as such adequate force; and in case of their
appearance, with proper authority, to deliver it up
to their Connuander accordingly.
44 From the last-mentioned Correspondence, the
Spanish Government must likewise have been satis-
fied that the occupation of these places in Spanish
Florida, by the Commander of the American forces,
was not by virtue of any order received by him from
this Government to that effect, nor with any view of
wresting the Province from the possession of Spain,
nor in any spirit of hostility to the Spanish Govern-
meet ; that it arcre from incidents which occurred in
the prosecution of the war against the Indians—from
the immineot danger in which the Fort of St. Mark's
yes, of being seized by the Indians themselves, and
fr,ms the manifestations of hostility to the United
States by the Commandant of St. Mark's and the
Governor of Pensacola, the proofs of which were
made known tie General Jackson, and impelled him,
from the necessities of seif-defence, 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 enelced copies of aneral Jackson's letters,
and the vouchers by which they are supported, the
evidence of the hostile spirit on the part of the Spa-
nish Commanders, bet for the terms in which Mre
Pizarro speaks of the exec.nt:on of two British sub-,
jects, taken, one at the Fort of St. Mark's, and. the
other at Sownny, and intimation that these transac-
tions may lead to a change in the,relations between
the two nations, which is do'tbtless intended to be tin-
derstool a, a menace of war.
e .It may be, therefore. proper ,to remind the Go-
verament of his ).%itholic Malec...), of the incidents in
v-hich teis tecemeo:e war orii,inated, as troll as of
the cireeenctances cenneet-ed with it, in the relations
between Spain. end her Ally, whom she supposes to
I:ave h,e i tejered by the proceedings of General
Jackson, te give to the Spanish Cabinet some
precise information of the nature of the business, pe-.
celiarly interesting to Spain, in which these subjects
of her Alik:, in whose favour she takes this interest,
were engaged, when their projects of every kind were
terminated, in consequence of their falling into the
hands of _General Jackson.
it. In the month of August, 1814, while a war exist-
ed between the United States and Great Britain, to
which Spain hal formerly declared herself neutral,
a British force, not in the fresh pursuit of a defeated
and flying enemy—not overstepping an imaginary
and equivocal boundary between their own eerntories
aid those belonging, in some sort, as much to their
enemy as to Spain, but approaching by sea, and by
a %woad and open invasion of the Spanish province,
at, a thousand miles, or an oceans distance from any
British territory, landed in Florida, took possession
of Pensacola and the Fort of Barrancas, and invited,
brgublic proclamation, all the runaway Negroes—
all the savage Indians—all the pirates, and all the
traitors to their country, whom they knew or ima-
gined to exist within reach of their summons, to join
&eh- standard, and wage an exterminating war
against the. portion of the United States immediately
bordering upon this neutral and thus violated terse=
tory of Spain. The land Commander of ,this British
forte was a certaineCelonel Nicholls, who, dtiven
from Pensacola by the approach. of General Jackson,
actealh left, to be blown up,' the Spanish Fort of
Ilareancas, when he found it could not afford him
protection, and, evacuating that part of the province,
landed at another,. established himself on the Appa-
Inchicola river,, and there erected a fort, from which
544 sally forth, with his motley tribe of black, white,
and red combatants, against the defenceless borders
of the United States in'that vicinity. A part of this
force consisted of ii corps of Colonial Marines, levied
in ow British Colonies, in which George Woodbine
was a Captain and Robert Chrystie Ambrister was,
a tietnetra.nt.
is As between the United State: and Great Britain,
we should he willing., to bury this transaction in the
same grave of oblivion with other transactions of
that war, had the hostilities of Colonel Nicholls ter-
minated with the war. But he did not consider the
peace which ensued between the United States and
Croat Britain, as having put an end either to his
military occupations or to his negooiations with the
Indians, against the United Soars: Several months
after the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, he 500.,'
mined his post and his party-coloured forces in silk
wry array, Dy the Ittb Alm}, of that Treasy

United States h. 4 stipulated to put an end, immedi-
ately after its ratification, to hostilities with all the
tribes or nations of Indians with whom they might
be at war as the time of the ratification, and to re-
store to them all the possessions which they had en-
joyed in the year 1811. This article had no applica-
tion to the Creek nation, with whom the United States
bad already made peace, by a treaty concluded on
the 9th day of August, 1814, more than four months
before the treaty of Ghent was signed. Yet, Colonel
Nicholls not only affected to consider it as applying
to the Seminoles of Florida, and the outlawed Red
Sticks, whom he had induced to join him there, but
actually persuaded them that they were entitled, by
virtue of the Treaty of Ghent, to all the lands which
had belonged to the Creek nation, within the United
States, in the year 1814, and that the Government of
Great Britain would support them in that pretension.
" He asserted also this doctrine in a correspon-
dence with Colonel Hawkins, then the Agent of the
United States with the Creeks, and gave him notice,
in their name, with a mockery of solemnity, that they
had concluded a treaty of alliance, offensive and de-
fensive, and a treaty of navigation and commerce
with Great Britain, of which more was to be beard
after it should be ratified in England. Col. Nicholls
then evacuated' his fort, which, in some of the in-
closed papers, is called the Fort at Prospect Bluff, but
which he had denominated the British Post on the
Appalachicola ; took with him the white portion of
his force, and embarked for England, with several 9f
the wretched savages whom he was thus deluding 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 Negto
department of his allies:
- "It afterwards was known by the name of Nego-
,Fort. Colonel Hawkins immediately communicated
-to this Government the correspondence between him
and Nicholls, here referred to, (copies of which. mar-
ked No. 1 to 5, are herewith inclosed} upon which
Mr. Munroe, then Secretary of State, addressed a
letter (copy marked 0) to Mr. Baker, the British
Charge d'Affaires, at Washington, complaining- of
Nicholls's conduct, andshewing that his pretence, that
the 9th =tide of the Treaty of Ghent could have any
application to his Indians, was utterly destitute of
'foundation. Copies of the same correspondence were
transmitted to the Minister of the United States then'
`in England, with instructions to remonstrate with the
British Government against these proceedings of
Nicholls, and to chew how incompatible' they were
with the peace which had been concluded between the
two nations. These remonstrances were accordingly
made, first in personal interview with Earl Bathurst
and Lord Castlereagh, and afterwards in written
notes, addressed successively to them (copies of
which, together with extracts from the dispatches of
the American Minister to the Secretary estate, re-
porting what passed, at these interviews. are inclosed).
Lord Bathurst, in the most unequivocal manner,
confirmed the facts, and disavowed the misconduct
of Nicholls ; declared his disapprobation of the pre-
tended treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive,
which he had made; assured the American Minister
that the British Government had refused to ratify
that treaty, and would send back the Indians whom
Nicholls had brought with him, with advice to make
their peace on such terms as they could obtain.—
Lord Castlereagh confirmed the assurance that the
treaty would not be ramified ; and if; at the same time
that these assurances were given, certain distinctions
isf public notoriety were shewn to the Prophet Hillis
Hatijo, and he was actually honoured with a com-
mission, as a British Officer, it is tp be presnmcd that
these favours were granted him as rewards of past
services, and no) as encouragement to expect any
support from Great Britain, in a continuance of sa-
s age hostilities against the United States, all inten-
don of giving any such support having been reprat-
cdly and earnestly disavowed.
" 'The t;egro fort, however, abandoned by Colonel
Nicholls, remained on the Spanish territory, occupied
by the banditti to whom he had left it, and held by
them as a post, from' whence to commit depreda-
tions, outrages, and murders, and as a receptacle
for fugitive slaves and malefactors, to the great an-
noyance both of the United States and Spanish Flo-
rida. In April, 1816, General Jackson wrote a let-
ter to the Governor of Pensacola, calling upon him
to put down this common nuisance to the peaceable
inhabitants of both countries. That letter, together
with the answer of the Governor of Pensacola, have
already been communicated to the Spanish- Minister
here, and by him, do,-.'Aless, to his Government,—
Copies of them are, nevertheless, now again enclosed;
particularly as the letter from the Governor explicitly
admits, that this fort, constructed by Nicholls, in
violation both of the territory and neutrality of Spain,
was still no less obnoxious to his Government than
to the United States ; but that he had neither sum-
cient force, nor an authority, without order from the
Governor-General of the Ravenna's, to destroy it.—
It was afterwards, on the 27th of July, 1816, den
stroyed by a cannon-shot, from a gun-vessel of the
United States, which, in its passage up the river, wale
fired upon from it. It was bloivn up, with an
lish flag still flying as its standard, and immediately
after the barbarous murder of a boat's stew belong-
ing to the navy of the United States, by the banditti
left in it by Nicholls.
‘. In the yew' 1817, Alexander Arbuthnot, of the
Island of New Providence, a British subject, first
appeared, as an Indian trader is Spanish Merida;
and as the successor of Colonel Nicholls, in the em-
ployment of instigating the Seminole and outlawed
Red Stick Indians to hostilities against the United
States, by reviving the pretence that they were en-
titled to all the lands which had been ceded to the
Creek Nation by the United States, in August, I°B3.
As a mere Indian trader, the intrusion of this man
into a Spanish Province was contrary 10 the policy
observed by all the European Powers in this hemis-
phere, and by none more rigorously than by Spain
of excluding all foreigners finsis intercourse with ill;
Indians within their territories. Ii mast be known
to the Spanish Government, whether Aphasiaice had
a Spanish licence for trading with the issillaas' in
Spanish Florida or not; but .thez also kitita„that
Spain was botind by treatriest: by fora*
hostilities on the part of t
Citizens of the United States, lied 4114 die
explain how, consistently with tkre
Spain could, contrary to an the
nary policy, grant such a noises OD, I alltrotainio
diary, whose Alnripai if avt 14 anti.

.r..

to have been to stinutlate thosehOstalties which'
pit
had ezpiesaly stipulated by forte to restrain.
In his infernal' instigations he was but too successful.
No iooner did he snake his appearance among the
Indians, accompanied by' the Prophet-Hillis Hadjo,
returned from his eapedition to England, thsm dr*
peaceful inhabitants on the borders of the United
States were visited with all the horrors of savage war
the robbery of their property, and the barbarous and
indiscriminate murder of woman, infancy, and age.
" After the repeated expcistulations, warnings, and
offers of peace, tbrough the summer and autumn of
1817, on the part of She United States, had been an-
swered only by renewed outrages, and after a de-
tachment of 40 men, under Lieutenant Scott, ac-
companied by seven women, had been way-laid and
murdered by the Indians, orders were given to Ge-
neral Jackson, and an adequate force was placed at
his disposal, to terminate the war. It was aster
tanned that the Spanish force in Florida was inade-
qnate for the protection even of-the Spanish territory
itself, against this mingled horde of lawless Indians
and Negroes ; and, although their devastations were
committed within the limits of the United States,
they immediately sought refuge within the Florida
line, and there only were to be overtaken. The ne-
tessity of crossing the line was oindisperimble ; for it
was from beyond the line that the Indians made their
murderous incursions within that of the United
States. It was there that they had their abode, and
the territory belonged in fact to them, although
within the bordeis of the Spanish jnrisdiction. There
it was that the American Commander n,et the prin-
cipal resistance from them ; there it was, that were
found the still bleeding scalps of our citizens, freshly
butchered by them ; there it was that he released die
only wornao who had been suffered to survive the
massacre of the party under Lieutenant Scott. But it
was not anticipated by this Government, that the
'Commanding. Officers of Spain; in Florida, whose
especial duty it was, in conformity to the solemn en-
gagements contracted by their natitn, to restrain by
force those Indians from hostilities against the United
States, would be found encouraging, aiding, and
abetting them, and furnishing them n :•th supplies for
carrying on such 'hostilities. The Officer in com-
mand immediately before General Jackson, was,
therefore, specially instructed to respect, as far as
possible, the Spaniih authority, wherever it was main-
tamed, and copies of these orders were also furnished
to General Jackson upon his taking the command.
In the course of his pursuit, as he approached St.
Mark's, he was informed, direct from the Governor
of Pensacola, that a party of the hostile Indians had
threatened to seize that fort, and that he apprehended
the Spanish Garrison there was not in strength suf6
cient to defend it against them. This information
was confirmed from other sources, and by the evi-
dence produced upon the trial of Ambrister, it proved
to have been exactly true. By all the laws of new.
'trality and of war, as well as of prudence and of hu-
manity, he was warranted iii anticipating Lis enemy,
by the amicable, and that being Tensed; 'ay the for-'
cible occupation of the fort. There will reed no
tationi from printed Treatises •on international law,
to prove the 'correctness of this principle. It is en-
graved in adamant on the common sense of man-
kind ; no writer upon the Laws of Nations ever pre-'
tended to contra( ict it; none of any reputation or
lauthority ever omitted to assert it.
" At Fort St. Mark's, Alex. Arbuthnot, the British
Indian trader from beyond the seas, the firebrand, by
!whose torch this Negro Indian war against our bor-
ders had been rekindled, was found an inmate of the
Commandant's family ; and it was also found, that
by the Commandant himself Councils of War had
been permitted to be held within it, by the savage
chiefs and warriors ; that the Spanish store-houses
had been appropriated to their use; that it was an
open market for cattle, known to have been robbed
by them from citizens of the United Stater, and
which had been contracted for and purchased by the
officers of the garrison; that information had• bees
afforded from this fart, by Arbuthnot, to the enemy,
.of the strength and movements of the American
army; that the date of the departure of express bad
beta noted by the Spanish Commissary, and ammu-
nitiea, munitions of war, and all necessary supplies,
furnished to the Indians. The conduct of the Go-
vernor of Pensacola was not less marked by a dis-
position of enmity to the United States, and by an
utter disregard to the obligations of the Treaty, by
which he was bound to restrain, by force, the Indians
from hostilities awainst them. When called upon to
vindicate the territorial tights and authority of Spain,
by the destruction of the Negro Fort, his predecessor
had declared it to be no less annoying and pernicious
to the Spanish subjects in Florida, than to the United
States, but had pleaded his inability to subdue it.
" He himself had expressed his apprehensions that
Fort St. Mark's would be forcibly taken by the sa-
vages, from its Spanish garrison; yet, at the same
time, he had refused the passage up the Escambia
river, unless upon the payment of excessive duties,
to provisions destined as supplies for the American
army, which, by the detention of them, was subjected
to the most distressing privations. He had permitted
free ingress and egress at Pensacola to the avowed
'savage enemies of the United States. Supplies of
ammunition, munitions of war, and provisions, had
been received by them from thence. They hadi been
sevvived and sheltered there from the pursuit of the,
American forces, and suffered again to sally thence,
to enter upon the American territory, and commit
Finallntryin.upytutin:, i4ttliilt)kethvrierneesarpntirp ro.stedoryanct hshpoionlaffinnGa eolencritomertncal:
nccakorminrcenitnogeritNnsah.
entry
mazintbreadingtheninim
in
case of
wihthisdnrannw.cfnrommpitheiancszten,
employ force to expel him.
It became, therefore, in the opinion of General
Jackson, indispensably necessary to .take from the
Gown:nor of ola the means of carrying his
dual into mention. Defore,the forces under his
command, , sev.ve enemias, of his country had
: but •he knew that the moment those
fortes show be disbanded, it sheltered by Spanish
feetresiess,* feweisbedvrithaenoutokions and
supplies
irhtimitiyaboalkaall gat if Wed and supported by
en=ment, as he had
be, they would
redepean alp lattaddrtioiLto dseir ordinary fe-
reetvismistsoisidit for theschistisement they
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,aftsadd again
the b rush with the
latib isto: orden,of

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