The pilot and transcript. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1840-1841, 1840-06-25

| 18th May, 1918, in which he SAID: lien. jack
son is vested with full power to conduct the war
in the manner he may judge best;'' and that it is
different from Mr. Calhoun's letter to him, and
particularly the one in which Mr.. Calhoun said F:
esI have the honor to acknowledge the receipt
of yours of the Goth ultimo, and to acqaaint you
with the entire appreciation of the President, OF
all the measures you have adopted to terminate
the rupture with the Indians.p
That this letter of Gen. Jackson's to MIR. Cal
houn, may be understood, it may be proper to
say, that MIR. Calhoun was Secretary of War;
that Gen. jackson was appointed to take com
mand of the army destined to subdue the Semi
mole Indians; that he pursued them into Florida,
and took forcible possession of Pensicela and st.
Marks, then in the Spanish province of Florida,
a foreign power, with whom we were at peace;
that, upon communicating the capture of those
posts to the executive, cabinet council was
held, and that Of course in the deliberations of
the cabinet, the question Of, how far his instruc-
tions authorised the General to do this, was con
sidered; and that Mr.. Calhoun, in his reply to
Gen. jackson, admits that in that cabinet coun-
| Gil, he said that Gen. Jackson had transcribed
his ORDERS and suggested an inquiry into his con-
duct, not for the purpose of furnishing General
jackson, but that the motive which he had
acted, and the circumstances which constituted
his justification might be officially stated, and
the evidence embodied in such form as to justify
this government before the Spanish people and
other European powers; and that the suggestion
being overruled, and the cabinet having resolved
to surrender the ports, withdraw our troops, and
justify the conduct of the commanding General,
as necessary to punish the Indians, who had
sought refuge under the Spanish protection, MIR.
Calhoun, not only acquiesed in the decision of
the cabinet, but gave to it his most Jealous and
efficient support indicating the commanding
General, not upon the ground that he was au-
thorised BY HIS ORDERS, to do what he had done;
but that under the law of nations, he was justi-
fed by the fact that the Spanish authoritative
unable or unwilling to restrain or punish their
Indian allies, who, reesing with the blood of our
citizens had fled to the Spanish forts for protec
ton. And, therefore, MIR. Calhoun says, that
his letter of the 9th of February, upon which
Gen. jackson relies to show that Mr.. Calhoun
had given him authority to capture the Spanish
ports, had no reference whatever to the invasion
of Florida, and was nothing more than an
swer to Gen. Jackson's letter of Goth January,
written BEFORE he had left Nashville; and, so
far from authorizing the capture Of the Spanish
ports, related merely to the measures adopted by
Gen. jackson to bring his forces into the field,
where they were directed to rendezvous, the time
intended for marching, with other details of the
same kind, without the slightest indication of his
intention to act against the Spanish posts; that
the appreciation of the President of the measures
thus adopted could be intended to apply to their
occupation. Yet Gen. Jackson relys upon this
letter approving OF his arrangements to put his
army in motion, and relating merely to those ar
rangements, to prove that his orders authorized
him to invade and take possession of the Spanish
ports and what is no less extraordinary is, that
he also construes letter written to Governor
Bib, and never communicated to him, into an
authority to make war upon Florida. But what
is most extraordinary is, that Gen Jackson, in
reply to Mr.. Calhoun, under date of the 30th
May, 1880, should say:
SIT is due to myself, however, to state that the
knowledge of the executive documents and or
ders in my possession will show conclusively
that had authority for all / did, and that your
explanation of my powers has declared to
Gov. Bib shows your own understanding of
them. Your letter to me, of the 29th, handed to
me to-day, and now before me, is the first inti-
nation to me that you ever entertained any 9TH
er view of them. Your conduct, words, ac
tions and letters, I have ever thought, show
this"
With thiS c1arafioo thus made hv Cen
jackson, before him, the reader can scarce be-
lieve that so far from MIR. Calhoun's letter of
the 29th being the first intimation that Mr.. Cal
houn entertained different view of his ordor,
Gen. Jackson had carried on confidential cor
respondence with MIR. Monroe the SUBJECT
that Mr.. Monroe had notified him, as far back
as July 1918, that the Cabinet believed, that he
sshad transcribed the limits of his orders;" and
that Mr.. Monroe had requested him to open a
correspondence with Mr.. Calhoun upon the sub
ject, that the administration might be officially
put in possession of the facts and circumstances,
which, under the law of nations, authorised the
commanding General to take possession of the
neutral forts; and that Gen. Jackson himself had
not only written to Mr.. Monroe protesting
against this construction of his orders, but that
he had in his possession MIR. Monroe's confiden-
tial letter to MIR. Calhoun, requesting him to
correspond with Gen. Jackson upon the subject,
in which the fact is expressly stated, that Mr..
Calhoun placed different construction upon his
orders; which letter had been stolen from Mr.
Calhoun, and that Gen. Jackson, knowing it to
be stolen letter, had received it, and kept pos
session of it, without communicating it to Mr.
| Calhoun.
MIR. Calhoun, in his letter Of the oath of Feb
ruary, 81, says, that about the time that Mr.
Hamilton called upon him on his return from
Georgia, and Of the correspondence between hin
and Mr. Hamilton, in relation to the proposition
to arrest Gen. jackson, he heard that the stoleI
| Iottas .ua. flo r,nsscssinn of Cen .Iaclrsnn