it

is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people. The faithful fulfilment of it is among the highest proofs of their virtue and capacity for self-government. To dispense with taxes, when may be done with perfect safety, is equally the duty of their representatives. In this instance, we have the satisfaction to know that they were imposed when the demand was imperious, and have been sustained with exemplary fidelity. I have to add, that however gratifying it may be to me, regarding the prosperous and happy condition of our country, to recommend the repeal of these taxes at this time, I shall, nevertheless, be attentive to events, and, should any future emergency occur, be not less prompt to suggest such measures and burdens as may then be requisite and proper.

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

NOVEMBER 17, 1818.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

THE auspicious circumstances under which you will commence the duties of the present session will lighten the burden inseparable from the high trusts committed to you. The fruits of the earth have been unu sually abundant, commerce has flourished, the revenue has exceeded the most favorable anticipation, and peace and amity are preserved with foreign nations on conditions just and honorable to our country. For these inestimable blessings we can not but be grateful to that Providence which watches over the destinies of nations.

As the term limited for the operation of the commercial convention with Great Britain will expire early in the month of July next, and it was deemed important that there should be no interval during which that portion of our commerce which was provided for by that convention should not be regulated, either by arrangement between the two governments or by the authority of Congress, the minister of the United States at London was instructed, early in the last summer, to invite the attention of the British government to the subject, with a view to that object. He was instructed to propose, also, that the negotiation which it was wished to open might extend to the general commerce of the two countries, and to every other interest and unsettled difference between them; particularly to those relating to impressment, the fisheries, and boundaries, in the hope that an arrangement might be made on principles of reciprocal advantage, which might comprehend and provide in a satisfactory manner for all these high concerns. I have the satisfaction to state that the proposal was received by the British government in the spirit which prompted it, and that a negotiation has been opened at London, embracing all these objects. On full consideration of the great extent and magnitude of the trust, it was thought proper to commit it to not less than two of our distinguished citizens, and in consequence, the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris has been associated with our envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at London, to both of whom corresponding instructions have been given, and they are now engaged in the discharge of its duties. It is proper to add,

hat to prevent any inconvenience resulting from the delay to a negotiation. on so many important subjects, it was agreed before entering on it that the existing convention should be continued for a term not less than eight years. Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they were at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, providing for :he adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens for injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish government, has at length been ratified by it; but no arrangement has yet been 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 boundaries. These subjects have again been brought under consideration in both countries, but no agreement 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 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 which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest attention to the progress 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 exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine, within which only small garrisons have been maintained. 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 prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practised various frauds on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage on our peaceable citizens which their proximity to us enabled them to perpetrate. The invasion of Amelia island last year by a small band of adventurers, not exceeding one hundred and fifty in number, who wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish force stationed there, and held it several months, during which a single effort only was made to recover it, which failed, clearly proves how completely extinct the Spanish authority had become, as the conduct of those adventurers while in possession of the island, as distinctly shows the pernicious purposes for which their combination had been formed.

This country had in fact become the theatre of every species of lawless adventure. With little population of its own, the Spanish authority almost extinct, and the colonial governments in a state of revolution, having no pretensions 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 bucaniering was rapidly organizing over it, which menaced, in its consequences, 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 effect of this unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean; the Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in Florida. 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 projects of accumulation and aggrandizement. It is to the interference of some of these adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims and titles of the Indians to land, and in practising on their savage propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced. Men who thus connect themselves with savage communities, 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 sav ages, might justly be inflicted on the savages themselves.

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 has been repeatedly apprized, and the cession was the more to have been anticipated, as Spain must have known that in ceding it she would in effect cede what had become of little value to her, and would likewise relieve herself from the important obligation secured by the treaty of 1795, and all other compromitments 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 gov ernment of Spain. It is well known to her government that other powers have made to the United States an indemnity 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 negotiations for an indemnity for losses, it would not have been so to have permitted the inability 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 lives of our fellowcitizens, and the highest interests of the United States. The right of self-defence never ceases. It is among the most sacred and alike necessary to nations and individuals; and whether the attack be made by Spain. herself, or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is not the less strong. The invaders of Amelia island had assumed a popular and respected title, under which they might approach and wound us. As their object was distinctly seen, and the duty imposed on the executive by an existing law was profoundly felt, that mask was not permitted to protect them. It was thought incumbent on the United States to suppress the establishment, and it was accordingly done. The combination in Florida for the unlawful purposes stated, the acts perpetrated by that combination, and, above all, the incitement of the Indians to massacre our fellow-citizens of every age and of both sexes, merited a like treatment and received it. In pursuing these savages to an imaginary line in the woods, it would have been the height of folly to have suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done, the war would never cease. Even if the territory had been exclusively that of Spain, and her power complete over it, we had a right, by the law of nations, to follow the enemy on it, and to subdue him there. But the territory belonged, in a certain sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited it; the power of Spain had ceased to exist over it, and protection was sought under her title by those who had committed on our citizens hostilities which she was bound by treaty to have prevented, but had not the power to prevent. To have stopped at

that line would have given new encouragement to these savages, and new vigor to the whole combination existing there in the prosecution of all its pernicious purposes.

In suppressing the establishment at Amelia island, no unfriendliness was manifested toward Spain, because the post was taken from a force which had wrested it from her. The measure, it is true, was not adopted in concert with the Spanish government, or those in authority under it, because, in transactions connected with the war in which Spain and her colonies are engaged, it was thought proper, in doing justice to the United States, to maintain a strict impartiality toward both of the belligerent parties without consulting or acting in concert with either. It gives me pleasure to state that the government of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, whose names were assumed, have explicitly disclaimed all participation in those measures, and even the knowledge of them until communicated by this government, and have also expressed their satisfaction that a course of proceeding had been suppressed which, if justly imputable to them, would dishonor their cause.

In authorizing Major-General Jackson to enter Florida in pursuit of the Seminoles, care was taken not to encroach on the rights of Spain. I regret to have to add, that in executing this order facts were disclosed respecting the conduct of the officers of Spain in authority there, in encouraging the war, furnishing munitions of war and other supplies to carry it on, and in other acts not less marked, which evinced their participation in the hostile purposes of that combination, and justified the confidence with which it inspired the savages that by those officers they would be protected. A conduct so incompatible with the friendly relations existing between the two countries, particularly with the positive obligation of the fifth article of the treaty of 1795, by which Spain was bound to restrain, even by force, those savages from acts of hostility against the United States, could not fail to excite surprise. The commanding general was convinced that he should fail in his object, that he should in effect accomplish nothing, if he did not deprive those savages of the resource on which they had calculated, and of the protection on which they had relied, in making the war. As all the documents relating to this occurrence will be laid before Congress, it is not necessary to enter into further detail respecting it.

Although the reasons which induced Major-General Jackson to take these posts were duly appreciated, there was nevertheless no hesitation in deciding on the course which it became the government to pursue. As there was reason to believe that the commanders of these posts had violated their instructions, there was no disposition to impute to their government a conduct so unprovoked and hostile. An order was in consequence issued to the general in command there, to deliver the posts; Pensacola unconditionally, to any person duly authorized to receive it, and St. Marks, which is in the heart of the Indian country, on the arrival of a competent force to defend it against those savages and their associates.

In entering Florida to suppress this combination, no idea was entertained of hostility to Spain, and however justifiable the commanding general was, in consequence of the misconduct of the Spanish officers, in entering St. Marks and Pensacola, to determine it by proving to the savages and heir associates that they could not be protected even there, yet the ami cable relations existing between the United States and Spain could not be altered by that act alone. By ordering the restitution of the posts those

relations were preserved. To a change of them the power of the executive is deemed incompetent; it is vested in Congress only.

By this measure, so promptly taken, due respect was shown to the government of Spain. The misconduct of her officers has not been imputed to her. She was enabled to review with candor her relations with the United States and her own situation, particularly in respect to the territory in question, with the dangers inseparable from it; and regarding the losses we have sustained for which indemnity has been so long withheld, and the injuries we have suffered through that territory, and her means of redress, she was likewise enabled to take with honor the course best calculated to do justice to the United States and to promote her own welfare.

Copies of the instructions to the commanding general; of his correspondence with the secretary of war, explaining his motives and justifying his conduct, with a copy of the proceedings of the courts-martial in the trial of Arbuthnot and Ambristie; and of the correspondence between the secretary of state and the minister plenipotentiary of Spain near this government; and of the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at Madrid, with the government of Spain, will be laid before Congress.

The civil war which has so long prevailed between Spain and the provinces in South America still continues without any prospect of its speedy termination. The information respecting the condition of those countries, which has been collected by the commissioners recently returned from thence, will be laid before Congress in copies of their reports, with such other information as has been received from other agents of the United States. It appears, from these communications, that the government of Buenos Ayres declared itself independent in July, 1816, having previously exercised the power of an independent government, though in the name of the king of Spain, from the year 1810; that the Banda Oriental, Entre Reos, and Paraguay, with the city of Santa Fe, all of which are also independent, are unconnected with the present government of Buenos Ayres; that Chili has declared itself independent and is closely connected with Buenos Ayres; that Venezuela has also declared itself independent, and now maintains the conflict with various success; and that the remaining parts of South America, except Montevideo, and such other portions of the eastern bank of the La Plata as are held by Portugal, are still in possession of Spain or in a certain degree under her influence.

By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the allied powers, with whom they are accredited, it appears that the allies have undertaken to mediate between Spain and the South American provinces, and that the manner and extent of their interposition would be settled by a congress which was to have met at Aix-la-Chapelle in September last. From the general policy and course of proceedings observed by the allied powers, in regard to this contest, it is inferred that they will confine their interposition to the expression of their sentiments, abstaining from the application of force. I state this impression that force will not be applied, with the greatest satisfaction, because it is a course more consistent with justice, and likewise authorizes a hope that the calamities of the war will be confined to the parties only, and will be of shorter duration.

From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information that we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied with the course heretofore pursued by the United States with regard to this contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially in the present state of affairs.