pondence, without acknowledging the pleasure we feel at the facilities which you have offered to all Claimants of Slaves to obtain their voluntary return, facilities which, we are sensible, would have been productive of more effect had more time been allowed to operate.

Rear-Admiral Cockburn.

SIR,

(Enclosure 6.)--Thomas Spalding, Esq. to Admiral Cockburn. Cumberland Island, 13th March, 1815. It is with much regret I have to state, that of the Slaves which you have ordered to be restored, as having joined the British Forces under your command, after the Ratification of the Treaty of Peace by the President of The United States, several of them, now on board the Regulus, Captain Ramsay, have not been delivered. These Slaves are 2 of Mr. Armstrong's, January and Mary Stubs, 1 of the Slaves of Mr. Miller, and the 4 of Mr. Copp, which were yesterday directed to be given up. I have to add, that 2 of the 3 Slaves delivered up to Mr. Armstrong, the very night they returned home, made their escape, and will, unquestionably, attempt to reach your Ships. I must, therefore, request that any of the above Persons that can be found, or any other Slaves that may join your Fleet, from The United States, before they quit this Station, may be delivered over to Captain Messias, at Point Petre, or to his Officer at Dungeness.

Rear-Admiral Cockburn.

I am, &c.

T. SPALDING.

(D).—COMMUNICATIONS from the American Agents at

Bermuda.-1815.

Thomas Spalding, Esq. to the Secretary of State.

(Extract) St. George's (Bermuda,) May, 1815. WE sailed from Savannah on the 10th of May, and arrived on the 19th at Bermuda. While I was yet doubtful whether to apply to Governor Cockburn of the Bermudas, as I soon understood there were but few American Slaves remaining in his Government, except what were in the Naval Arsenal at Ireland, and under the control of the Naval Commander, I received from Admiral Griffith, through a Lieutenant of the British Navy, an intimation that he was desirous of seeing the Agent, who was understood to have arrived from The United States, to make some demand of Slaves and property. I waited, therefore, upon the Admiral on the 20th instant, and found him very sick. I presented to him General Pinkney's authority, purporting to be derived from the President of The United States. received me politely, and appeared to me to be a mild and gentlemanly man; he expressed much regret at the circumstance that led to the

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necessity of making this demand, but declared his inability to afford any relief; which confirmed to me what I had before learned, of most of the Slaves having been sent to Halifax. He desired me to-morrow to address him in writing; and said that he would transmit my Communication to his Government, which was all that was in his power. He spoke something of giving me facilities on board of his Ships, to see and obtain the voluntary return of Slaves. Finding that he was ill, and much exhausted, I took my leave, and promised to address him a Letter as soon as I could prepare one.

Governor Sir James Cockburn arrived at St. George's on Saturday evening; and on Monday the 22nd, at an early hour, I called upon him, still undetermined in my own mind whether to make my application to him on the subject of my Mission or not, until I knew, at least, that there was something in his power to grant worth asking for. I, however, as I believed it to be my duty, in the event of having something to request, presented to him General Pinkney's Letter of authority. He instantly lost his temper,-denied my authority contained in that Letter,-declared he would receive nothing from any one but the Secretary of State. After giving such explanations as I believed to comport with my duty, I found his irritations increased rather than diminished. He would not permit me to proceed to detail any of the reasons for my Mission, though very ready, as he said he was bound in candour to do, to declare against the American interpretation of the Ist Article of the Treaty; and vehemently added, that he would rather Bermuda, and every man, woman, and child in it, were sunk under the sea, than surrender one Slave that had sought protection under the Flag of England. could add more in this spirit; but more is not necessary. I withdrew from the Governor, and transmitted my Letter, which was then ready, to the Admiral, and which is enclosed.

I noticed the Governor came down to the wharf within a few moments after my leaving him, and embarked in a boat. I was then apprehensive the Admiral's Communications would change their complexion; and this I found to be too true, as the enclosed Letter, which I received late on Tuesday, the 23rd, will show. The Hon. James Monroe.

THOMAS SPALDING.

SIR,

(Enclosure 1.)-Thomas Spalding, Esq. to Admiral Griffith. St. George's, (Bermuda,) 22nd May, 1815. I AM appointed by the President of The United States, the Agent, and instructed by him to proceed in the first place to Bermuda, and from thence to any other of the Colonies of His Britannic Majesty, for the purpose of demanding the restoration of all public or private property, and particularly of all Slaves, which have been taken from

The United States after the Ratification of the Treaty, in contravention, (as my Government conceives,) of the Ist Article.

It is not my desire, nor is it the desire of my Government, to enter into any discussion on the justice or policy of taking private property, or of receiving Slaves, during the continuation of the War: but that War having terminated, happily for both Nations, in Peace,-the object of that Peace unquestionably is, to heal the wounds that the hand of War has inflicted. To do this effectually, there must certainly be on both sides a liberal and enlightened construction of every Article of the Treaty; but above all, of that Article, in which Individual as well as National right is concerned. I will now beg leave to invite your attention to the words of the Ist Article of the Treaty; which are

"That all Territory, Places, and Possessions whatsoever, taken from either Party during the War, or which may be taken after the signing of the Treaty, excepting only the Islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any of the Artillery, or other public property, originally captured in the said Forts or Places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the Ratifications of this Treaty; or any Slaves or other private property."

After a careful perusal of this Article, it very naturally and forcibly occurs to the mind, that this Article contains 2 separate and distinct principles: a restitution of public Property, and a restitution of private Property that there is a manner of restitution liberal and enlightened; and that there is a manner of restitution illiberal and unfriendly, which the British Commissioners, in the spirit of amity which dictated this Article, were determined to guard against, by saying" that all Territory, Places, and Possessions taken during the War should be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any Artillery or other public Property, and which shall remain therein after the exchange of the Ratifications of this Treaty." These conditions can, from their nature, have no relation to private property; they cannot be applied to it but by a strange perversion of language, and by being so applied, the whole quality of the Article becomes changed,-aud instead of being liberal and friendly, becomes limited, illiberal and unfriendly.

The Government of The United States were, therefore, greatly surprised to find that, on a demand at the Chesapeake, at Cumberland Island, and in Louisiana, of public and private property, or Slaves that were remaining within the limits of The United States, at the Ratification of the Treaty of Peace, the Commanding Officers every where adopted the extraordinary principle, that if either public or private property, or Slaves, were removed a single mile from the Place of capture, they were not restorable, though still within the limits of The United States: though even under the eye of the Commissioners

who were instructed at the several points to demand the restoration; and, in many instances, in the presence of the original Proprietors, many days after the Ratification of the Treaty had been notified to the Officers commanding,-public and private property and Slaves were shipped, in a period of restored Peace, in many instances to the ruin of the beholders, from the limits of The United States; because, as the Commanding Officers said, "the property, or Slaves, were not taken at the particular point which the British Forces occupied at the moment of the Ratification of the Treaty ;" so that all that was necessary to make the 1st Article of the Treaty, as far as regarded private property or Slaves, a complete nullity, as the British Commanders were morally certain of receiving the earliest intimation of the contents of the Treaty, was only to draw in their Out-posts, and to contract their limits to points where no property and few Slaves had been taken. This was conspicuously the case in Georgia. Much property was taken at St Mary's, and some Negroes; at St. Simon's some cotton and other property, and many hundred Slaves: from St. Simon's the British Forces, were withdrawn but 4 days before the Ratification of the Treaty, and 200 British Troops occupied St. Mary's for a day and a night even after the Ratification of the Treaty. Yet, Sir, because these 2 Places had not remained in the uniform possession of the British Forces, to the very moment of the Ratification, all the property and all the Slaves taken at either, and placed in deposite at Cumberland, were considered without the pale of its operation. Here, I flatter myself, I might rest, with assurance of your according in the justice of the construction which the Government of The United States has given to the Ist Article of the Treaty, in expecting that all public or private property, or Slaves, which had been taken or received by the British Forces during the War, and which remained within the limits of The United States at the Ratification of the Treaty of Peace, whether on the Land or within the acknowledged Waters, would be restored.

But, not to be wanting to myself, and not to be wanting to my Government, I must reluctantly trespass upon your time, while I enforce the distinction I drew in the first part of my Letter between public property, to which the limitation in the Ist Article of the Treaty relates, and which enlarges and liberalizes its operation, and its application to Slaves and private property, which would limit and make null its operations.

There may be, and often is, a strong motive for destroying public, when there can be none for destroying private property. It frequently happens, in surrendering Territory by a Treaty of Peace, that the Party withdrawing, stipulates a right to destroy the Fortifications in its possession, and to carry away or destroy the Artillery and munitions. of war in them; but it is believed that no example can be found of a Stipulation to authorize the destruction of private property of any kind,

especially Slaves. Equally strange would a Stipulation be not to destroy them.

The terms of the Article preserve this distinction between public and private property, and between Artillery and Slaves, in a guarded manner. All Territory, Places, and Possessions, with a particular exception, shall be restored, without destroying or carrying away any of the Artillery or other public property, originally captured in the said Forts or Places, and which remain there upon the exchange of Ratifications. So far the Stipulation acts upon proper subjects and conforms to usage. Extend it to Slaves and other private property, and how inconsistent and unnatural the application! Had it been intended to put Slaves and other private property on the same ground with Artillery and other public property, the terms "originally captured in the said Forts or Places, and which shall remain therein on the exchange of the Ratifications of this Treaty," would have followed at the end of the sentence, after "Slaves and other private property:" in that case both interests, the public and the private, would have been subject to the same restraint; but by separating them from each other, and putting the restrictive words immediately after " Artillery and other public property," it shows that it was intended to confine their operation to those objects only, excluding from it "Slaves and other private property."

I will now close my Letter to you by stating, that, at the Ratification of the Treaty of Peace, on the 17th of February, 40,000 dollars' worth of cotton, tobacco, rice, other produce, and other goods, were on Cumberland Island, or in the Ships, Countess Harcourt and others, taken at St. Mary's and in its vicinity, and that those Ships lay at that time in Cumberland River, within a short distance of the shore that the Countess Harcourt, and the Ship Maria Teresa, had taken refuge in His Catholic Majesty's Province of East Florida; they depended upon the neutrality of their situation for protection, and made no resistance; that about 700 out of 730 Negroes that joined the British Forces from Georgia, were on Cumberland Island, or in the Ships so taken, and then lying in Cumberland River. The first of these Negroes, excepting a few that had departed in Ships of War, left The United States in the Countess Harcourt on the 19th of February; that many hundreds of them left Cumberland Island on the night of the 6th of March, and after I had had myself the honor of demanding them, on the part of The United States, from Admiral Cockburn. I have not yet been furnished by my Government with a List of Slaves or private property, that was either at Tangier Island or in Louisiana, liable to restitution under the Ist Article; but, from the Public Papers, we are assured of the fact, and a few days will put me in possession of the necessary evidence of the property and Slaves so situated. The Documents in support of the facts in relation to the property and Slaves from Georgia, I shall be ready at any time to present to you.

[1816-17.]

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