which they were actually obtained, and directed to be delivered to the Alcalde; whereupon, Colonel Callava was immediately released.

In all these proceedings, you will perceive, Sir, that not one act of rigour, or even of discourtesy towards Colonel Callava, was authorized by Governor Jackson, which was not indispensably necessitated for the maintenance of his authority, and the discharge of his official duty, by the unjustifiable and obstinate resistance of Colonel Callava

himself.

On a review of the whole transactions, I am instructed by the President of The United States to say, that he considers the Documents in question, as among those which, by the stipulation of the Treaty, ought to have been delivered up, with the Province, to the Authorities of The United States; that they were, on the 22d of August, when in the possession of Domingo Sousa, within the jurisdiction of The United States, and subject to the controul of their Governor, acting in his judicial capacity, and liable to be compulsively produced by his Order; that the removal of them from the possession of Sousa, after the Governor's Order to him to deliver them had been served upon him, could not withdraw them from the jurisdiction of Governor Jackson, and was a high and aggravated outrage upon his lawful authority; that the imprisonment of Colonel Callava was a necessary, though by the President deeply regretted, consequence, of his obstinate perseverance in refusing to deliver the Papers, and of his unfounded claim of diplomatick immunities, and irregular exercise even of the authorities of a Governor of Florida, after the authority of Spain in the Province had been publickly and solemnly surrendered to The United States.

That the Documents were of the description of those which the Treaty had stipulated should be delivered up with the Province, is obvious, from the consideration of their character. They related to the property of Lands in the Province. They were Judicial Records, directly affecting the rights of Persons remaining in the Province; rights which could not be secured without them; rights over which the Appellate Tribunal of the Governor of Cuba, to which Colonel Callava proposed to remove the Papers, thenceforth could have no authority or controul, they having become definitively subject to the jurisdiction of The United States. The only reason assigned by Colonel Callava for the pretension to retain them, is, that they related to the estate of a deceased Spanish Officer, and had thereby been of the resort of the Military Tribunal. But it was for the rights of the living, and not for the privileges of the dead, that the Documents were to operate. The Tribunal of the Captain-General of Cuba could neither need the production of the Papers, nor exercise any authority over the subjectmatter to which they related. To have transferred to the Island of

Cuba a question of litigated property, concerning land in Florida, between Persons, all of whom were living, and to remain in Florida, would have been worse than a mockery of justice. Indeed, Mr. Salmon, in his Note, appearing to have been aware of the weakness of this allegation, declines the discussion of the question; and in justification of the refusal of Colonel Callava to deliver up the Documents, merely rests its defence upon the plea, that the Papers had not been demanded of him officially. It has been seen, that Colonel Callava had no official character which could then exempt him from the compulsive process of the Governor.

But Mr. Salmon alleges that the Spanish Constitution, as well as that of The United States, separates the Judicial from the Executive Power exercised by the Governor or Captain-General of a Province. Neither the Constitution, nor the Laws of The United States, excepting those relating to the Revenue and its Collection, and to the Slave-trade, had at that time been extended to Florida. And as little had the Spanish Constitution been introduced there, in point of fact, however it might have been proclaimed. But, be this as it may, the Cause, in relation to which the Documents required in the case of Vidal had been drawn up, and were needed, was one of those which, under the Spanish Constitution itself, remained within the jurisdiction of the Governor. This is declared by Colonel Callava himself, in the third observation of the Appendix to his Protest, transmitted with the Letter of Mr. Salmon. It is the reason assigned by him for having withheld those Documents from the Alcalde. And one of them was a Judgment rendered by Colonel Callava himself, after the time when the Proclation of the Spanish Constitution in the Province is alleged to have been made. The Cause, therefore, was, on every hypothesis, within the jurisdiction of the Governor; the Papers were indispensable for the administration of justice in the Cause; and when once applied for, by a Person entitled to the benefit of them, it was the duty, the inexorable duty, of Governor Jackson, to put forth all the authority vested in him, necessary to obtain them.

Nor less imperative was his obligation to punish, without respect of Persons, that contempt of his jurisdiction, which was manifested in the double attempt of Colonel Callava to defy his power, and to evade the operation of its process.

With regard to the Proclamation of General Jackson, of the 29th of September, commanding several Spanish Officers, who, in violation of the Stipulation in the Treaty, had remained at Pensacola, after the expiration of the 6 months from the day of the Ratification of the Treaty, to withdraw, within 4 days, from the Floridas, which forms the subject of complaint in your Letter of the 18th of November, it might be sufficient to say, that it did no more than enjoin upon those Officers to do that which they ought before, and without any injunction, to have

done. The engagement of the Treaty was, that they should all have evacuated the Province before the 22d of August.

If they remained there after that time, it could only be as private Individuals, amenable in every particular to the Laws. Even this was merely an indulgence, which it was within the competency of General Jackson at any time to have withdrawn. From the Extract of a Letter from him, of which I have the honour of inclosing a Copy,* it will be seen, that he was far from being disposed to withdraw it, had they not, by their abuse of it, and by open outrages upon his authority, forfeited all claims to its continuance.

This Extract furnishes a satisfactory answer to your question, why, if the fulfilment of the Article was the object of the Proclamation, it was confined to the 8 Officers, by name, and not extended to all other Spanish Officers in the Floridas. It was because the deportment of the others was as became them, decent, respectful, and friendly towards the Government, under the protection of which they were permitted to abide. In the newspaper publication, which gave rise to the Proclamation of General Jackson, the Spanish Officers avowedly acted, not as private Individuals, but as a distinct body of Men, speaking of Colonel Callava as their Chief, their Superior; and arrogating to themselves, as a sort of merit, the condescension of knowing what was due to a Government (meaning the American Government) which was on the most friendly footing with their own. This is language which would scarcely be proper for the Ambassador of one Nation, upon the Territory of another, to which he would owe not even a temporary allegiance. From Persons situated as those Spanish Officers were, it was language of insubordination and contempt.

In alluding to the fact, that Officers of the American Squadron, in the Mediterranean, are sometimes received with friendly treatment on the Territories of Spain, to make a Case parallel with the present, it would be necessary to show, that some Superior Officer of the said Squadron should, while enjoying the hospitality of the Spanish Nation upon their shores, first attempt to evade and to resist, the operation of process from the constituted Judicial Tribunals of the Country, and then pretend, as an American Officer, to be wholly independent of them; and that some of his Subalterns should not only countenance and support him in these attempts, but should affect to consider him, while on Spanish ground, as their only Superior and Chief, and by unfounded and inflammatory Publications in the Daily Journals, to rouse the People of Spain to revolt and insurrection against the Judicial Tribunal of their own Country.

If the bare statement of such a Case would be sufficient to raise the indignation of every honourable Spaniard, let it be observed, that even this would be without some of the aggravations of the conduct of * Not published.

these Spanish Officers at Pensacola. For such outrage would be far less dangerous, committed against old established Authorities, which might rely upon the support of the whole People surrounding them, than in the presence of a People, whose allegiance had been just transferred to a new Government, and when the revolt to which they were stimulated, would seem little more than obedience to the Authorities to which they had always been accustomed to submit.

The very power which the Spanish Governor and Officers had exercised before the surrender of the Province, ought to have been a most urgent warning to them to avoid every semblance of Authority in themselves, or of resistance to that of The United States, after the transfer of the Province had been completed.

In forbearing particularly to reply to that part of your Note, in which you think yourself authorized to pronounce the charge of General Jackson against these Spanish Officers, of having attempted to excite discontent in the Inhabitants, false, I shall barely express the hope, that the term was admitted into your communication inadvertently. The conduct of the Officers, at the time of Colonel Callava's conflict with the Authority of the Governor, as well as in their insulting Newspaper publication, was of a character and tendency too strongly marked, to leave a doubt of the truth with which it is described in General Jackson's Proclamation, and in passing unnoticed this and other mere invectives against an Officer, whose services to this Nation have entitled him to their highest regard, and whose whole career has been signalized by the purest intentions and the most elevated purposes, I wish to be understood as abstaining from observations, which, however justified by the occasion, could but add to the unpleasantness of a discussion already sufficiently painful.

That this conduct on the part of the Spanish Officers was highly reprehensible, cannot reasonably be denied, and had General Jackson been disposed to animadvert upon it with severity, his course would undoubtedly have been that which you have pointed out as appropriate to the offence. They would have been cited before the proper Tribunal, heard upon specific charges, allowed time and liberty to make their defence, and punished by commitment to prison. General Jackson preferred a milder and more indulgent measure; and without prosecuting them as Criminals, only withdrew from them the privilege of a protracted infraction of the Treaty, by requiring them forthwith to depart from the Province. To justify him in this requisition, neither arrest nor judicial trial was necessary or proper. The facts were of publick notoriety, and could not be denied. The Proclamation only required of them the execution of the Treaty, by the removal of their Persons. Had their conduct even been unexceptionable, this measure would have been within the undoubted Authority of General Jackson.

As their deportment had been, it was the most lenient exercise of his power practicable, to vindicate the insulted honour and justice of his Country.

I pass to the consideration of the complaints contained in your Letter of the 22d of November. In order to take a correct view of this subject, it is again necessary to advert to the Royal Order of His Catholick Majesty, to the Captain-General and Governor of the Island of Cuba, and of the Floridas, commanding him to cause to be placed at the disposal of the Commissaries or Officers of The United States, duly authorized to receive them, the Archives and Documents relating directly to the property and sovereignty of the two Provinces.

On the 16th of May, the Captain-General and Governor wrote to Colonel Forbes, that, "respecting East Florida, where there ought to be found all her Archives, he, Governor Mahy, would direct Governor Coppinger to make a formal delivery of that Province, as well as of the Documents belonging to it."

On the 24th of May, Colonel Forbes wrote to the Captain-General, reminding him of the repeated promises made by his Excellency, to dispatch him with the Archives, which were to be delivered, and then were at The Havannah, and with the Orders for the delivery of the Provinces and of the Archives deliverable there; of the continual disappointments to which he had been subjected by the failure of performance to those promises, and of the necessities which urged his immediate departure. He therefore proposed, "that if any further researches should be necessary for the discovery of the said Archives, they might be delivered when more convenient to the Spanish Government; that he, (Colonel Forbes) should be allowed to proceed immediately to West Florida, with the Commissary appointed to carry the final Order to the Sub-Governor there; and, lastly, that a Duplicate Order be given at once, as agreed upm, to the Governor of East Florida, for the delivery of that Province to the constituted Authorities of The United States, together with the Archives, which were declared to be on the spot.

On the 29th of May, the Captain-General answered this Letter, and inclosed to him the Orders to the several Governors of East and West Florida, for the delivery of the Provinces, antedated as I have already mentioned, with a declaration, that the Archives then at The Havannah and which ought to have been delivered to Colonel Forbes, should be transmitted to the Government of The United States, as soon as they were selected; a promise, as I have before observed, yet unfulfilled.

These Orders of the Captain-General to the Commanders of East and West Florida, are further remarkable by the omission of any direction in them for the delivery of the Archives and Documents. It had been expressly agreed by him, with Colonel Forbes, that the Order for