j‘ . T_?_,’. - -_ . ._,s,.-3...;-.’* 2 - .......-...,._,. l _ . 1817’, given him by 12 Indians, partly of,Florida, and partly of fugitive outlaws from the Unltctl States. He states that this power, and his in- structions,_ were to memorialize the British got’- crnment and the governor general of the H_ava-_ na. These papersare not only substantially proved, as of his hand writing, on the trial. hut ‘in the daily newspapers of London, of the 24th and ‘25th of Aug. last, his letter to Nicholls is published, with a copy of Hambly’s above incu- tioned letter to him, and a reference to this In- diaii, power of Attorney to him, ia/1//raved by rlze commandant of St. xlfurks, F. C. .Lucng0.. An- other. of the papers is a letter, written in the name of the same chiefs, by Arbuihnot:10 ‘hf? governor general of the Havana. askingiof him- permission fol‘. Arbuthnot to establish a ware-. house on the Appalachicola ; bitterly and falsely, complaining that the Americans had macle_set-_ tlements on their lands, within the Spanish lines,_ and calling upon the governor general to give or- ders to (lisp-.ice them, and sendtliem back to their own country. In this letter they assign, as a reason for asking this license for Arbuthnot, the want of a person to put in writing forjthem their talks of grievances against the Americans. And they add, ‘ the commander of the fort of St. ‘Marks had heard all of our talks and complaints. He approves of what we have done, and what we are doing ; and it is by his recommendation we have presumed to address your cxcellency.’, Y ou -will find these papers in the printed newspaper enclosed, and to theproceedings of the court mar- tial, and will point them out to the Spanish gov- ernment, not only as decisive proofs of the un- exainpled compliance of.tlie Spanish officers in- Florida, to foreign intrusive agents and instiga- tors of Indian hostilities against the U: States, but as placing beyond a doubt, that participation of this hostile spirit in the commandant of St. Marks, which Gen. Jackson so justly complains of; and of which we have so well founded a right to demand the punishment. Here is the com- mandant of a Spanish fort, bound by the sacred engagement of a treaty to restrain, by force, the Indians within his command from commit- ting hostilities against the ‘United States‘, conspi- ring with those same Indians, and deliberately gi,-inn» his written approbation to their appoint-. u D u . - - ment of a foreigner, a British subject, as tl‘.Clt‘_' agent, to solicit assistance and supplies from the‘ gbveitiior general of the Havana, and from th_'c British government, for carrying on these same hostilities. _ Let us come to the case of Ambi-ister—He was taken in arms; leading and commanding the Indians, in the war against the American troops; and to that charge, upon his trial, plead- ing guilty. But the primary object of his com- ing there, wits still more hostile to Spain, than to the United States. You find that he had told three of the witnesses, who testified at his trial, that he had come to this country on Mr. \Vo0d- bine’s business at Tampa Bay-—to see the Ne- -‘ -' - ne of them that lie /Hula gross i_iguted , an 0. a commission in the Palms: army under ]lfi’cGr(.=go1‘,- and that he had expected a captaincy. And what was the intended business of McGregor and VVoo.dbine at Tampa Bay ? It was the conquest of Florida from Spain, by the use of thosfi VCVY Indians and Negroes whom the commandant of Sl._'lM.aILl&S_\‘v'.':\S .s.o_i'ea;L!-_19_ai.d and SL190?“-in W-’»*’~‘ establishes this fact is contained in the documents communicated by the President to Congress at their last session, relatin_t; to the occupation of Amelia Island by McGregor. From these (loc- timents you will find, that while McGrcgor was there, VVoodbine went from New Providence, in a schooner of his own, to join him : that he arri- rived at Amelia Island, just as McGregor, aban- doning the companions of his achievenieut there. was leaving it ; that lV‘IcGi-egor, quitting the vessel in which he had embarked at Amelia Isl- and, went on board that of \Voodbine’s, and re- turned with him to New Providence : that ‘\Voodbine had persuaded him they could yet ac- complish the conquest of Florida, with soldiers to be recruited at Nassau, from the corps of Co- .lonial Marines, which had served nuclei‘ Nicholls during the late war '-\.Iill the United States, which corps had been lately disbanded; and with Ne- groes to be found at Tampa Bay, and 1500 In-'. (ll(tIlS, already then engaged to \Voodbine, who pretended that they had made a grant of all their lands there to him. Among the papers, the ori- ginals of which are in our possession, in McGrc- gor’s own hand writing, instructions for sailing into Tampa Bay, with the assertion that he cal- culated to be there by the last of April orfirst of May, of the present year; aletter dated 27th Dec. last, to one ofhis acquaintance in this cotiu- try, disclosing the same intention; and the ex- tract of a proclamation which was to have been issued at Tampa Bay, to the inhabitants of Flori- da, by the person charged with making the settle- ment there, bcfoi'e his arrival, aiinouncing his approach, for the purpose of liberating them from the despotism of Spam, and of enabling them to form a government for lil'len‘lSt‘lV(‘S. He had persuaded tnose who would listen to him there, that his ultimate object was to sell the Floiidas to the United States. There i-s some reason to suppose he had made indirect overtures of a similar nature to the British goveiiimeiit.-—- This was Ambrister’s business in Florida. He arrived there in March, the precursor of Me- Gregor and VVoodbine, and, In‘.n1€(l.'1;ite]y npnn his arrival, he is found seizing upon Arbuthnot’s goods, and distributing them among the Ne- groes and‘ Indians ; seizing upon his vessel, and compelling its master to pilot him, with a body ofarmjed Negroes, towards the fortjof St. Marks, with the declared purpose of taking it by sur- prise, in the night. \Vriting letters to Gov. Ca- meron, of New Providence, urgently calling for supplies of munitions of war, and of cannon, for the war against the Americans; and letters to Col. Nicholls,renewing the same demands ofsup- plies; informing him, that he is with 300 ne- guocs, ‘ a few of out‘ bluff people,’ who had sluclr la the cazlsc, and were relying upon the faith of Nicholls’s promise-.'s._ Our bluff people were the people of the Negro fort, collected by Nicholls’5 and VVoodbine’s proclamation, during the Amer- ican and English war;-and the cause to which they stuck, was the savage, scrvile, extermina- ting war against the U. States. _ Among the agents and actors of such V|1‘fU0l15 enterprizes as are here unveiled, if was ll’-*'l'(llY expected that there would be found remarkable evidences of their respect, confidence and gocfl faith tov,-'ards one another. Accordingly, bBA5ld_9-"i the violent seiziire and distribution, by An’1hI‘IS- ier of Arbuthnot’s property, his letters to Gov. Cameron and tojNicholls are filled with the dis- trusts and suspicions of the Indians, that they were deceived and betrayed by Arbuthnot_;- while in Arbuthnot's letters to the same Nich- olls, he accuses VVoodbine of having taken C_hi"‘f%'e of poor Francis the Prophet, or I-Iilas l-lildjo, up- on his passage form England to New Providence: and under pretence of taking care of him and his affairs—of having defrauded him of a large portion of the presents which had been delivered out from tlie king’s stores to him, for Francis’ use. This is one of the passages of Arbuth- not’s letter to Nicholls, omitmz’ in the publication -of it last August, in the London newspapers. Is this narrative of dark and complicated dc- P,-avity; this creeping and insiduous war, both against Spain and the United States ;.th1$ 171001?‘ cry of patriotism ; these political pliilters to fu-_ gitive slaves and Indian outlaws ; these perfidics and treacheries of villains incapable of keeping their faith even to each other; all in the name of South‘ American liberty, of the rights of run- away uegroes, and the wrongs of savage mur- derers—-all combined and projected to plunder Spain of her provinces, and to spread massacre and devastation along the borders of the United States ? Is all this suflicicnt to cool the sympa- thies of his Catholic Majesty’s governments €X' cited by the execution of these two ‘subjects of a power in amity with the King.’ The Spanish government is not at this day to be informed that, cruel as war in its milder forms must ht‘: it lS~ and necessarily must be, doubly cruel; Whtilj W’-\' ged with savages ; that savages make no prison- ers, but to torture them ; that they give no quar- ter; that they put to death without disc-iiinina- tion of age or sex; that these ordinary charac- teristics of Indian warfare have been applicable, in llicil‘ most lieart-sickening horrors, to that war, left tis by Nicholls, as his legacy, reinstigaterl ‘by \Voodbine, Arbuthnot, and Ambrister, and stimulated by the approbation, encouragement, and aid ofthe Spanish commandant at St.Marks. ls proof i‘cqliil‘e(l ? Intreat the Spanish minister of state, for a moment, to overcome the feelings which details like these mtist excite, and to re- flect, if possible, with composure, upon the facts S'.f.'i’.:‘(l in the following extracts from the docu- ments enclosed. v Letter from sailing master Jairus Loomis to Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, 13th August, 1816, reporting the destruction of the Negro fort. “ On. examining the prisoners, they stated that Edward Daniels, 0. S. who was made pris- oner in the boat, on the 17th July, was tarredaizd burnt? cll.:'1te.” Letter from Archibald Clarke to Gen. Gaines, 26th Feb. l8l8. ‘(Message of the President of.tJin,.Ut;-in-.rl R+-v--- “ - * ““"" i‘'‘'“““ ‘‘ On the 24th inst. the house of Mr. Garrett-. rssiciing in the upper part of this county, near the boundary of VVaync county. (Georgia,) was attacked (ltii'iiig his absence, near the middle of the day, by this party, (of Indians) consisting of about 15, who shot Mrs. Garrett, in two places, and then dispatched her by stabbing and scalp- ing. Her two children, one about three years, and the other two months, were also murdered, and the eldest scalped: the house was then plundered of every article of value, and set on fire.” Letter from Peter B. Cook, (Aibuthno_t’s clerk) to Eliza A. Carney, at Nassau, dated Su- wahnee, l9th Jan. l8l8, giving" an account of their operations with the Indians, against the A- mericans, and their massacre of Lieut. Scott and his party. , “There was a boat that was taken by the In- dians, that had in thirty men, seven women, and four small children. There were six of the men get clear, and one woman saved, and all ofthe rest of them got killed. The children were took by the leg, and their brains (lashed out a- gainst the boat.” ' If the bare recital of scenes like these connot be perused without shuddering, what must be the agonized feelings of those whose wives and children are, from day to day, and night to night, exposed to be the victims of the same barbarity ? I-Iris mercy a voice to plead for the perpetrators and instigators of deeds like these? -Shouldinq.ui- ry hereafter be made, why, within three months after this event, the savage I-Iamathli Micco, up- on being takeu by the American troops. was, by order of their commander, immediately hung, let it be told that that savage was the coni- mander of the party by which “those women were butchered, and those helpless infants were thus dashed against the boat. Contending with such enemies, although humanity revoltsiat en- tire retaliation upon them, and spares the lives of their feeble and defenceless women and childicn, yet mercy herself surrenders to retributive jus- tice the lives of their leading warriors taken in arms-.-ind still more the lives of the foreign, white iucendiaries, who, disowned by their own governments, and disowning their own natures, degrade t_hemselves beneath the savage clia,rac- ter, by voluntarily descending to its level. Is not this the dictate of common sense? Is it not the usage of legitimate warfare? Is it not conso- nant to thesouudest authorities of national law ? “ \Vhen at war (says Vattel) with a ferocious na- tion, which observes no rules and grants no quar- tcr, they may be chastised in the persons ofthose o'f them who may be taken; they are of the number of the guilty ; and by this rigor, the at- tempt may bc made of bringing them to a sense of the laws of liuinanity." And again ; “ As a 0.. l __ ...... ,. .1 1: I‘ - interference and false general has the right of sacrificing the lives ‘of his enemies to his own safety or that of his peo- ple, if he has to contend with an inhuman ene- my, often guilty of such excesses, he may take the lives of some of his p‘risoners, and treat them as his own people have been treated." The’ justification of these principles is found in their salutary efficacy, for terror and for example. It is thus only that the barbarities of Indians can be successfully encountered. It is thus only that the worse than Indian barbarities of Europe- an imposters, pretending authority from their governments, but always disavowed, can be pun- ished and arrested. Great Britain yet engages the alliance and co-operation of sat ages in war. But her government has invariably. dis- claimed all countenance or authorization to her subjects to instigate them against us in time of peace. Yet so it has happened, that from the peri- odof our established independence to this day, all the Indian wars, with which we have been afflict- e_d, have been distinctly traceable to the instiga- tion of English traders or agents, always disa- vowed, yet. always felt, more than once detected, but never before punished.. Two of them, of- fenders of the deepest dye, after solemn warning to their government, and individually to one of them, have fallen,_/lagranle deliczi-9, into the hands of an American general ; and the punishment inflicted upon them has fixed them on high as an example awful in its exhibition, but, we trust, auspicious in its results, of that which awaits un- authorized pretenders of European agency, to stimulate and interpose in wars between the U- nited States and the Indians within their con- troul. This expositition of the origin, the causes, and the chaiacter of the war with the Seminole In- dians and part ofthe Creeks, combined with Mc- Gregoi-’s mock patriots and Nicholls’s Negroes. which necessarily led our troops into Florida, and gave rise to all those incidents of which Mr. Pi- zarro so vehemently complains, will, it is hoped, enable you to present other and sounder views to his Catholic Majesty’s government. It will enable you to show that the occupation of Pensa- cola and St. Marks was occasioned neither by a spirit of hostility to Spain, nor with a view to ex- tort prematurely, the province from her posses- sion ’; that it was rendered necessary by the neg- lect of Spain to perform her engagements ofre- straining the Indians from hostilities against the United States, and by the culpable countenance, encouragement and assistance given to those In- dians, in their hostilities, by the Spanish govern- or and commandant at those places : Thatithe United States have a right to demand, as the President does demand, of Spain, the punish- merit of those officers for this misconduct ; and he further demands of Spain a just and reasona- ble indemnity to the United States for the heavy and necessary expenses which they have been compelled to incur, bythe failure of Spaip to perform her engagement, to restrain the Indians, -aggravated by this demonstrated complicity of her commanding officer's with them, in their hos- tilities against the United States : Phat the two Englishmen executed by order of Gen. Jackson » were not only identified with the savages, with whom they were carrying on the war against the United States; but that one of them was the mo- '- - ----_—- ---Hr-_h. without his promises to L1... s:..~u....- -2. support from the British government, never would have happened-—that the other was the instrument of war against Spain as well as the United States, commissioned by McGregor, and expedited by VVoodbine, upon their project of conquering Florida with these Indians and ne- grocs : That, as accomplices of the savages, and sinning against their better knowledge, worse than savages, Gen. Jackson, possessed of their persons and of the proofs of their guilt, might, by the lawful and ordinary usages of war, have hung them both without the formality of a trial : That, to allow them every possible opportunity of refuting the proofs or of showing any circum- stance in extenuation of their crimes, he gave them the benefit of a trial by a court martial, of highly respectable officers. That the defence of one, consisted solely and exclusively, of tecl - nical cavils to the nature of part of the evidence against him, and the other confessed his guilt.—.-— Finally, that, in restoring Pensacola, and; St. Marks to Spain, the President gives the most,sig- ual proof of his confidence, that hereafter_her engagement to restrain, by force, the Indians of Florida from all hostilities against the United States, will be effectually fulfilled; that there will be no more murders, no more robberies with- in our borders, by savages prowling along the Spanish line, and seeking shelter within it, to display in their villages the scalps of our women and children, their victims, and to sell, with shameless effrontery, the plunder from our citi- zens in lwpanisli forts and cities; that we shall bear no more apologies from Spanish governors and coiumandants, of their inability to perform the duties of their office and the solemn contracts of their‘ country—-‘no more excuses for compli- ances to the savage enemies of the United States from the dread of their attacks upon themselves —no more harbouring of foreign imposters, up- on compulsion ; that a strength sufficient will be ‘kept in the province to restrain thelndians by force, and officers empowered and instructed to employ it effectually to maintain the good faith of the nation, by the effective fulfilment of the treaty. The duty of this government to pro- test the persons and property of our fellow citi- zens on the borders of the United States, is im- perative——it must be discharged——and if, after all the warnings that Spain has had—-if after the prostration of all her territorial rights and neu- tral obligations, by Nicholls and his banditti, du- ring war, and of all her treaty stipulations by Ar- buthnot and Ambrister, abetted by her own com- manding dlficers, during peace, to the c_ruel an. noyance of the United States—if the necessities of self defence should again compel the United States to take possession of the Spanish forts and places in Florida, declare, with the_candor and frankness that bcomc us, that another uncontli~_ \ tional restoration of them most not be expected; that even the President's. confidence in the good faith and ultimate justice of the Spanish govern-' imcnt will yield to the painful experience of con- tinual disappointment, and that after unwearied and almost tmnumbered appeals to them, for the performance of their stipulated duties, in vain,- _the United States will be reluctantly compelled to Tel)’: for the protection of their borders, upon“ themselves alone. You are authorized to communicate the whole‘ of this letter and the accompanying documents- to the Spanish government. I have the hanor, &C. &C.‘ .‘ JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, --—--1-:::-Q9 ®.:;;.1—._._ Congress. . IN SENATE-—-Jan. 8. A The Senate resumed theiconsideration of the bill providing for the erection of a monument o-' ver the remains of Gen. George I-Vasliington, where they now fie. On motion of Mr. Barbour the bill was recom-‘. mitted, with instructions to report a bill appro- priating money for the erection of an equcstri‘.m- statue, of Gen. VVashiugton, in conforrnity with the resolution of Congress of 1733, gust, 1783, and directs substantially that an e-; questrian statue of bronze be erected at the_seat- ofgovernment ; that the general be represent- ed in a Roman dress, holding a truncheon in his right hand, his head encircled with a laurel wreath ; that the pedestal be of marble on which to be represented in relief the followi, ,-princi- pal events of the war in which Gen. VVa __iingt'on commanded in person, viz. the evacuégion‘ of: Boston; the capture of the Hessians--aiiwlffrcii-,’ tou; the battle of Princeton ; the action atlMon,. mouth, and the surrender of York.] ' House or REPRESENTATIVES. January l2. Seminole War, E5'c.—The Committee on mili- tary affairs, to whom was referred that part of the President’s Message, which relates to the pro- ceedings of the court martial, in the trial of Ar- buthnot and Ambrister, and to the conduct ofthe war against the Seninole Indians, Report : That after a period of the various documents submitted to Congress, on the subject ofthe Sem- inole war, they find much difficulty in separating the responsibility of the commanding officer, to his government, from the obligations of the U. States, to Spain : But, as the occupation and cap- ture.of Pensacola and St. Marks, are subjects of negotiation and correspondence at this time be- tween the two governments, and as the commit- tee on foreign relations will, probably, consider this part of the President’s message more imme- diately connected with their branch of the sub- this report, to the trial and execution of Alexan- der Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister. '' On the 26th April, 1818, a general order issu- ed at headquarters, fort St. Marks, by Maj. Gen. Jackson, signed by Col. Robert Butler, adjutant general, detailing a ‘ special court martial, to meet at 12-o"clock, A. ‘M. for the purpose of in- vestigating charges exhibited against A. Arbuth- not, R. C. Ambrister, and such others who are can-,'ulaI‘ly situated, as may be brought before it." Your committee do not deem it necessary to attach to their report; the proceedings of that 'C0Ul‘ta as every member of the house has been- furnished with several copies, to which reference- can be made. Your committee can find no law of the United States, authorising atrial, before a military court, for such offences as are alledged against Arbuth- not and Ambrister, (except so much of the sec. 0'14 Chat'.9;Cs as charges Arbuthnot with ‘acting as a spy,’ of which part of the charge the court. found him ‘ not guilty’) nor in the opinion of your Commitltiea (1068 any usage authorise,-or exigen- cy appear, from the documents accompanying the report of the trial, which can justify me as- suinption and‘ exercise of power by the court martial and the" commanding general, on this oc- casion. It is admitted as a maxim of the law of nations, that, when the war is with a savage na- tion which observes no rules, and gives no quar- ter, we may punish them in the person of any of their people, whom we may take, (belonging to the number of them,) and endeavor, by this rig- orous proceeding, to force them to respect the laws of humanity. \Vherever severity is not absolutely necessary, mercy becomes a duty. In vain has your committee sought among the doc- uments on the subject of the Seminole war for a shadow of necessity for the death of the prison- ers arranged before the court. The war was at an end. to all intents and purposes—the enemy’s strong holds had been destroyed——many of them killed or taken prisoners, and the reinaindcr a feeble band, dispersed and scattered in <:Vci'y di‘- rection. The Spanish fort of St. iVIdll£S, which it was supposed, (and no doubt justly) had pre- tccted them, was also in our possession, and so entirely was the war considered to be terminated, that the Georgia militia under Gen. (Ill-ascock, had returned to their homes. Then where was the absolute necessity which alone could tvgirrant a departure from the exercise of that clemency, of which the United States has heretofore so just -. ly boasted 3 '. Your committee find, in the general order of the 529th April,-in which Gen. Jackson orders the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, this re,- markable reason, intended as a jusiificaiion of tlle.eX€Clil-10115, principally of Ambrister, but ap- plying to both Arbuthnot and Ambrister: “ It is an established principle of the law of nations, that any individual ofa nation making war against the citizens of another nation, they being at peace, forfeits his allegiance and becomes an out-. law and pirate.” It may be asked by what system of interpretation the offences charged could be considered as piracies, which imply, in common acceptation, offences uponthe high seas, of which the court could not assume cognizance; and it is equally cliflicalt to understand the term [This resolution was passed on’ the 7th of All-". ject, your committee will confine tl-ieniselves, in .
Norwalk Chronicler