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and naval establishments, including the annual augmentation of the latter to the extent provided for, to the payment of the interest on the public debt, and to the extinguishment of it at the time authorized, without the aid of the internal taxes, I consider it my duty to recommend to Congress their repeal." The president added, however, a promise to recommend the re-imposition of them, if circumstances should seem to indicate the necessity of such a step.

The debates in Congress during this session were earnest and able: yet, we are happy to say, there was less acerbity and acrimony than on many previous occasions, and the principal measures recommended by the president met the approval of the majority in Congress.

Among the matters to which early attention was given, was the abolition of the internal taxes. The duties on licenses to distillers and others, on sales by auction, pleasure carriages, stamps, and refined sugar, were, by one act, removed. The duty on salt was also marked for repeal; but, prosperous as the finances seemed, apprehension was expressed by the secretary of the treasury, that instead of a surplus

1817.

there would be a deficit, if all that the president promised, and the people expected, were given up; this, therefore, was retained. Some of the members thought it prudent to retain a part of these taxes; but, from the difficulty of making a selection which would prove satisfactory, the repeal was carried, early in the session, with only five dissentients.

The debates showed that, in some respects, the view of the state of the

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country was rather highly colored in the message. The finances did, undoubtedly prosper greatly, and the public funds were at a premium; but commerce had not recovered from the embargoes and other paralyzing acts preceding and accompanying the war, which, without them, would have been sufficiently injurious. Excessive importations had raised the public revenue, but ruined the private trader, it was said; and the most profitable of all departments of mercantile enterprise

the carrying trade-was, by treaty, as good as closed against American ships. Neither were the banks without their share of condemnation; they, it seems, were contracting their credits, and endeavoring to close bad accounts, and to recover their debts,-proceedings never popular amongst those af fected by them, and yet held to be indispensable both for the banks and the public in general. With respect to Great Britain and her commercial policy, Congress determined upon various retaliatory measures, which were discussed with earnestness and ability, clearly evincing the general sentiment of the country on this important topic. Of the effect produced by these measures, the reader will be better able to judge as we proceed.

For the purpose of compensating for the loss of the internal duties, the abolition of which made it necessary to provide some means for raising the revenue required for the support of government, and of affording protection to the manufactures of the country, some changes were made in the tariff; a small increase of duty was laid upon some fabrics, such

as coarse cotton goods, and the like; but there being great opposition to the tariff from the commercial and other sections of the country, nothing of moment was accomplished at this time for the encouragement of home manufac

tures.

Notwithstanding Mr. Monroe's opinion on the subject of internal improvements, (p. 310), the question came up and was ably and fully discussed this session. The committee on internal improvements brought in a report, and maintained that Congress possessed the power, under the Constitution, of appro

1818.

priating money for the construc

tion of military roads, post roads, and canals. Henry Clay, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Tucker, and others, argued strongly in favor of the constitutionality of the proposed system; and Messrs. Claggett, Orr, Johnson, Barbour, and others, with equal zeal and earnestness, took the opposite ground on this confessedly difficult topic. On the question of appropriating the dividends received by the United States from the shares held in the national bank to the objects under discussion, there was a majority in favor of such disposition of the public money; but as it was soon understood, that the president would feel called upon to veto any bill in support of the measure, the whole subject was postponed to a future day.

Early in January, a committee of the House reported respecting Amelia Isand, and Galveston, in Texas. It appears, that one Gregor M'Gregor, who gave out that he had received a commission as a general from "the United Provinces of New Granada and Venez

uela," in conjunction with Louis Aury, had taken possession of Amelia Island, near the boundary of Georgia, with the avowed intention of renewing the attack upon East Florida from that point. M'Gregor's forces called themselves the patriots; but they were principally made up of outlaws from the United States, run-away slaves, smugglers, vagrants picked up by chance in the ports of the Southern states, including a number of English emissaries M'Gregor's professed object was to liberate the province and obtain its an nexation to the United States.

"On the 30th of July, 1813," says Monette, "the Spanish governor entered into a capitulation for the surrender of the province to the patriot forces; thus again excluding the authority of Spain. But with this incongruous mass of reckless adventurers, no permanent government could be sustained. Dissensions arose; and General M'Gregor, having been supplanted by the artful intrigue of Hubbard, and having been induced to believe that his personal security was endangered by his enemies, retired from the command, and accompanied the notorious Captain Woodbine to England. It was not long before Aury, (who claimed to be an 'admiral,' under a commission like M'Gregor's,) lost his influence, and retired also, leaving Hubbard in chief command. The govern ment, under the usurped authority, had but short duration. To prevent the lawless assemblage which concentrated near the frontier of the United States, and interrupted the due operation of the revenue laws, the federal govern ment determined to take forcible pos

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TROUBLES IN FLORIDA.

CH. II.] session of the country, until Spain should be able to maintain her authority over it. Accordingly, on the 1st of January, 1818, in obedience to instructions, Major J. Bankhead and Commodore J. D. Henly, with a division of the land and naval forces of the United States, expelled the patriots and took possession of the country.'

The president, in relation to this movement, was careful to state, that, "in expelling these adventurers from these posts, it was not intended to make any conquest from Spain, or to injure, in any degree, the cause of the colonies." The secretary of state, also, in his official report, justified the procedure, as required by the laws of nations, as well as those of the United States.

Mississsippi was admitted into the Union on the 10th of December, 1817, and the initiatory steps for the same purpose were taken by the territories of Illinois and Missouri. During the autumn of the same year, a treaty was concluded by commissioners appointed by the president of the United States and the chiefs of the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawanese, Seneca, Ottowas, Chippewa, and Potowattamie tribes of Indians, by which these tribes ceded to the United States all lands which

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they claimed within the limits of Ohio. The Indians were, at their option, to remain on the ceded lands subject to the laws of the state and of the United States.

The attention of Congress was also devoted to the question of a bankrupt law; the negotiations with Spain; the Seminole war; the sending a minister to La Plata; and other topics of less moment. Our limits do not admit of details; we can only refer to the debates of Congress, and the lives and works of such men as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun. On the 20th of April, this busy session of Congress was closed by an adjournment to the third Monday in November.

While the adventurers at Galveston and Amelia Island were occupied in their schemes, a war was begun on the frontier of the United States and Florida. Spain, though she had gained possession of the province in 1783, had never, in fact, reoccupied the country; but it was left almost entirely to outlaws, smugglers, buccaneers, and the like; uncontrolled, except here and there by a small military post. The Seminole Indians, who occupied lands on the confines of the province, partly in Florida and partly in the United

* Previously to this, in the summer of 1816, Louis States, had been guilty of various acts

Aury, mentioned above, had gathered a band of brigands and desperadoes on Snake Island, on the coast of Texas, about one hundred and thirty miles west of the

mouth of the Mississippi. Smuggling, piratical depre

dations on commerce, introduction of slaves in violation of law, and the like, formed the occupation of these self-constituted patriots. Aury, in April, 1817, removed further west, to Matagorda, but remained only

of outrage. Loud complaints began to be made by the people of Georgia; and General Gaines, who commanded in that quarter, having demanded of the Indians on the Flint River surrender of some persons whom he charged with

a short time. He then joined M'Gregor at Amelia murder, was met by a decided refusal;

Island.

on the ground that they were not the

VOL. III.-40

aggressors. Added to this ground of complaint on both sides, there was soon

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afterwards some violence employed in obtaining possession of the territory ceded to the United States by the last Creek treaties; violence for which the Indians took revenge in December, by attacking a boat laden with supplies, on the Appalachicola, and killing above forty persons who were on board, some of them being women and children.

So soon as the attack on the boat was known, the government authorized General Gaines to advance into Florida "if necessary;" but specially instructed him not to attack a fort, if the Indians should take shelter under the guns of any, "but to report the fact." General Jackson, who was the principal officer in the south, at the same time received orders, at the close of December, to put himself at the head of the movement; and he was empowered to call out a militia force from his own state, in addition to that which had been raised in Georgia.

Early in January, General Jackson, at the head of a formidable band of Tennessee volunteers, set out for the seat of war. Before the end of the month, he concluded a treaty with that part of the Creek nation which was friendly to the United States; and secured their assistance against the Sem

inoles. On the 1st of March, 1818. he reached Fort Scott, on the Appalachicola; having now under his command above four thousand men, a force exceeding in number the whole of the nation he was about to attack, including both women and children.

Provisions running short, he hastened southward without delay, employing his Indians to scour the whole country round the line of march, by which means he secured a great number of prisoners from the enemy. On the site of the stronghold which the negroes had held, and been dispossessed in 1816, Jackson built a fort, and named it Fort Gadsden; and this he made use of as a dépôt for supplies.

On the 1st of April, the Creek towns on Mickasukie Lake, and the Ocilla River, were stormed and destroyed, and cattle and corn in abundance was taken. Here, too, was found a redpainted war-pole, from which were suspended a great cluster of scalps; fifty of them, it was said; and, as might have been expected, including those of every sex and age. Beside these,

there were some two hundred and fifty others of these horrid trophies found, a circumstance which naturally enough shocked Jackson and his men.

The American commander was not a man easily deterred by difficulties or scruples. Having no doubts in his mind of the complicity of the Spaniards and of their furnishing supplies to the Seminoles, he marched forward, without delay, to St. Mark's, a small Spanish post, with a fort, at the head of Appalachicola Bay. After a feeble resist ance, the fort surrendered, and was occupied by American forces.

While here, Jackson took prisoners, a Scotch trader, from New Providence, named Alexander Arbuthnot, and soon after Robert C. Ambrister, a native of the same province. Both were engaged in active trade with the Indians, and

CH. II.]

ARBUTHNOT AND AMBRISTER EXECUTED.

were charged with stimulating them to hostilities. To most of persons, the question as to what disposition was to be made of these men, would have caused some hesitation and uncertainty; but Jackson was prompt in his determination, and marked out his course as decisively as if it admitted of not a moment's doubt. On the 20th of April, he detailed a court-martial, consisting of General Gaines as president, and a large number of other officers, for the purpose of investigating the charges against Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and deciding upon their guilt or innocence, and what punishment, if any, should be inflicted.

The charges against Arbuthnot were the following: 1st. "For exciting and stirring up the Creek Indians to war against the United States and her citizens, he being a subject of Great Britain, with whom the United States are at peace." 2d. "For acting as a spy, aiding, abetting, and comforting the enemy, and supplying them with the means of war." 3d. "For exciting the Indians to murder and destroy William Hambly and Edmund Doyle, confiscate their property, and causing their arrest, with a view to their condemnation to death, and the seizure of their property, they being citizens of Spain; on account of their active and zealous exertions to maintain peace between Spain, the United States, and the Indians." He was found guilty of the first and second charge, omitting the words "acting as a spy," and sentenced to be hung.

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The next day, Ambrister's trial was entered upon. The charges against

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him were: 1st. "Aiding, abetting, and comforting the enemy, and supplying them with the means of war, he being a subject of Great Britain, who was at peace with the United States, and late an officer in the British colonial marines." 2d. "Leading and commanding the Lower Creek Indians, in carrying on war against the United States." The court-martial found him guilty of both charges, and sentenced him to be shot; but, on reconsideration, changed the sentence to fifty lashes and confinement with hard labor for a year. On the 29th of April, General Jackson approved the sentence of the court, in the case of Arbuthnot, and also, the first sentence of the same body, in respect to Ambrister; and ordered them both to be executed the next day.

Victorious in East Florida, where he had slain about sixty of the enemy, and burnt seven hundred huts, shot one Indian trader, hung another, and also two Indians, captured by stratagem, and lost twenty of his allied Creeks, General Jackson now marched against Pensacola; where, as usual, the Indians had been sheltered by the Spanish authorities. The governor of the place protested against the invasion of the province, and declared his determination to resist. But as this did not stay the advance of Jackson, he retired to the fort at the Barancas, and left Pensacola undefended, for the Americans to take possession of without a blow. Three days later, the army marched to the Barancas, raised a breast work in the night, and bombarded the fortress, which, on the 27th of May, was surrendered to the United States. The Span

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