USA > Florida > The purchase of Florida; its history and diplomacy > Part 15
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The occupation of Fernandina and the subsequent movement upon St. Augustine brought forth a vigorous re- monstrance from the Spanish minister at Washington. He learned that Matthews had seduced the inhabitants by offering to every free white male inhabitant fifty acres of land, the free exercise of his religion, the undisturbed pos- session of his estates, assuring them that the American gov- ernment would pay to individuals whatever debts might be due to them from the Spanish authorities on account of salary or otherwise. 1 The British minister also presented
1. De Onis to Secretary of State, Vol. III, Sept. 5, 1811.
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a protest against this "flagrant violation of neutral terri- tory."
President Madison was placed in an embarrassing posi- tion. General Matthews was his accredited commissioner and had been instructed in writing to occupy the country, if there should be room to entertain a suspicion that any other power contemplated taking possession. The alter- native was presented of sacrificing his agent and disowning his acts or of boldly justifying his course, assuming the responsibility, and accepting the consequences. Pursuing the usual course of those in authority, he sacrificed another. Declaring that General Matthews had transcended his authority, he regretted the occurrence and promised to re- store conditions to their status quo ante. Matthews was relieved of his position and Governor Mitchell of Georgia appointed in his stead. The letter of disavowal which Matthews received must have read painfully after his zeal- ous efforts "to promote the welfare of the country." 1
The conduct of our officials in Florida furnishes a sad contrast to what Monroe at that time declared to be the policy of this country towards Spain. In a letter to Gov- ernor Howard he had written, "The United States are at peace with Spain. The convulsions of the Spanish mon- archy have produced no effect on this policy towards her. The disorganized condition of that power and its embar- rassments have afforded motives rather to forbear to press claims of right founded on positive wrongs than to seek redress by force which under other circumstances might . have been done." 2
Had our conduct been dictated by the principles thus proclaimed, the task of the historian would be far more pleasant, for it is more agreeable to praise than to apolo-
1. Vol. XVI, Domestic Letters, James Monroe to Gen. George Matthews, April 4, 1812.
2. Vol. XVI, Domestic Letters, p. 199, Sept. 3, 1812. .
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gize for the deeds of one's own country. Governor Mitchell was directed to withdraw the American troops if, on reach- ing St. Mary's, he saw no prospect of foreign occupation. He was further instructed to restore Amelia Island and, above all, take care to secure from molestation or harm those men, who had been induced by General Matthews to embark in the revolution. Accepting the mission, Mitchell hastened to St. Mary's, there to find affairs in a serious condition. The patriots firmly declined to retire ; and at a meeting at their headquarters before St. Augustine, they issued a call for additional recruits and pledged their honor not to lay down their arms until absolute indepen- dence had been won. Without money, they promised to pay all volunteers in land or such property as might be captured from their enemies. 1
Having been attacked by the Spanish gunboats they were forced gradually to retire to St. John's. The governor of Florida declined to make any agreement with Mitchell for the immunity of these self-seeking "patriots." Alarmed by the attacks upon the revolutionists, indignant at the refusal of Governor Estrada to accept the proffered arrangement, and desirous of ousting Spain from this province, Governor Mitchell determined upon bold measures and sent to Sa- vannah for aid. The Republican Blues and Savannah Vol- unteer Guard were soon on their way to St. Mary's. Sim- ultaneously with their arrival came an express bearing news of the declaration of war against England. Seventeen Brit- ish ships lying at anchor were immediately seized, a large quantity of floating timber cut for the use of the British navy was confiscated, and a call issued to Georgia for more troops. One hundred men from the vicinity quickly re- sponded.
Aroused by Indian attacks, the Georgia legislature, in the fall, passed an act providing that a state force be
1. May 2, 1812.
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raised to reduce St. Augustine and chastise the hostile redskins. They further resolved that the occupation of East Florida was essential to the safety of their state whether congress should approve or not. Thus the state of Georgia apparently came into conflict with the Fed- eral government, but, as it happened, its measures were consistent with the policy of the administration which was compelled to resort to military operations both against the hostile Indians and the British forces now in Spanish ter- ritory. With this complication, Governor Mitchell was re- lieved of further duty, after having received the thanks of Madison for the "ability and judgment" which he had dis- played "in the important and delicate transaction." 1 The trust was again transferred, this time to General Thomas Pinckney. Like his predecessors he was to take posses- sion of the province only upon the peaceable surrender by the Spanish authorities or in view of its possible seizure by some other foreign power. 2
· To the Spanish representations upon our course in East Florida a characteristic answer had been returned. Spain owed the United States more than the province was worth for spoliations and for the suppression of the deposit at New Orleans. The United States looked to East Florida for their indemnity. They would permit no power to take it and would take it themselves at the invitation of the inhabitants or to prevent its falling into the hands of an- other nation. As for West Florida, that belonged to the United States by a title which could not be improved, and, it might have been added, which could not be proved. 3
In the meantime the question of the revolted South
1. Vol. XVI, Domestic Letters, p. 72, Madison to Governor Mitchell of Georgia, Oct. 13, 1812.
2. Vol. XVI, Domestic Letters, p. 204, Madison to Gen. Thomas Pinckney, Dec. 8, 1812.
3. Vol. VII, Instructions, p. 173, Monroe to Joel Barlow, Nov. 21, 1811.
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American colonies had become a burning one between this country and Spain. The provinces of Venezuela had de- clared their independence and a similar step was imminent at Buenos Ayres and in other quarters. The Departments of Venezuela had proposed to the United States the rec- ognition of their independence and the reception of a min- ister from them. Though such a recognition in form was not made, a friendly and conciliatory answer was given to them. They were also informed that the min- isters of the United States in Europe would be instructed to avail themselves of suitable opportunities to promote their recognition by other powers, an object "thought to be equally due to the just claims of our southern brethren, to which the United States cannot be indifferent, and to the best interests of this country." 1
The fate of West Florida was soon determined by congress. That portion south of 31° and between the Mis- sissippi and Pearl rivers was added to the new state of Louisiana. 2 The portion between the Pearl and the Per- dido was annexed to the Mississippi Territory. This act differed little from a declaration of war. For when, by Madison's signature, it became a law, the Spanish banner floated over Mobile and Spanish troops held the city in the name of Ferdinand.
In the war of 1812 it was hardly to be expected that Spain would or could maintain order in her Florida pos- sessions or that she would perform the duties of a neutral power. Her throne was the plaything of Napoleon, her king was his prisoner. Without any force capable of com- manding obedience to law it was natural that the Floridas should become, more than ever, the breeding ground of pirates, smugglers, and privateers. Further, in the Euro-
1. Vol. VII, Instructions, p. 183, Monroe to Joel Barlow, Nov. 27, 1811.
2. Act of Congress, April 14, 1812. Act of Congress, April 8, in effect April 30, 1812.
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pean alliance against Napoleon, Spain and her armies were completely under English domination. It was probable that now, in view of the war, England would seize the Floridas and use them as a base of supplies, a plan which had often seemed so seductive to that power but which had never been pursued because of the attitude of the United States. That the United States should forestall her enemy by first occupying the country was a course which to President Madison admitted of no argument. Nor did he doubt that it would appeal to congress in the same light and that that body would promptly authorize it. He intended to be pre- pared for immediate compliance with the expected order.
The governor of Tennessee was requested to prepare a militia force of fifteen hundred men for "the defense of the lower country." General Pinckney, who had been named as Governor Mitchell's successor, was informed that when congress should consent to the proposed seizure of the Floridas, troops would be dispatched to him for the cap- ture of St. Augustine.1 Wilkinson, the weakling, the traitor to both friend and country, was commanded to hold himself in readiness to lead an army into West Florida. 2
It seemed to the people of the Mississippi Valley that the authorities at Washington had at last begun to see the light, and there was much rejoicing among those Westerners at the projected turn of affairs. At length their dreams were to be realized - were to become fact rather than fancy. They were not afflicted with any mental troubles about the "defense of country" and "extra-terri- torial service" such as had reflected so little credit upon their brothers of the Canadian border. Conquest was their purpose and to them no peace was desirable, nay, no peace was tolerable, that did not recognize American sovereignty
1. Monroe to Pinckney, Jan. 13, 1813. War Department Archives.
2. Monroe to Wilkinson, Jan. 30, 1813. Ibid.
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from the Sabine to the St. Mary's, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Governor Blount's order to General Jackson to call out two thousand men found every fighting man in Tennes- see eager for the fray. The troops, having been mustered in on the seventh day of January, 1813, set out from Nash- ville. They were the men for the purpose. Their leader, Jackson, whose heart was ulcerated with hatred for the Dons, wrote : "They are the choicest of our citizens. . They go at our country's call to do the will of the govern- ment. No constitutional scruples trouble them. Nay, they will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augus- tine."1 Their principal heritage had been a hardy con- stitution and a bitter hatred for the Spanish. Now at last had come the hour when they might wipe out with blood and fire the insults of former days which they had suf- fered at the hands of those whom they despised. The cavalry, if such it may be called, rode through the Indian country, while the remainder of the force embarking on ' boats slowly made their way down the Ohio, the Cumber- land, and the Mississippi. On the fifteenth of February, in obedience to instructions from Wilkinson, they put in at Natchez and camped on the neighboring cliffs impatiently awaiting orders to move on the enemy.
In the meantime the senate had declined to countenance the occupation of East Florida and orders were hastily dispatched to the intrepid Jackson; "the cause for march- ing the corps under your command to New Orleans no longer exists. You will therefore consider it as dismissed from public service."2 Jackson's indignation knew no bounds and in contempt of his instructions he marched his men back to Nashville, making himself personally respon-
1. Parton's Jackson, Vol. II, p. 372. Jackson to Secretary Eustis. 2. Armstrong to Jackson, Feb. 6, 1813.
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sible for their rations and pay, and defying all attempts to enlist his volunteers into the regular regiments.
Though demurring to the seizure of East Florida, con- gress consented to the invasion of West Florida and, on February 20, Madison signed an act to accomplish that purpose. Orders were immediately hastened to Wilkinson and by the middle of May that officer had organized an expedition at Pass Christian, had led it against Mobile, had taken Fort Charlotte and the city (April 15), had begun the erection of Fort Bowyer at the entrance to the bay, and had returned to New Orleans (May 19). There he found awaiting him orders to proceed to the Canadian border to retrieve the failures of our generals in that region. May 16 General Pinckney withdrew from Amelia Island and quiet reigned along the coast.
In the early months of 1813 came the proffered media- tion of the Russian czar, an offer which Madison gladly embraced. Quickly appointing a joint commission composed of Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and James A. Bay- ard, Madison provided them with instructions and dis- patched them to St. Petersburg where they arrived in July to the consternation, if not embarrassment, of Alexander who had been at least politely discouraged in his pacific efforts by Lord Castlereagh. 1 Aware of the friendly rela- tions existing between Russia and Spain, and the interest which Alexander took in behalf of Ferdinand, our com- missioners were instructed to broach cautiously the question of the Floridas at St. Petersburg. 2 Fearful lest our war- like course in East Florida might injure the American cause in the eyes of Europe, particularly with Russia, besides its exasperating effect on the protesting northern peace men, it was decided not to endanger the outcome of the Russian
1. Adams was already at St. Petersburg as minister to Russia.
2. Vol. VII, Instructions, pp. 276, 279. Monroe to J. Q. Adams, etc., April 27, 1813.
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mediation because of East Florida. Orders were issued for · the evacuation of that province, but possession was retained of West Florida together with Mobile.
A rude awakening was in store. British emissaries were in the meanwhile at work stimulating the southern Indians to make war upon the United States. Tecumseh with his passionate eloquence had visited the southern tribes in the fall of 1811. After his departure there appeared certain miraculous emblems of his mighty power and wrath. With counsels divided, surrounded by white settlements and friendly Choctaws and Chickasaws, the infatuated Creeks took the war path. Arms and supplies were furnished them from a British fleet in the gulf and some assistance seems to have been given by the Spanish governor at Pensacola.
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Approaching Fort Mimms, an American stockade east of the Alabama River and ten miles above its junction with the Tombigbee, they terrified the white settlers who in wild alarm had taken refuge there from all parts of the surrounding country. On the thirtieth of August the setting sun cast its rays upon the most revolting scenes of savage cruelty as the hostile Creeks completed one of the bloodiest massacres history has to record. The buildings of the fort were in ashes and out of five hundred and fifty persons, four hundred were scalped or roasted to death. Neither age nor sex was spared.
Mingled with the wail of grief and despair there arose from the southern border a cry for vengeance. Tennessee instantly responded with her ready volunteers, now pledging the faith of the state without awaiting arrangements with the federal authorities. General Jackson was again in command. The East and West Tennessee troops uniting in the upper Alabama country, after many sanguinary en- counters drove back the foe, who, in utter disregard of the most elementary tactics of warfare, instead of turning to threaten Mobile had advanced northward from Fort Mimms.
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Finally at the battle of the Horseshoe ( March 27-29, 1814) the Creek nation was annihilated and the few surviving warriors abjectly sued for life and peace. After signing a treaty with the Indians at Fort Jackson, August 9, 1814, the trip was resumed. Floating down the Alabama River, Mobile was reached a few days later and preparations were at once under way for the invasion of Florida.
The possession of that province was to Jackson's mind absolutely necessary to the national peace and welfare. He welcomed the chain of circumstances which seemed likely to make him the instrument for wresting it from those despised Dons for whom he had long entertained an ill concealed contempt and hatred. When appointed major general he had written to Armstrong begging for orders to attack and reduce Pensacola. These orders did not materialize and when he reached Fort Jackson he deter- mined to go about the matter in another though equally effective way. With an ungovernable temper Jackson had a faculty, amounting really to a talent, for provoking quar- rels. Seizing upon every opportunity to drag the Spanish into an attitude of open hostility toward the United States, he demanded from the governor of Pensacola the delivery of those Red Stick Indians who had escaped into Florida. In August when he reached Mobile he was more than ever ·
hot for an attack upon Pensacola, for the English were already there.
Spain was absolutely at the mercy of England and with the disorganized state of affairs existing in the Iberian Peninsula, England exercised complete mastery and domin- ion over her. There is nothing to show that Spain did not act in good faith. She was unable, from her impotency to preserve her neutrality and give force to her desires. To- gether with her colonies she was a mere puppet in the hands of our enemies, and surely not to be held accountable as a nation acting of her own volition. It is claimed that
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the obligations of gratitude and the prospect that England might soon have possession of Louisiana, and be able to dispose of it, led Spain to violate her neutrality in Florida, but these suspicions fail of documentary proof. Certainly it cannot be disproved that Spain protested both to London and to other courts of Europe against England's summary course in the province of Florida.
The English fleet sent to capture Savannah lay many weeks under Amelia Island whence it must soon have departed but for the provisions and supplies claimed to have been furnished by the citizens and authorities of East Florida. The Spanish governor is said to have congratu- lated the victorious Weathersford upon his successes against the Americans and to have received the surviving warriors of the now broken chief into the friendly shelter of Pensa- cola. The harbor of Pensacola was the finest in all Florida. Fort Barrancas, six miles from the town, poorly garrisoned, guarded, together with Fort St. Michael, the entrance to the bay. This place the English selected as the point d'appui for their operations in the Gulf of Mexico, as a rendezvous for their fleet and a convenient point whence they might operate against Mobile and New Orleans.
Maintaining at least the outward forms of neutrality, which was reciprocated by the United States, unwilling then to add another to its enemies, the governor general of Cuba refused to permit the British to land at Pensacola. The town, then but the grave of its former splendor, was peopled with Indians, half breeds, West Indian traders, smugglers, buccaneers, fugitive slaves, and white men "with a past" who had fled from the States for cause. Despite the refusal of the Spaniards, late in July there was sighted from the lookouts an approaching British fleet, the forerunner and vanguard of the great expedition - Major Edward Nicholls with four officers, eleven non-commissioned officers, , ninety-seven marines, two howitzers, a thousand stand of
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arms and three thousand suits of clothing, and Captain Percy commanding the sloops "Hermes" and "Carron." Landing without ceremony, Nicholls seized Forts Barran- cas and St. Michael, hoisted the English flag beside that of Spain, built barracks for his soldiers, took up his quarters in the governor's house and began a rapid issue of sonor- ous proclamations to the people of Louisiana and Kentucky.
"Natives of Louisiana," began one of these bombastic productions of his pen, "on you the first call is made to assist in liberating your paternal soil from a faithless, im- becile government. The American usurpation of this coun- try must be abolished. I am at the head of a large body of Indians well armed, well disciplined and commanded by British officers. Be not alarmed at our approach. The same good faith which distinguished the Britons in Europe accompanies them here. A flag over any door, whether Spanish, French, or English, will be a sure protection ; nor dare any Indian put his foot on the threshold thereof under penalty of death. Inhabitants of Kentucky, you have too long borne with grievous impositions. The whole brunt of the war has fallen on your brave sons. Be imposed on no longer. Range yourselves under the standard of your fore- fathers or observe a strict neutrality. . After the experience of twenty-one years can any of you longer support those brawlers for liberty who call it freedom when they them- selves are free?"1 As an additional stimulus to the zeal of the Indians the bounty on American scalps was raised from five to ten dollars. We may imagine the spirit with which these proclamations were received on the Kentucky borders. True it might be, that they felt their treatment at the hands of the eastern states had been contemptuous, but in their hearts they harbored an undying hatred for both Briton and Spaniard - the former for having instigated the hostile savages to bloody attacks upon defenseless settle-
1. Niles Weekly Register, Vol. VII, pp. 134-135.
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ments, the latter from the days of the Mississippi blockade.
Meanwhile Captain Woodbine, one of the English officers was busy with his new recruits. Some seven hundred warriors in full paint and feather were soon enrolled, with the expectation of drilling them into serviceable soldiers as the Indians of the East Indies are drilled. A truly comical yet pathetic scene they must have presented in their red army uniforms, divided into companies and battalions, those denizens of the forest used to the single file and the ambush. "Such scenes of preposterous costuming, of tripping over swords, of hopeless drilling and mad marching and counter- marching as the common of Pensacola then witnessed can be imagined only by those who know precisely what sort of creatures Indians are. Captain Woodbine might as well have attempted to train the alligators of the Florida lagoons for the British artillery service." 1
Captain Percy, to take his part in this farcical exhibi- tion, dispatched a ship, the "Sophie," to Jean Lafitte, the "pirate of the gulf," leader of the Barratarian privateers - to use a euphemism for their real character. An alliance was sought with these robbers who carried on their nefar- ious trade under the semblance of authority, for they had secured letters of marque and reprisal from the various revolted colonies of Spanish-America, particularly that of Cartagena. Failing to secure the assistance of the wily Lafitte, whose stronghold was within a few days destroyed by the Americans under Commander Daniel Patterson, Nicholls determined immediately to attack Jackson at Mo- bile. Fort Bowyer, a diminutive earthen affair built by Wilkinson on a low sand pit at the entrance to Mobile Bay, was defended by twenty guns, only eight of which were serviceable, with a garrison of one hundred and sixty men under Major William Lawrence. Captain Percy pro- ceeded against this fort with the "Hermes" of twenty-two
1. Parton's Jackson, Vol. I, p. 579.
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guns. the "Sophie" of twenty guns, the "Carron" and "Childers" of eighteen guns each, and a large force of marines and Indians under Colonel Woodbine. The mar- ines and Indians with two light guns were landed in the rear of the fort behind the sand hills, on September 12.
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