USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. II > Part 31
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for public purposes, are kindling a flame which will not be very manageable."
Under date of July 15, 1807, Mr. Madison wrote to Messrs. Armstrong and Bowdoin that, owing to very recent hostile and flagrant acts of Great Britain in American waters, war with that country seemed like to break forth at any moment; that inas- much as such a war would require large sums of money, it was thought imperative that, if an agreement to pay to Spain the sum stipulated for the Floridas had not been concluded, negotiations for their purchase should for the time being be sus- pended; that if such agreement had been concluded, a re-modi- fication of the terins of payment should be sought ; that should war occur between the United States and . Great Britain, the latter might proceed to occupy the Floridas, to the injury both of Spain and the United States; and that "should Spain still obstinately persist in rejecting or retarding an arrangement con- cerning the Floridas, she must at least see the necessity of hastening a satisfactory one on other subjects, particularly in the case of the Mobile, for the free use of which, by the United States, orders ought to be sent without a moment's delay."
In his message to congress of December 6, 1805, President Jefferson reviewed the relations existing between Spain and the United States .* He stated that a convention (of August 1I, 1802) had been entered into by the ministers of the two coun- tries; that it had been agreed that spoliations committed by Spanish subjects should be paid for; that those committed by French vessels in the ports of Spain should remain i : further discussion; that before such convention had been ratified, "the transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States took place, an event as unexpected as disagreeable to Spain;" that "From that moment she seemed to change her conduct and dispositions toward us;" that she had at first protested against the right of France to alienate the province, but soon retracted and confirmed the right ; that she had then taken great offense "at the act of Congress establishing a collection district on the Mobile although by an authentic declaration immediately made, it was expressly confined to our acknowledged limits, and she now refused to ratify the convention signed by her own minister under the eye of his sovereign, unless we should consent to alterations of its terms, which would have affected our claims against her for the spoliations by French subjects carried into Spanish
. Messages and Papers of the Presidents.
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ports;" that Mr. Monroe had been sent on a special mission to Madrid to effect the desired objects; that his mission had resulted in total failure; that no satisfaction had been given as to the boundaries of Louisiana ; that Spain seemed determined to advance on the American possessions on the Texas and the Florida borders; that he had instructed the American officers there to protect our citizens and patrol the frontier; that the Spanish officers at New Orleans were "required to depart with- ont further delay ;" and that the conduct of France was equally as bad. He concluded by referring the subject to the consider- ation and settlement of congress, intimating that as the depart- ment of state had been unable to secure the rights of the United States, it was the province of congress to devise means to effect such security.
In the house of representatives, Mr. Randolph, from the com- mittee to whom were referred the message and its accompany- ing papers, reported that "The committee have beheld with just indignation the hostile spirit manifested by the Court of Madrid toward the United States in withholding the ratification of its convention with us," unless with unallowable alterations in its terms; "the piratical depredations upon our fair commerce; the obstruction of the navigation of the Mobile; the refusal to agree to a fair adjustment of the boundaries of Louisiana ;" and the invasion of the undisputed territory of the United States. lle declared that though there was ample cause for a formal dec- laration of war, the citizens loved peace and would not resort to war except as a last resort ; that the Les i bien . of the United States would render a wat caffeine, opplyste; that when that debt should have been paid, "then and not til! then may we bid defiance to the world. The present moment is peculiarly auspicious for this great and desirable work. Now, if ever, the national debt is to be paid by such financial arrange- ments as will accelerate its extinction by reaping the rich har- vest of neutralty and thus providing for that diminution of revenue which experience teaches us to expect on the general pacification of Europe. And the committee indulge a hope that in the changed aspect of affairs in that quarter, Spain will find motives for a just fulfillment of her stipulations with us and an amicable settlement of limits upon terms not more beneficial to the United States than advantageous to herself.
But whilst the committee perceive in the general uproar of Europe a state of things peculiarly favorable to the peaceable pursuit of our best interests, they are neither insensible to the
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indignity which has been offered on the part of Spain nor unwill- ing to repel similar outrage."
An impartial review of the relations of Spain and the United States of that time leads to the conclusion that the former did not merit the severe restrictions of Mr. Jefferson. In regard to the French spoliations, Spain had the opinions of a half dozen of the best lawyers in the United States that she was not liable, and in addition had the positive statement of France that they had been paid by the latter under the Louisiana cession treaty. She, therefore, on the face of the situation, felt her- self justified in refusing to accede to the demands of the United States. In regard to the Floridas, it was clear then and has been proved since, that the United States had no conclusive claim to any portion of the western province. With respect to the boundary between Louisiana and Texas, Spain had much the better claim as far eastward as the Sabine, if not farther, by reason of numerous permanent settlements, unless it may have been to a small territory in the vicinity of Yattasse. She was justified in extending her domains as far as her righteous claims would allow.
Alarming letters were received in 1805 from Natchitoches by the American authorities of the serious state of affairs there and farther to the westward .* In August, Captain Turner wrote from there that "our neighbors still keep up that sort of conduct towards us, which a state of war alone would justify. Every person who goes from here is strictly examined and searched, and all letters found in their possession are broken open and perused with an expectation of thebug that big with treason, stratagems and crimes." On October 15 he wrote: "The Spaniards are undoubtedly meditating mischief in this . quarter ; their emissaries have been at work among the Indians and negroes. The night before last, nine of the latter ran off for Nacogdoches." It was clearly an attempt on the part of the Spaniards to win the negroes and the Indians to their side in what was considered a pending war between the United States and Spain. Captain Tumer wrote October 15: "The whole district is in the most alarming state, and inevitable ruin to it and perhaps all Louisiana must be the consequence, unless prompt measures are taken to stop the infamous proceedings of the infernal Spaniards. The object of the Spaniards seemed to be to induce all the Indians and negroes to move across the
' American State Papers.
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Sabine river to the western side, to be in readiness for a war against the Americans. The news was received that at many posts on the western side of the Sabine, the Spaniards were recon- structing old forts and building new ones; that the Spaniards intended to march castward and finally take New Orleans. Nearly all of the posts in what is now Texas were strengthened, and in every way it was manifest that the preliminary work of war was in progress.
In a message dated March 19, 1806, the president informed congress that the Spanish authorities had invaded the territory in dispute between the two countries, and were building new posts and making new settlements; that he had ordered the troops of the United States in the southwest to require (with force if necessary) the Spaniards to remain on the west side of the Sabine river; that the inhabitants of the United States were requested to confine themselves on the east side of that river, "which by delivery of its principal post, Natchitoches, was understood to have been itself delivered up by Spain, and at the same time to permit no adverse post to be taken nor armed men to remain within it (the country cast of the Sabine)." In accordance with the orders of the war department, Major Porter, American commander at Natchitoches, having learned that a detachment of Spanish troops had established themselves cast of the Sabine, dispatched Capt. E. D. Turner with a force of sixty men to remove the Spaniards beyond that river and to patrol that region to see that no further attempts were made to occupy the territory thus claimed. Twenty Spanish theys were found between the Sabine and the Adds and forced much against their inclinations to depart beyond the Sabine and told not to return under any circumstances.
This proceeding of the American forces was promptly resented by the Spanish authorities in that region, who threw a consid- crable force of troops across the Sabine and established a camp, with the apparent intention of remaining. This force was com- manded by Col. Simon de Herrera .* Early in August their withdrawal was demanded by Col. T. H. Cushing, stationed at Natchitoches, on the ground that the country was claimed by the United States, that the two countries were at peace, and that, inasmuch as negotiations were then pending to settle the ownership of the country, an advance of Spanish troops into the disputed country could not be tolerated by the United
· American State Papeis.
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States. Colonel Herrera politely replied that the country was owned by Spain, and that therefore it was deemed right for the Spanish troops to occupy the same. He trusted that no trouble would be the result of the rightful acts of Spain. Gov- ernor Claiborne also wrote at length to the Spanish commander that his removal to the western side of the Sabine was required and absolutely necessary. Again Colonel Herrera replied from the "Spanish Camp," arguing mildly at considerable length, of the rights of Spain to the territory and in justification of cer- tain acts complained of and of his course generally. Again Governor Claiborne answered his arguments and demanded his removal. Finally specific orders from Washington were received to the effect "that the actual quiet possession of the country by the United States cast of the river Sabine, ought and will be considered as fully within the limits of the country surren- dered to the United States on taking possession of this place (Natchitoches) ; and therefore any attempt on the part of His Catholic Majesty's officers to disturb the existing state of things by endeavoring to occupy any new post cast of the Sabine, or westward or northward of the former boundaries of what has been called West Florida, must be considered by the Government of the United States as an actual invasion of their territorial rights, and will be resisted accordingly."
Whereupon, Gen. James Wilkinson, with headquarters at Natchitoches, in a strong yet pleasant communication to the Spanish commander, demanded the removal of the Spanish forces, declaring among other things that. "My sense of the high respect which is due from one old soldier to another po- hibits the idea of menace; but as our honor forbids stratagem or deception before our swords have been drawn, I owe it to my own fame and to the national character to warn you that the ultimate decision of the competent authority has been taken ; and that my orders are absolute and my determination fixed to assert and, under God, to sustain the jurisdiction of the United States to the Sabine river against any force which may be opposed to me. Retire then, sir, I conjure you, the troops of your command from the ground in controversy and spare the effusion of human blood, without prejudicing your own honor of the substantial interest of His Majesty, your Royal master." But the Spanish commander at Nacogdoches, Col. Antonio Cordero, sent a temporizing reply, and continued to hold his position. To match the policy of the Spaniards, General Wilkinson, early in October, advanced his command near to the
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Spanish camp, sending wo d beforehand that he meditated no immediate act of hostility toward the Spanish forces.
It was afterward learned that Don Antonio Cordero, the Spanish governor of the province of Texas, had marched from the vicinity of San Antonio with six hundred regulars, a con- siderable body of militia and Indians, and large droves of horses, mules and cattle. He stopped on the Trinity river, where he was joined by the forces of Don Simon Herrera, the com- mandant of Monteray in the province of New Leon, who was sent with reinforcements by Don Nemesio Salcedo, captain gen- eral of the internal provinces. Cordero immediately sent large reinforcements to Nacogdoches. Later he proceeded to the Sabine and threw part of his command across that river. In the negotiations which followed, it was agreed that the Spanish should retire beyond the Sabine and the Americans should not advance beyond the Arroyo Hondo; and that both commands should await the settlement of the boundary by the negotiations then pending between the two countries. The Spanish com- mander was informed that the quiet possession of the country cast of the Sabine should be insisted on, and that any attempt of the Spanish to occupy the country to the castward of the Sabine would be regarded as an act of invasion.
The historian, Martin, says: "On the bayou des Lauriers ( Laurel Creek), six miles southwest by south from the town of Natchitoches on Red River, and fiteen miles from the Adayes, where the road to Nacogdoches crosses the bayon, the French had placed leader plates on a tree on each side of the road. with an inscription expressing that the spot was the boundary between the French and Spanish dominions, without indicating the continuance of the line on either side. Similar plates were also fixed at Yattassees, a village of the Nadoca Indians, fifty leagues northwest of Natchitoches. The boundary line from bayou des Lauriers to the sea was never run, and cach freely claimed much more than the other was willing to allow. ' The Spaniards contended that the line was to be run due south, in which case it would strikte the sea near the river Curcosson ( Cal- casieu ?)."*
It was about this time that Lient. Zebulon M. Pike was sent by the government to explore the headwaters of the Red and the Arkansas rivers, but getting too far to the westward he was cap- tured by the Spanish, taken to Santa Fe, and later to Chihuahua,
. History of Louisiana: Martin
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. where all his papers were taken from him, and he was sent back to Natchitoches .* The Spanish claimed all the territory at the head of the rivers Red and Arkansas, but this was denied by the 6 Americans. When captured, however, he was on one of the western branches of the Rio del Norte, a manifest invasion of Spanish territory. It was at this time, also, that General Wilkin- son became fully apprised of the designs of Aaron Burr if he had not been before. He made immediate preparations to strengthen all points on the Mississippi and in Louisiana that would most likely feel the first blows should such an expedition be sent down the river. The effects in New Orleans reached the proportions of a panic. Several prominent men there became more or less identified with Burr's plans without knowing of their real signifi- cance. The dissipation of the gaudy dreams of Burr in smoke, soon quieted the commotion down the river.
The conspiracy of Aaron Burr in 1806-7 was made possible by, and grew from, the presumed bitterness of the western people for . the Spanish of Louisiana, their feelings of resentment toward the people of the Atlantic states, and the immunity offered against interference among the scattered settlements of the west .* Undoubtedly, the whisky insurrection of western Pennsylvania further indicated to the mind of Aaron Burr that, if the western people could be provided with competent leadership, and be con- vinced of probable success, they would join such a movement. It was developed that he had two distinct objects: 2. To separate the west from the cast by the Alleghany mountains ; 2. To seire New Orleans, plunder the bank there, provide his issues with arms and military stores and undertale the conquest of Meva. . It may be said that he had a third object, which he used as a blind to deceive the officers of the government and secure followers : "The settlement of a pretended purchase of a tract of country on the Washita, claimed by Baron Bastrop." His protestations of honorable intentions and his ability and prominence won many to his side, but as soon as his real purpose was revealed they one by one left him until adventurers and boys were almost his only fol- lowers. He misjudged the character of the western people, and believed they were bound to separate themselves from the Atlantic states. There had been a time when the west might have joined such a man and such a movement. They would not have done it because they loved the Fast less, but because they loved their rights to navigate the Mississippi more. But now things were
* American State Papers.
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vastly different : their rights to the sea were undisputed, and their estrangement from the East had been bridged by the cession of Louisiana. So that Colonel Burr could find no sufficient follow- ing for such a movement. The western people did not wish to see the Union dismembered. His principal design was to unite all of the country west of the Alleghanies and cast of the Rocky mountains into one splendid empire, the capital and metropolis of which should be New Orleans.
When his designs for a western empire dissolved in mist and dreams, he promptly turned his attention to the conquest of Mex- ico. Ile could not return to the Atlantic states, where he was practically ostracised and persistently excoriated for the killing of Alexander Hamilton. He therefore sought for a home and a country, and while doing so thought that his deserts merited his becoming the monarch of the kingdom he should set up in the land of the Montezumas. He made preparations at the falls of the Ohio (Louisville) -- building boats, collecting stores and recruit- ing a motley company of border ruffians and adventurers, but was checked by the governors of Ohio and Kentucky, under orders from the government ; and when he finally departed down the rivers late in 1806 his fleet, which he had boasted would carry an army of from seven thousand to twelve thousand men, consisted of ten boats and about one hundred restless and disaffected persons, very few of whom were aware of his real intentions. He was arrested in Mississippi territory, and his trial for treason and other high crimes and misdemeanors is well known to historans. At one time New Orleans, Natela, and, in fact, all of the Lead country were in a panic, the reports conveying the starting information that a large army was descending the rivers to capture the whole coun- try. Cowles Mead, secretary to the acting secretary of state of Mis- sissippi territory, in a letter to the secretary of war, under date of January 19, 1807, said, "Thus, sir, this mighty aların, with all its exaggerations, has eventuated in nine boats and one hundred men, and the major part of these are boys, or young men just from school. Many of their depositions have been taken but they bespeal: ignorance of the views or designs of the colonel. I believe them really ignorant and deluded." The only effect the movement had on Louisiana was to frighten the people and thus oblige the authorities to call out the militia to repel the expected and dreaded army of invaders.
After the year 1868 all official communication between Spain and the United States ceased, principally by reason of the Stupendous war raging in Europe. The former was soon
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involved in the struggle, and her very existence was seriously threatened by the ambition of France. She not only took no steps to continue the negotiations for a settlement of the differ- ences with the United States, but left the two Floridas almost wholly to shift for themselves. They thus became filled with adventurers and law-breakers, were soon a source of intense annoyance to the United States, and in the end involved the border in a bloody Indian war. The lawlessness in West Florida became so rampant that the people themselves finally took mat- ters into their own hands and established their independence.
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CHAPTER VIII
. The Florida and the Texas Boundaries, 1808-1821
O FFICIAL communication between Spain and the United States was not resumed until Napoleon had been crushed at Waterloo and the former Spanish monarchy had been restored. But in the meantime, important events had occurred in the two Floridas and in the other Spanish American possessions. During the bondage of Spain to Napoleon, the Floridas, left to themselves, had become the prey of adventurers and factions, until their occupation by the United States seemed absolutely necessary to prevent their becoming a menace to the lives and property of all the citizens of the latter Living witham a hundred miles of the border. 'The law lessness in all the gulf ports I came so great, that piracy gained a dangerous foothold in several places so as seriously to threaten all commercial intercourse on the gulf. It was learned a little later that the pirates and persons little bet- ter than pirates could muster one thousand fighting men at Galves- ton Island. At New Orleans there congregated all the elements opposed in any way to the government of Spain ; and from that city many of the movements, despite the proclamation of the presi- dent* to terminate the evil, found either a complete or a partial encouragement and equipment to invest and occupy the Spanish American provinces, including the Floridas. Aside from this proclamation and earnest efforts of the government to check all hostile movements against Spain, nothing was done by congress until the people established an independent government in West
. See Messages and Papers of the Presidents.
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Florida and until it became evident that Great Britain would probably take possession of one or both of the provinces. What followed is shown in subsequent pages.
"A DECLARATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE OF WEST FLORIDA IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED.
"It is known to the world with how much fidelity the good people of this territory have professed and maintained allegiance to their legitimate sovereign while any hope remained of receiving from him protection for their property and lives. Without making any unnecessary innovation in the established principles of the Government, we had voluntarily adopte I certain regulation in con- cert with our First Magistrate for the express purpose of preserv- ing this territory and showing our attachment to the Government which had heretofore protected us. This compact which was entered into with good faith on our part, will forever remain an . honorable testimony of our upright intentions and inviolable fidel. ity to our King and parent country, while so much as a shadow of legitimate authority remained to be exercised over us. We sought only a speedy remedy for such evils as seemed to endanger our existence and prosperity, and were encouraged by our Gover- nor with solchen promises of assistance and co-operation. But those measures which were intended for our preservation he has endeavored to pervert into an engine of destruction by encourag- ing in the most perfidious manner the violation of ordinances sanctioned and established by himself as the Les of the land! Being thus left without any hope of protection from the mother country, betrayed by a Magistrate whose duty it was to have pro- vided for the safety and tranquillity of the people and Govern- ment committed to his charge and exposed to all the evils of a state of anarchy which we have so long endeavored to avert, it becomes our duty to provide for our own security as a free and independent State, absolved from all allegiance to a Government which no longer protects us.
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