ing the Indians to acts of hostility, caused great annoyance along the southern coasts and frontiers. The Americans, it is true, were not passive under these aggressions, but in many instances returned the injury in kind. Valuable reprisals were occasionally made, as in the case of the large quantity of gunpowder, captured off the bar of St. Augustine, by the Carolina privateersmen, in 1775.

The frontiers of Florida continued to be the seat of a vexatious and predatory war, until the year 1779, when General Prevost, the British governor, resolved to carry the war into the state of Georgia. He raised a considerable body of troops, regulars and Indians, and marching into Georgia, took possession of Sunbury, Augusta, and Savannah. By invading Georgia, however, he left his own territory exposed to the Spaniards, who immediately profited by his absence. Don B. de Galvez set out with a strong force in 1781, and soon gained possession of Baton Rouge, and successively of Pensacola, and the whole of West Florida. This territory remained in the possession of Spain, until after the peace of 1783, when Great Britain finally relinquished both Floridas.

In consequence of the purchase of Louisiana from France, and the cession of that territory to the United States, in the same extent as Spain had previously ceded it to France, the United States made claim to the country west of the river Perdido, and occupied all the important posts, with the exception of Mobile. This was given up to the American authorities about a year after. East Florida was retained by Spain, until after the year 1812. As the Spaniards had violated their neutrality, by permitting an expedition to be fitted out in Pensacola against the United States, General Jackson resolved to take possession of it; which he effected, and shortly afterwards returned to Mobile. He invaded Florida a second time, in consequence of the aggressions of the Seminole Indians, which were rather encouraged than repressed by the Spanish authorities, within whose limits they resided. He entered the Spanish territory in pursuit of the Indians, and finally took Fort St. Mark's, and Pensacola, which he held until 1818, when they were restored to Spain. The whole of Florida, after much tedious negotiation, was finally transferred to the United States by treaty, and was taken possession of by General Jackson in 1821, when the American territorial government was established.

The Territories of the United States constitute a singular and interesting feature of the American Union, and are particularly worthy of philosophic attention. In ancient times, states teeming with an exuberant population, sent colonies to seek their fortunes in distant and unexplored regions. Once separated from

mother country, they were left to their own exertions, and

very rarely afterwards were concerned in the political movements which occurred. The modern system of colonization, was altogether founded upon the self-interest of the metropolis, for whose welfare, wealth, and convenience, the colonies and their inhabitants were always liable to be sacrificed. The provinces of the Republic bore the same relations to Rome, and their inhabitants to Roman citizens.

This selfish policy necessarily caused a reaction, the gigantic effects of which were seen at the conclusion of the last, and the commencement of the present century. It would have been the grossest infatuation, had the successful opponents of this selfish policy adopted it themselves, in the settlement of their immense territories. An entirely new system of colonization was adopted, which, in the lapse of thirty years, has nearly doubled the original number of the United States. It appears, in fact, that, taught by its own experience and our example, the only power which now possesses any colonies of magnitude, is endeavouring at a distance to follow our plan, and calculates upon the eventual independence of its remaining colonies.

This new policy was not designed to create subject provinces, but to establish sister states. An immense extent of country was to be wrested from the scalping Indian, to be made the abode of peace, civilization, and the arts, and to be thronged with an enlightened population. To secure these results, infant governments of the most simple kind were to be established in the wilderness, under the paternal care and guardianship of the Union, and remain in that state of minority, until they acquired sufficient age and strength to assume their places, on an entire equality with the other branches of the family.

As early as the year 1780, Congress resolved that such lands as should be obtained from the states, or Indians, should be formed into independent states. The first cession of lands was made by the state of New-York in 1781. Virginia followed the example in 1784, with an express condition that the lands should be appropriated to the formation of states. North-Carolina did the same in 1790, and Georgia in 1802. Although the basis of territorial government could be traced for a few years before, perhaps in the organization of the district of Kentucky, it was not regularly established, previously to the year 1787-the era of an Act of Congress for the government of the North-Western Territory. This model was applied, without any material alteration, to the territories of Tennessee, Indiana, and Michigan.

The people were allowed the privilege of self-government to a certain extent: the executive and judiciary were appointed by the United States, and the legislature was elective, being divided into two branches, one to remain in office during five, the other and more numerous branch to continue in office for two years.

Elections, however, were not to take place, until the population amounted to three thousand souls.

The first material change of this model was made for the Mississippi territory, where the people were entitled to a legislature of nine members, whatever might be the number of citizens. The next very important alteration occurred in 1804, in forming the government for the territory of Orleans, since constituted the state of Louisiana. The legislative council in this territory was to be appointed by the President, and formed the entire government. Even trial by jury, except in capital cases, was left. at their option.

The government of the Florida territory was a copy of that of Orleans. The first legislative councils were appointed by the President, and always contained a large majority of new comers, speculators or grantees, having in general personal interests directly opposed to those of the people, and of the United States. An entirely new system of legislation was patched up at every session, and scarcely could it be printed and circulated, before a new council would overturn all the notions of law and equity. The county courts, it is believed, have been organized differently, not less than four times in five years. Some of these evils were lessened in 1826, by the Act of Congress, vesting the election of members of the council in the people; but the most important defects are still continued. A new council is elected annually, and abrogates all the laws of the last session before they are fairly known. No permanency nor benefit can be expected under such legislation, as the people are continually wearied and puzzled to know the laws by which they are to be directed. Nothing but the good sense and correct conduct of the inhabitants, renders the government of Florida any thing better than a state of perfect anarchy. The judiciary department, in an especial degree, requires a thorough reformation.

The territories of Orleans and Florida have had to encounter difficulties of great magnitude, and of the most discouraging character, Florida, especially, wanted such a river as the Mississippi, by which settlers might approach. The other territories were settled by Americans. They offered no hindrance to civilization, but from rude nature, or from the Red men, her ruder children. In Florida, every thing was disposed in hostile array against the laws, customs, and religion of the settlers. In the other territories, the lands, with very few exceptions, originally belonged to the United States; in Florida, land had been granted in bodies of every size and figure, by several executive governments, acting under laws entirely different from each other and our own. By this the courts were embarrassed, the land titles confused, and the sales of public lands, and the settlement of the ntry, greatly retarded.

Florida, moreover, had to encounter still greater disadvantages than those to which Louisiana was subjected. At the time the territory was surrendered by the Spanish authorities, little more was known of it than the immediate vicinity of the cities of St. Augustine and Pensacola, and the rivers St. John and St. Mary. An exceedingly sterile soil, occupied by a lazy population, offered few inducements to other settlers. The occurrence of a tremendous epidemic, regarded as yellow fever, contributed largely to discredit the newly acquired country. It was, however, soon discovered, that a few tracts of very superior soil existed near the only points known; but it appeared that each of these favoured spots was claimed under several different grants. A superior court had been established on the east, and another on the west of the Suwannee, and two commissions, appointed to settle the land claims, had jointly begun to attract a large number of strangers. The old Spanish inhabitants, at least the most respectable of them, were in the meanwhile departing with their property and negroes for Havana, according to the terms of the treaty of cession. It is a fact, that with the exception of officers of government, some lawyers, shopkeepers, and landjobbers, not exceeding altogether two hundred souls, not more than ten settlers or planters, with their families and negroes, have arrived in East Florida, since it came into possession of the American government. The entire population consists of the Spanish population of the city, and eastern shore of St. John's river, and of a number of small planters and cowdrivers, who removed from St. Mary's, or the lower part of Georgia, to the western banks of the St. John, while under the Spanish government.

The advantages accruing to the United States by the purchase of Florida, were too great to allow of any doubt as to the policy of the measure. Its military importance alone, in the event of war, was sufficient to justify the acquisition; but the time soon arrived, when the agricultural prospects of the country were discovered. In 1818, the army under General Jackson marched through the Chipola country to Fort St. Mark's, Micosucky, and Suwannee Old Towns. The western militiamen retained a vivid recollection of the small quantity of very superior lands they had seen in the midst of the pine barrens. These lands, notwithstanding they were once known to the whites, and had in former times been cultivated, had been entirely neglected by the Spaniards, and fallen into the absolute possession of the Indians.

While the Duke of Alagon claimed almost half the peninsula; while immense tracts of land were granted in Allachua, at Tampa bay, and on Indian river; while J. Forbes and Company were loud in the praise of their purchase at the mouth of Apalachicola, the fertile and undulating country of Tallahassee, Chipola, and

Little river, was suffered to remain unobserved, and public attention was entirely engrossed by the first-mentioned comparatively barren tracts. This proved to be a great blessing to Florida. If this part of the country had been known to the Spanish government, it would have been granted, and squandered in suits, or in tricks of speculation, as the land to the eastward and westward had been, and the flourishing crops which are now blossoming there, and the crowd of respectable and enlightened emigrants, who enliven this no longer wilderness, would not be there to compensate the nation for her sacrifices.

In 1824, however, a treaty was held at camp Moultrie, near St. Augustine, with the Indians, by Governor Duval, Col. J. Gadsden, and B. Sequi, one of the old inhabitants. Col. Gadsden, who had followed General Jackson in 1818, and was acquainted with the lands north and west, directed the negotiations so as to save to the United States the rich country above mentioned. In vain the speculators and grantees, who only became acquainted with this promised land after it had been snatched from their reach, threw every obstacle in the way of the commissioners, who succeeded in obtaining the cession of the soil, and the Indians were subsequently established in the south, on tracts of comparatively little value.

This was the commencement of a new era for the territory. The legislature indicated a site for a capital in the newly acquired district; twenty townships were surveyed and partly sold; a new judicial district was established; emigrants crowded round the rising walls of the capital, and to use the bombastic expressions of the acting governor's message, "the woods yielded their shade to the saw, and their silence to the hammer." This portion of country has been rescued in this manner from the hands of land and claim jobbers, and a strong body of intelligent planters and actual settlers has been created, neither interested to deceive the people of the United States, nor readily to be deceived themselves. As they increase in numbers and wealth, they will attend to the management of their public concerns, and henceforth the inhabitants of the "land of flowers," will emulate the conduct of the industrious bee.

Florida may at this time be considered as three regions:

1st. St. Augustine and the East. Here the land is generally poor, and, figuratively speaking, is covered with undetermined and conflicting claims, which prevent the settlement and cultivation of the small proportion of good lands. Excepting its delightful climate and orange groves, St. Augustine has little to recommend it. The population consists chiefly of Spanish fishermen, whose indigence prevented their migration to Cuba. It has no back country for its support, and can scarcely ever become a place of business. During the existence of the Spanish autho