[8] *Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, to Dr. Robinson. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, February 14, 1814. SIR: I have just received a letter from you, bearing date the 25th of January, but without any designation of the place at which it was written. From other sources I learn that you are at Natchez. This will, therefore, be addressed to you there. The measures in which you are engaged, being contrary to law and wholly unauthorized, have excited no little surprise, especially as you knew this to be the case from your instructions while acting under the authority of the Government, on the recommendation of the late General Pike. Your conduct is the more reprehensible from the circumstance that, as you were employed some time past in making a friendly communication to the governor of the internal provinces of New Spain, it may be inferred that you are still in the service of the Government, and acting in conformity to its views and by its authority. On hearing of your proceedings at Fort Pitt, I instructed the attorney of the United States for the district of Pennsyl vania to take the proper measures, in compliance with the law, to put a stop to them; and I now write to inform you, that if you do not immedi ately desist from your illegal measures and pursuits, the most decisive steps will be taken to give effect to the legal restraint applicable to them. [9] DR. ROBINSON. JAMES MONROE, *Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, to Governor Claiborne. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, February 17, 1814. SIR: I duly received the letter which you wrote to me on the 29th of November, 1813, giving information that General Toledo, late commander of the revolutionists in the Spanish province of Texas, and General Humbert, a Frenchman, were organizing and equipping a force in Louisiana and elsewhere within the United States, for the express pur pose of entering that province and aiding in the overthrow of its gov ernment; and I observe with pleasure that you were taking measures to defeat their project. There is reason to believe that these foreigners act in concert and are engaged with Dr. Robinson, and it is my wish that the instructions in relation to him, communicated in my letter to you of the 14th instant, may be extended to them. [10] JAMES MONROE. Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, to Mr. Robinson. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: There is reason to believe that General Toledo, late commander of the revolutionists in the Spanish province of Texas, and General Humbert, a Frenchman, *act in concert and are engaged with Doctor Robinson. It is my wish, therefore, that the instructions in relation to him, communicated in my letter to you of the 14th instant, may be extended to them. TULLY ROBINSON, Esq. JAMES MONROE. Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, to Mr. Conner. April 19, 1814. SIR: The papers referred to in your letter of the 7th instant were duly received at this office. The United States being at peace with Spain, no countenance can be given by their Government to the proceedings of the revolutionary party in East Florida, if it is composed of Spanish subjects, and still less can it be given to them if it consists of American citizens, who, so far as their conduct may fall within the scope of existing laws long enacted and well known and understood, will be liable to censure. SIR: Information having reached this Department that sundry persons, citizens and others, within the limits of the State of Louisiana, are engaged in preparing the means of a military expedition against the dominions of Spain, I have to request, in the name of the President, that you will keep your official attention awake to the subject. Such conduct, violating alike the duties of neutrality and an express statute of Congress, merits the severest reprehension, and you will be pleased not to fail to prosecute, with due vigilance and to the full extent of the law, all persons implicated, against whom there appears, or can be ob tained, any sufficient evidence of guilt. I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN DICK, Esq., JAMES MONROE. District Attorney of the United States for Louisiana. (Similar letters to the above were written to the district attorneys of East and West Tennessee and Kentucky.) [12] *By the President of the United States of America. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas information has been received that sundry persons, citizens of the United States, or residents within the same, and especially within the State of Louisiana, are conspiring together to begin and set on foot, provide, and prepare the means for a military expedition or enterprise against the dominions of Spain, with which the United States are happily at peace; that, for this purpose, they are collecting arms, military stores, provisions, vessels, and other means, and deceiving and seducing honest and well-meaning citizens to engage in their unlawful enterprises; or organizing, officering, and arming themselves for the same, contrary to the laws in such cases made and provided: I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and enjoining all faithful citizens, who have been led, without due knowledge or consid eration, to participate in the said unlawful enterprises, to withdraw from the same without delay; and commanding all persons whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same to cease all further proceedings therein, as they will answer the contrary at their peril. And I hereby enjoin and require all officers, civil and military, of the United States, or [13] of any of the States or Territories, *all judges, justices, and other officers of the peace, all military officers of the Army or Navy of the United States, and officers of the militia, to be vigilant, each within his respective department, and according to his functions, in searching out and bringing to punishment all persons engaged or concerned in such enterprises; in seizing and detaining, subject to the disposition of the law, all arms, military stores, vessels, or other means provided or providing for the same; and, in general, in preventing the carrying on such expedition or enterprise by all the lawful means within their power: and I require all good and faithful citizens and others, within the United States, to be aiding and assisting herein; and especially in the discor ery, apprehension, and bringing to justice of all such offenders, in preventing the execution of their unlawful combinations or designs, and in giving information against them to the proper authorities. In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my haud. Done at the city of Washington, the 1st day of September, in the year of our Lord 1815, and of the Independence of the said United States of America the fortieth. By the President: [14] JAMES MONROE, Secretary of State. JAMES MADISON. *Circular to the governors of Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri Territories. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: In the absence of the Secretary of State from the seat of Gov ernment, I am charged to transmit to your excellency, as I have the honor of doing, the inclosed copy of a proclamation of the President, referring to certain unlawful preparations which are said to be on foot within the United States, particularly in the State of Louisiana, toward an enterprise against the Spanish dominions, warning the citizens of the United States and other inhabitants thereof against participation in them, and calling upon all faithful citizens and the several authorities of the country for their aid in the suppression of these preparations and designs. DANIEL BRENT. Circular to the district attorneys of Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missis sippi, and Missouri Territories. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: In the absence of the Secretary of State from the seat of Government, I am charged to transmit to you, as I have the honor of doing, the inclosed copy of a proclamation of the President of the United States in relation to a projected enterprise against the dominions of His Catholic Majesty, with a view of particularly calling your attention to the subject of it, and of inviting your official aid, as far as it may be necessary, on the occasion. DANIEL BRENT. [15] * Mr. Dick, district attorney, to Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State. NEW ORLEANS, March 1, 1816. SIR: Attempts to violate the laws by fitting out and arming, and by augmenting the force of vessels, have no doubt been frequent; but certainly in no instance successful, except where conducted under circumstances of concealment that eluded discovery and almost suspicion, or where carried on at some remote part of the coast beyond the reach of detection or discovery. In every instance where it was known that these illegal acts were attempting, or where it was afterward discovered that they had been committed, the persons engaged, as far as they were known, have been prosecuted, while the vessels fitted out, or attempted to be fitted out, have been seized and libeled under the act of the 5th of June, 1794; and when captures have been made by vessels. thus fitted out and armed, or in which their force was augmented or increased within our waters, where the property taken was brought within our jurisdiction, or even found upon the high seas by our cruis ers and brought in, it has been restored to the original Spanish owners, and in some instances damages awarded against the captors. An enumeration of the cases in which individuals have been prosecuted for infringing, or attempting to infringe, our neutrality in aid [16] of the governments of New *Spain, and in which vessels have been seized and libeled under the act of the 5th of June, 1794, together with a list of the vessels and property restored to the original Spanish owners, (confining the whole to the operations of the year commeucing March, 1815, and ending February, 1816,) will show more conclusively, perhaps, than anything else can, how totally without foundation are the complaints and how misplaced are the assertions of the minister of Spain on this head. The names of individuals prosecuted in the district court of the United States for the Louisiana district during the year 1815, for violating, or attempting to violate, the neutrality of the United States in aid of the governments of the United Provinces of New Granada, and of the United Provinces of Mexico: José Alvarry Toledo, Julius Ceasar Amigone, Vincent Gambie, John Robinson, Romain Very, Pierre Lameson, Bernard Bourden. List of vessels libeled for illegal outfits of the same governments during the same period: Brig Flora Americana, restored; schooner Presidente, condemned; schooner Petit Melan, condemned; schooner General Bolivar, discontinued; schooner Eugenen, alias Indiana, condemned; schooner Two Brothers, restored. [17] * Enumeration of vessels and property brought within the Louisiana district, captured under the flags and by the authority of the governments of New Grenada and of Mexico, libeled on the part of the original Spanish owners, and restored upon the ground that the capturing vessels had been fitted out and armed, or had their force augmented within the waters of the United States: 1. Schooner Cometa, restored April, 1815. 2. Schooner Dorada, proceeds restored 16th May, 1815, $3,050. 3. Schooner Amiable Maria, $3,850. 4. Schooner Experimento, restored 3d August. 5. The polacre brig De Regla and cargo, proceeds restored 18th December, 1815, $19,209.50. 6. Schooner Alerta and cargo, being the proceeds of the capture of about eighteen small vessels, restored 18th December, 1815, $62,150,05, Damages awarded to the original owners against the captors in the two foregoing cases, $55,272.99. 7. Cargo of the schooner Petit Melan, restored 1st February, 1816, $2.444.31. 8. Cargo of the schooner Presidente, restored 1st February, 1816, $10,931.15. 9. Schooner Sante Ritor and cargo, restored 1st February, 1816, $37,962.94. The preceding account of Spanish property restored to the origi [18] nal proprietors, after being in the possession of the enemies of Spain, is defective, inasmuch as it does not comprehend the whole of the cases of restoration that have taken place within the period to which the detail is confined. The very hasty manner in which I have made this communication did not admit of a more accurate statement. The principal cases, however, are included in it. In several other cases where the property was claimed for the origi nal Spanish owners, the claims were dismissed, because it did not appear that any violation of our neutrality had taken place. The captur ing vessels were not armed, nor was their force augmented within oar jurisdiction, nor had the captures been made within a marine league of our shore. The principles that guided the decisions of the court, as well in restoring the property captured where our neutral means had been used, as in declining all interference where that was not the case. manifest, I think, a disposition to, and an exercise of, the most rigid neutrality between the parties. If the whole of this letter is not an act of supererogation, to dwell longer upon those parts of the correspondence of the Chevalier de Onis which relate to Louisiana would at least be so considered. I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN DICK. Hon. JAMES MONROE. [19] *Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, to Mr. Dick, district attorney. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, June 7, 1816. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your very inters esting letter of the 1st of March. Although I was satisfied the repre sentations made to the Chevalier de Onis, on which he founded his com munications to me, were greatly exaggerated or entirely groundles yet I am particularly gratified in having received this letter, because it abundantly establishes the fact that all the constituted authorities at New Orleans had done all that the laws required at their hands. I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN DICK, Esq., New Orleans, Louisiana. JAMES MONROE. |