ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 303 



are not cases of acts of defence or in the nature of acts of self preser 

 vation, as sujigested. 



The first of these is at page 152, the case of Amelia Island, which 

 occurred in the year 1810. This will be found to have been in effect 

 belligei ency. These are the facts; and I take them as they are put in 

 the printed Argument of the United States. 



Amelia Islaud, at the mouth of St. Mary's river, 



Which I may say is off what is now the -State of Florida 



and at that time iu Spanish territory, was seized in 1817 by a band of buccaneers 

 under the direction of an adventurer named McGregor, who, iu the name ot the 

 insurgent colonies of Buenos Ayres and Venezuela, preyed indiscriminately on the 

 commerce of Spain and of the United States. The Spanish Government not being 

 able or willing to drive them off, and the nuisance being one which required imme- 

 diate action, Presidmit Monroe called his Cabinet together in October, 3817, and 

 directed that a vessel of war should proceed to the island and expel the marauders, 

 destroying their works and vessels. 



Why, the mere statement of the case, as it is put here — not unfairly 

 at all — by my learned friends, shows what the character of the case was. 



I have before me the message of the President of the United States to 

 Congress, in which he ex^ilains and justifies the action that is referred 

 to in that case; and having read that, I shall not need to say more about 

 it. Of course if I am relieved, as I should be delighted to be relieved, 

 of any of these cases by the Tribunal, I shall pass on. 



The President. — Not at all. 



Sir Charles Russell. — But I must deal with each of them unless 

 I am so relieved. 

 1083 This was the message of President Monroe, delivered on the 

 13th of January, 1818, He says : 



I have the satisfaction to inform Congress that the establishment in Amelia Island 

 has been suppressed, and without the eS"asion of blood. * * * * By the suppression of 

 this establishment and that of Galveston, which will soon follow, if it has not already 

 ceased to exist, there is good cause to believe that the consummation of a project 

 fraught with much injury to the United States has been prevented. When we con- 

 sider the persons engaged in it, being adventurers from diflerent countries, with 

 very few, if any, of the native inhabitants of the Spanish colonies; — the territory 

 on Avhich the establishments were made, one on a portion of that claimed by the 

 United States, westward of the Mississippi; the other on the part of East Florida, 

 a province in negotiation between the United States and Spain; — the claim of their 

 leader, as announced by his proclamation on taking possession of Amelia Island, 

 comprising the whole of both the Floridas, without excepting that part, of West 

 Florida which is incorporated with the state of Louisiana; — their conduct while in 

 the possession of the island, making it instrumental to every species of contraband, 

 and in regard to the slaves, of the most odious and dangerous character; — it may 

 fairly be concliuled that if the enterprise had succeeded on the scale on which it was 

 formed, much annoyance would have resulted from it to the United States. 



Other circumstances were thought to be no less deserving of attention. The 

 institution of a govLrnment by foreign adventurers in the islaud, distinct from the 

 colonial governments of Buenos Ayres, Venezuela, or Mexico, pretending to sov- 

 ereignty and exercising its highest offices, particularly in granting commissions to 

 privateers, were acts which could not fail to draw after them the most serious con- 

 sequences. It was the dutj* of the executive either to extend to this establishment 

 all the advantages of that neutrality which the United States had proclaimed and 

 have observed in favor of the colonies of Spain, who, by the strength of their popu- 

 lation and resources had declared their independence, and were affording strong- 

 proof of their ability to maintain it, or of making the discrimination which circum- 

 stances required. Had the first course been pursued we should not only have sanc- 

 tioned all the unlawful claims and practices of this pretended government in regard 

 to the United States, but have countenanced a system of privateering in the Gulf of 

 Mexico and elsevrhere, the ill effects of which might and probably would be deeply 

 and very extensively felt. The path of duty was plain, from the commencement; but 

 it was painful to enter upon it while the obligation could be resisted. The law of 

 1811, lately abolished, and which it is therefore proper now to mention, was con- 

 sidered apjilicable to the case, from the moment that the proclamation of the chief 



