ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. 0. M. P. 311 



will in that event exorcise a sound discretion as to the propriety of crossing the line 

 for the purpose of attacking them and breaking up their towns. 



The ijroclamation of General Jackson on the 29th of May, 1818, 

 completes all 1 need trouble you with in this connection. This is the 

 Proclamation : 



Major-General Andrew Jackson has found it necessary to take possession of 

 Pensacola. 



He has not been prompted to this measure from a wish to extend the territorial 

 limits of the United States, or from any unfriendly feeling on the part of the Amer- 

 ican Republic to the Spanish Goveruiueut. The Seminole Indians inhabiting the 

 territories of Spain have,' for more than two years past, visited our frontier settle- 

 ments with all the horrors of savage massacre. Helpless women have been butch- 

 ered, and the cradle stained with the blood of innocents. These atrocities, it was 

 expected, would have early attracted the attention of the Spanish Government and, 

 faithful to existing Treaties, speedy measures adopted for their suppression. But 

 so far from beiug able to control, the Spanish authorities were often compelled, 

 from policy or necessity, to issue munitious of war to these savages; thus enabling, 

 if not exciting, them to raise the tomahawk against us. 



That is his justification. I need not point out that that is a state 

 of war. 



Mr. Phelps. — You do not mean that that is the transaction that is 

 referred to in my Argument; that is three years later — the occupation 

 of Pensacola for a different reason. 



Sir Charles Russell. — Yes, this is the occupation of Pensacola 

 that I have been reading. 



Mr. Phelps. — But it is some years after. I do not object to your 

 reading it, of course. 



Sir Charles Eussell. — I assure you it is part of the story and 

 the same transaction. It begins on October 17th, or at least the earliest 

 communication I have read is then, and the proclamation of General 

 Jackson, after the attack, is on the 29th May, 1818. The mistake that 

 my learned friend has fallen into, with great deference is, that it is not 

 1815 but 1817. I think that my learned friend will find we are right 



in that. 

 1092 We have had a careful search made through the whole of the 

 American pai^ers of the time, and that is the only one which we 

 can identify as being referred to in this Argument, But whatever the 

 time may be, my learned friend, I think, will not deny that the state- 

 ment in his Argument that it was "held by outlaws of all kinds on the 

 Appalachicola River, then within Spanish territory, from which parties 

 had gone forth to pillage within the United States" relates to the 

 Seminole Indians to whom I have referred. About that there can be 

 no doubt. 



Now the next case which my learned friend refers to is at the bottom 

 of the same page : 



A similar case was that of Greytown. It was a port on the Mosquito coast, in 

 which some United States citizens resided. These citizens, and others interested 

 with them in business, were subjected to gross indignities and injuries by the local 

 authorities, who were British, but who professed to act from the authority of the 

 king or chief of the Mosquito Islands. The parties then appealed to the commander 

 of the United States sloop of war Cyane, then lying near the port, for protection. 

 To punish the authorities for tlieir action he bombarded the town. For this act he 

 was denounced by the British residents, who claimed that the British Government 

 had a protectorate over that region. His action was sustained by the Government 

 of the United States, the ground being the necessity of punishing in this way the 

 wroug to the citizens of the United States, and preventing its continuance. 



Now, here again, we have the Official Papers. The United States 

 President, at that time Mr. Franklin Pierce, in his Message to Congress 

 explains this occurrence. He says, after referring to the position of 



