GENERAL HISTORY. 



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53 



otherwise affect the persons and 

 property of our citizens. These 

 anticipations have been realized. 

 Such injuries have been received 

 from persons acting under the au- 

 thority of both the parties, and 

 for which redress has, in most in- 

 stances, been withheld. Through 

 every stage of the conflict, the 

 United States have maintained an 

 impartial neutrality, giving aid to 

 neither of the parties, in men, 

 money, ships, or munitions of 

 war. They have regarded the 

 contest, not in the light of an or- 

 dinary insurrection or rebellion, 

 but as a civil war between parties 

 nearly equal, having as to neutral 

 j)Owers, equal rights. Our ports 

 have been open to both ; and every 

 article, the fruit of our soil, or of 

 the industry of our citizens, which 

 either was permitted to take, has 

 been equally free to the other. 

 Should the colonies establish their 

 independence, it is proper now to 

 state, that this Government nei- 

 ther seeks, nor would accept from 

 them any advantage, in commerce 

 or otherwise, which would not be 

 equally open to all other nations. 

 The colonies will, in that event, 

 become independent states, free 

 from any obligation to or con- 

 nexion with us, which it may not 

 then be their interest to form on 

 a basis of fair reciprocity. 



" In the summer of the present 

 year an expedition was set on 

 foot against East Florida, by per- 

 sons claiming to act under the 

 authority of some of the colonies, 

 who took possession of Amelia 

 Island, at the mouth of St. Mary's 

 river, near the boundary of the 

 state of Georgia. As this province 

 lies east of the Mississippi, and is 

 bounded by the United vStatcs and 



tiie ocean on every side, and has 

 been a subject of negotiation with 

 the Government of Spain, as an 

 indemnity for losses by spoliation, 

 or in exchange for territory of 

 equal value westward of the Rlis- 

 sissippi, a fact well known to the 

 world, it excited surprise that any 

 countenance should be given to 

 this measure by any of the colo- 

 nies. As it would be difficult to 

 reconcile it with the friendly rela- 

 tions existing between the United 

 States and the colonies, a doubt 

 was entertained whether it had 

 been authorized by them, or any 

 of tiiem. This doubt has gained 

 strength, by the circumstances 

 which have unfolded themselves 

 in the prosecution of the enter- 

 prise, which have marked it as a 

 mere private unauthorized ad- 

 venture. Projected and counte- 

 nanced with an incompetent force, 

 reliance seems to have been placed 

 on what might be drawn, in de- 

 fiance of our laws, fiom within 

 our limits ; and of late, as their 

 resources have failed, it has as- 

 sumed a more marked chaiacter 

 of unfriendliness to us, the island 

 being made a channel for the illi- 

 cit introduction of slaves from 

 Africa into the United States, an 

 asylum for fugitive slaves from the 

 neighbouring States, and a port 

 for smuggling of every kind. 



" A similar establishment was 

 made, at an earlier period, by per- 

 sons of the same description in 

 the Gulph of Mexico, at a place 

 called Galvestown, within the li- 

 mits of the United States, as we 

 contend, under the cession of 

 Louisiana. This enterprise has 

 been marked in a moie signal 

 manner, by all the objectionable 

 circumstances which chaiacterized 



the 



