152] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



CHAPTER XV. 



United Slates of America. — Opposition to the Commercial Bill with 

 England. — Treaties with the Indians. — Disputes with the Spanish Go- 

 vernment. — Decline of Manufactures. — Measures for restoring Pay- 

 ment in legal Currency. — Hostility on the Gulf of Mexico. — President's 

 Message. 



THE bill for carrying into 

 effect tiie commercial treaty 

 with Gjeat Britain, whicli had 

 passeil the House of Representa- 

 tives, was rejected in the Senate 

 on January 19th, by a majority 

 of 21 to 10. The objections made 

 to it had no reference to the 

 merits of the treaty, but took the 

 ground 1st, that it was unneces- 

 sary, since the sanction the treaty 

 had received by the Piesident and 

 two thirds of the .Senate gave it 

 the full force of a law : 2dly, that 

 to re-enact it by way of bill 

 tended to confer on the House of 

 Representati\es a concurrence in 

 the ratification of treaties which 

 the constitution had denied to it, 

 and in effect gave it a power of 

 cancelling arrangements with fo- 

 reign states constitutionally con- 

 cluded and ratified. 



The treaties of peace with the 

 Indian tribes on the north-west 

 frontier were ratified ; andoiders 

 were issued, that such subjects of 

 the United States as, without con- 

 sent, had settled within the Indian 

 territories, should inmiediately 

 withdraw from them on pain of 

 military compulsion. 



In the same mo' th the Presi- 

 dent communicated to the House 



of Representatives three docu- 

 ments, consisting of two letters 

 from the Spanish minister to the 

 American secretary of state, and 

 the secretary's reply. In the first 

 of these, a demand is made of the 

 restitution to Spain of the terri- 

 tory in Florida, west of the Per- 

 dido \vhich was taken possession 

 of by the United States in con- 

 sequence of the Louisiana treaty, 

 intimating, h()we\er, th t after 

 it has been given up, the two go- 

 vernments may discuss the right 

 to it. Complaint is also made 

 of the armaments fitted out in 

 Louisiana against the Spanish 

 possessions ; and it is required, 

 that the revolutionary flag of 

 South America shall not be ad- 

 mitted into the ports of the 

 United States. The second letter 

 complains, that two bodies of 

 troops of 1000 men each, raised 

 in Kentucky and commanded by 

 American citizens, were to join 

 the expedition fitting out at New 

 Orleans by the traitor Toledo. 

 The American secretary in his 

 answer, speaks of injuries re- 

 ceived by them from the Spanish 

 government^ which the latter 

 ought to redress rather than make 

 demands upon the American go- 

 vernment ; 



