troops." This was in answer to interrogatory 13, in regard to planting in 1813.

In this, as in many of the cases, the Secretary allowed for the loss of the crop that might have been planted in 1813, (estimating it at two-thirds of the value of the crop of the preceding year,) for the reason that it could not be planted in consequence of the presence of the troops.

In looking minutely to the whole case and testimony, I have no doubt of the propriety of allowing for the loss of the crop of 1812, amounting to $1,500.

Your obedient servant,

Hon. THOMAS CORWIN,

Secretary of the Treasury.

J. C. CLARK, Solicitor.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

September 21, 1852.

In the within case of the estate of Andrew Atkinson, deceased, a claimant under the 9th article of the treaty with Spain of the 22d February, 1819, for losses in East Florida in the years 1812-'13, it appearing that an award, amounting to the sum of $3,800, was made by Judge Reid, at St. Augustine, on the 15th August, 1839, on which the sum of $2,300 was approved and paid, under the decree of this department, dated November 28, 1839, as per statement filed in the office of the Register, (No. 78,295;) and it further appearing to the satisfaction of the department, on a careful examination of the case, that the further sum of $1,500, included in said award, is jusly due the said claimant, the said sum of $1,500 is allowed, without interest, as the balance in full of the entire claim, to be paid to the legal representative of said Andrew Atkinson.

Done in virtue of the power vested in me by the act passed the 26th June, 1834, for the relief of certain inhabitants of East Florida." Referred to the First Auditor for settlement.

THO. CORWIN,

Secretary of the Treasury.

UNITED STATES COURT OF CLAIMS.

BRIEF.

LETITIA HUMPHREYS, ADMINISTRATRIX OF THE ESTATE OF ANDREW ATKINSON, DECEASED, A CLAIMANT UNDER THE NINTH ARTICLE OF THE TREATY OF 1819 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND SPAIN,

V8.

THE UNITED STATES.

This is one of a class of cases arising under the 9th article of the treaty of February 22, 1819, between the United States and Spain, and the acts of Congress passed to carry it into effect.

The petition in this case is founded on a decision and judgment in favor of the estate of the said Andrew Atkinson, deceased, made by the Judge of the superior court established at St. Augustine, in the late Territory of Florida, under the treaty and acts aforesaid; and is filed to recover the unpaid portion of said judgment.

The proceedings and judgment in favor of the said Atkinson's estate are shown by the record sent from the Treasury Department and on file in this case.

The grounds on which the unpaid portion of said judgment was rejected, and the payment thereof refused by the Secretary of the Treasury, are briefly set forth in the petition filed in this case, and will more fully appear from the following statement:

HISTORICAL STATEMENT OF THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE CLAIMS OF 1812 AND 1813.

The treaty of 1795, between the United States and Spain, established relations of peace and amity between the two governments, which continued, without interruption on the part of Spain, until the final ratification of the treaty of 1819. From the year 1807 to the year 1812, and until the period of the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, in that year, the neutral rights and commerce of the United States were so far disregarded by England and France, and other European powers acting in concert with them, that Congress was compelled, in defence of those rights, to enact a series of acts known as the Embargo and Non-intercourse Laws.— (Treaty of 1795, with Spain, 8 Stats. at Large, p. 138; Embargo Laws, 2 Stats. at Large, pp. 451, 452, 453, 454, 473, 474, 475, 490; 499 to 502; 506 to 511; 531; 528, sect. 19; 533; 547; 700, 701; 707, 708, 719; 763; 3 Stats. at Large, p. 88; Non-intercourse and Non-importation Acts, 2 Stats. at Large, 379, 401, 469, 532; 528 to 533; 530, sec. 11; 550, 551; 605, 606; 651; 755; 763. Berlin and Milan Decrees, and British Orders in Council, Ramsay's U. S. History, vol. 3, p. 462 to 476, Appendix.)

In the year 1811, the relations between the United States and Great Britain, and between the latter power and Spain, were of such a character as to create an apprehension on the part of the United States that Great Britain would seize the provinces of East and West Florida, then a dependency of the crown of Spain; and the United States

having long looked to a cession of these provinces as an indemnification for her just claims upon Spain; and being unwilling, from their geographical position, that any other power, and especially Great Britain, should possess them, Congress, on the 15th day of January, 1811, passed a secret act and joint resolution, authorizing the President, on the conditions therein stated, to take possession of the said provinces, and for that purpose to employ the army and navy of the United States, and appropriating $100,000 for that object.-(3 Stats. at Large, pp. 471, 472.

Under this action of Congress, and under the orders of the President, in pursuance thereof, East Florida was invaded early in March, 1812, by the army and navy, and by certain irregular forces of the United States-the latter being mostly from the contiguous State of Georgia-and the whole inhabited portion of the country, except the city of St. Augustine, including Amelia island and the neutral port of Fernandina, was taken forcible possession of, and retained till about the middle of May, 1813.-(Judge Bronson's Op. in case of Ferreira, p. 6 to 12.)

At the period of this invasion, owing to the operation of the Embargo and Non-intercourse Laws of the United States, a vast neutral commerce was carried on at the port of Fernandina, on Amelia island, the only port on the American coast which was open to the products of all nations, and at which an exchange of commercial articles could be lawfully and safely made. The Baltic sea being closed, by the political relations then existing between the powers of Europe, vast quantities of lumber and ship timber, among other things, were exported from that place. The slave trade, which was closed in the United States in 1808, was still open in Florida, as a province of Spain. This state of things in Florida, the great facility afforded by the laws and policy of Spain for the naturalization of foreigners in that province, and the liberal grants of land made both to Spaniards and immigrants, with the attractions of a mild and salubrious climate, singularly adapted to the culture of sea island cotton and other valuable productions, led to a concentration of much of the wealth of the Carolinas and Georgia in East Florida, at and previous to this period.(3 Am. State Papers, by Gales & Seaton, Pub. Lands, pp. 725 to 895.)

As the occupation of East Florida by the American forces was strenuously and forcibly resisted by the Spanish authorities thereof, a feeling of great bitterness and hostility on the part of the former was excited; and an occupation which was designed by Congress to be only peaceful on the part of the United States, and voluntary on the part of the authorities and subjects of the province, was converted into a forcible and violent conquest, by the American forces, of this defenceless province of a power with which we were bound to the obligations of peace, by the most solemn treaty stipulations.

For a judicial history of the wanton and indiscriminate destruction of every species of property, during the invasion and occupation of the province, as aforesaid, the following extracts are made from the decisions and reports to the Treasury Department by Judges Smith, Reid, and Bronson, who were charged with the adjudication of this class of claims:

Judge Smith says: "It has been fully proved by the testimony which in various cases has been adduced before me, that in the years 1812 and 1813 the province of East Florida was invaded by citizens of the United States, denominated patriots, principally from Georgia, and also by the regular troops belonging to the army of the United States; that these in effect co-operated; and that the whole population of East Florida, north and west of Augustine, and on the banks of the St. John's, were compelled to take part therein, or to abandon their plantations.

"It has been further proved that the cattle, horses, swine, and moveables of the plantations of this portion of the province, were, during this incursion, almost without exception, destroyed, dispersed, and lost to the owners; that the buildings, fences, and crops of many plantations were wholly destroyed, sometimes having been previously abandoned by their owners, and at others the owners having remained till the destruction commenced."

Judge Reid, after describing the previous flourishing condition of the province, says; "This revolution, which ceased in 1813, left the country desolate. Plantations, farms, houses, stock, poultry, tools, and implements-every thing in the shape of property-had been pillaged or destroyed. The country was a desert; many persons in comfortable circumstances in the beginning of 1812 were reduced to extreme poverty in the course of fourteen months, and East Florida has never recovered from the shock it then received."-(See Solicitor Clark's Rep. to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated March 7, 1851. Ap. pp. 14, 15.)

*

*

*

Judge Bronson, in his decision in the case of Ferreira, administrator of Pass, says: "The difficulty of obtaining supplies for such a force led them at once to look to the resources of the country; and large droves of cattle, with which the country then abounded, were immediately and unhesitatingly seized upon to relieve their necessities; and foraging parties, consisting both of regular troops and patriots, were sent out in all directions to collect cattle and other means of subsistence for the army. "A detail of some of the more revolting instances of robbery and plunder and wanton destruction on the one hand, that occurred during this period, or of individual cases of hardship, ruin, and beggary on the other, is hardly called for, and perhaps not proper in this general statement, though they might tend much to illustrate the general character of the injuries of that period. Suffice it to say, that before or when the United States troops finally evacuated the country, the whole inhabited part of the province was in a state of utter desolation and ruin. Almost every building outside of the walls of St. Augustine was burned or destroyed; farms and plantations laid waste; cattle, horses, and hogs driven off or killed, and moveable property plundered or destroyed; and in many instances slaves dispersed or abducted. So far as the destruction of property of every kind was concerned, the desolation of the Carnatic by Hyder Ali was not more terrible and complete."-(Decision, pp. 9, 10.)

Colonel Smith, of the United States army, who commanded the invading force, wrote to his government: The inhabitants have all

66

abandoned their houses, and as much of their moveables as they could not carry away with them." He adds: "The province will soon become a desert."-(Solicitor Clark's Rep. above cited, App. p. 15.)

President Monroe, then Secretary of State, in a letter to Governor Mitchell of 10th April, 1812, after alluding to the fact that the troops of the United States had been used to dispossess the Spanish authorities by force, says: "I forbear to dwell on the details of this transaction, because it is too painful to recite them."—(Am. State Papers, For. Aff., vol. 3, p. 571.)

For a more full history of these transactions, see the correspondence between Mr. Monroe and Mr. Foster, at pages 543, 544, and 545, of the third volume of American State Papers, Foreign Relations; also the documents communicated by the President to the House of Representatives on the 1st July, 1812, at page 571, &c., of the same volume of American State Papers, consisting of instructions to General Matthews and Colonel McKee; Mr. Monroe's letter of recall to General Matthews, and also his letter of instructions to Governor Mitchell.

These injuries, which were protested against by Spain, were in open violation of the law of nations and of the treaty of peace then existing between the two governments, and were so admitted to be by te United States; and their commissioner, General Matthews, was punished by dismission.-(Am. State Papers, above cited.)

During the war between the United States and Great Britain, in 1814, West Florida was entered by General Jackson, and the army under his command, to expel the British and their Indian allies from Pensacola; and in 1818, the same officer again entered West Florida, in pursuit of the Indians, and St. Mark's and Pensacola were taken, and subsequently restored. (For invasion of 1814, see American State Papers, Military Affairs, vol. 1, p. 698 to 707. For invasion of West Florida, in 1818, see American State Papers, Military Affairs, same volume, from p. 697 to 702.)

Both these last named acts of General Jackson and his army were also complained of by Spain as violations of her neutrality; but were justified or sought to be excused, by the United States, on the ground of necessity; while no such ground was ever urged in justification of the invasion of East Florida, in 1812 and 1813.

TREATY, AND ACTS TO CARRY IT INTO EFFECT.

For all these alleged injuries, Spain earnestly demanded satisfaction; and when the treaty of 1819 was concluded, the following provision was inserted, and constitutes the last clause of the 9th article of that instrument, viz:

The United States will cause satisfaction to be made for the injuries, if any, which, by process of law, shall be established to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and individual Spanish inhabitants, by the late operations of the American army in Florida."

The Spanish version of this article does not contain the word "late," but reads simply, "by the operations of the American army in the Floridas."-(8 Stats. at Large, p. 260.)

The last protocol of this clause, from which both sides of the treaty Mis. Doc. 105-4