muse of history had not confided the virgin pages yet unwritten. To Napoleon's advances Madison replied that "the United States having chosen as the basis of their policy a fair and sincere neutrality among the contending powers, they are disposed to adhere to it as long as their essential interests will permit, and are more especially disinclined to become a party to the complicated and general warfare which agitates another quarter of the globe, for the purpose of obtaining a separate and particular object however interesting to them." 1 It was now out of the question to think of negotiations between the United States and Spain. Harassed by Napoleon, drained of men and money, Godoy, the dissolute Prince of Peace, fallen, her king had abdicated and his son had been crowned amidst the joyful demonstrations of his insanely patriotic subjects. The French armies were in Madrid and shortly the imprisoned Charles and Ferdinand had both surrendered their rights at the dictation of Napoleon. In May, 1808, at first dazed with this kaleidoscopic change of sovereigns, the people in every part of the Spanish kingdom were in arms, and anarchy seemed complete in that wretched country. Governed by Joseph Bonaparte as king and a miserable though native junta, who claimed in their peripatetic movements to be the true rulers, all questions of diplomacy were forced to give way to the sterner considerations of war and pillage. In the United States the accredited chargé continued to conduct the ordinary diplomatic intercourse. Foronda found cause for complaint in various irregularities in the south and southwest. Negroes and Indians were attacking Florida and shutting off provisions from the province. The commandant of American gunboats captured Spanish vessels within the jurisdiction of East Florida. This government under its Embargo Act, forbidding exportation by 1. Vol. VI, Instructions, p. 458, Madison to Armstrong, May 2, 1808. land as well as sea, had shut off supplies from Florida and was causing untold hardship and suffering. The Georgians were raiding Florida, stealing slaves and personal property. The Spanish territory was being violated by men in the naval and military service of the United States. They were encouraging an uprising at Mobile; Spanish vessels were being shut out of the Mississippi in violation of treaty rights. Certain citizens of New Orleans were plotting revolutionary movements in Mexico and Vera Cruz and setting on foot filibustering expeditions. Such was the burden of Foronda's letters to the secretary of state in the years of 1808 and 1809. That many of his complaints were ill-founded is probably true, but that there were constant incursions into Spanish territory, and constant violations of Spanish sovereignty and that our southern ports, particularly New Orleans, were being made the headquarters of revolutionary plotters and filibusters seems equally cer tain. In the fall of 1808 the report gained credence in Spain that Napoleon intended to sell the Floridas to the United States. This caused the utmost concern and consternation in Madrid and the Spanish junta protested vigorously to Mr. Erving against such an act. It was rumored that negotiations with this in view had already been opened by the French minister at Washington. There seems to have been no foundation for this canard and Erving promptly disclaimed all knowledge of it. During the struggle then being waged for the possession of the Spanish throne, the United States insisted on observing absolute neutrality, refusing to recognize either claimant until the question should be definitely settled. In 1810 Ferdinand VII having gained at least a temporary success, was nominally at the head of the Spanish government and as such appointed De Onis minister at Washington to succeed D'Yrujo. The United States, true to its declaration, refused to recognize Ferdinand or receive De Onis. As one reads the history of bleeding Spain during these years of national misfortune he must needs nominate it a "hapless, miserable country." And yet he cannot fail to admire those peasants, priest-ridden and ignorant though they were, who rose as one man to fight for their legitimate sovereign and drive out the hated despot - the people who taught other nations that even Napoleon was vulnerable, and inspired them to rise against the curse of Europe. For in Spain it was that Napoleon received the first reverses which culminated six years later in an overwhelming Waterloo. The Spaniards were a people - hitherto Napoleon had attacked governments and defeated them. At Jena he had fought a government and Europe lay prostrate at his feet at Waterloo he fought a people and St. Helena was his grave. Let the future applaud the Spanish patriotism, unworthy though the beneficiaries were, which released Europe from the bonds of cruel slavery forged to satisfy the insatiable ambition of a heartless warrior. THE CHAPTER VI. FLORIDA DURING THE WAR OF 1812. HE anarchy which existed in the mother country, the downfall of the Spanish monarchy, and the elevation of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne had given a show of legitimacy to a series of revolutions which gradually infected most of the Spanish provinces of South America. Nor had the organization of the Spanish junta succeeded in restoring any degree of order in these countries. The downfall of legitimacy at Madrid was rather the excuse than the justification of the rebellions which now sprang up in the South American colonies, like toad-stools in a night. Encouraged and assisted by English emissaries the people of Buenos Ayres rose and expelled the viceroy commissioned by the Spanish junta. The worthy people of Ca-accas were not slow in imitating their neighbors and soon Venezuela, New Granada, and Mexico were in arms and the discerning eye could readily detect the signs of imminent trouble in Cuba and West Florida. In the latter territory the germs of rebellion first bore fruit in the district of New Feliciana which lay along the Mississippi just across the boundary line of 31°. The immediate cause may have been a widely circulated rumor that Napoleon intended to seize and hold West Florida. A curious population, that of this province, since the purchase of Louisiana a notable congregation of evil-doers; Englishmen, Spaniards, renegade Americans, traders, land speculators, army deserters, fleeing debtors, fugitives from justice, fili - busters, pirates, and others of like ilk. Taking advantage of the confusion in Spain and the difficulties in the other provinces these people determined to seize the opportunity to set up a free government which meant simply substituting their own misrule for that of Spain. In the spring of 1810 they issued a call for a convention which with the consent of the governor, Don Carlos Debault Delassus, met at St. John's Plains in July. Delegates from San Feliciana, Baton Rouge, St. Helena, and Tauchipaho responded to the call. The settlers were, generally speaking, divided into three classes. One, mostly the people of New Feliciana, wanted an independent government; another faction insisted that the province should support Ferdinand VII; but the largest number sought annexation to the United States, in which they were stoutly supported by the press of Tennessee and Kentucky. It was argued by these papers that if the United States did not take West Florida, England would. In that event the people of Kentucky and Tennessee and the territories of Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana would never tolerate being cut off from access to the Gulf of Mexico and trade on the Atlantic. Those desiring a separate government issued a manifesto, a combination of queer political philosophy and grandiloquent literature, a blending of our Declaration of Independence and constitution with certain other features making it radically different. This innovation proved too bold and when the convention reassembled after a short adjournment, the delegates merely suggested a few reforms which Delassus promised to put into execution. They recommended a provisional government in the name of Spain; courts of justice modeled after those of the United States, a militia, the naturalization of aliens and a printing press under the control of the judiciary. Such a scheme was manifestly |