After the American Revolution, Spain regained control of Florida at the treaty of Paris and maintained this control until after the War of 1812. Through out this time, Spain provided little control over the land or who settled there. In President Monroe's 1818 State of the Union Address, he described the situation in the Spanish Floridas as one where Spain's authority was "confined almost exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine". The rest of the land was filled with "Adventurers from every country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have found an asylum there". In the 1700s, bands of Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama migrated to Florida seeking new lands away from the European settlers. Spain had encouraged the Creek Indians to setup farms to create a buffer between Spanish Florida and the United States. By the time of the American Revolution, these Indian tribes became collectively known as Seminole meaning "wild people" or "runaway". In 1818, President Monroe described these Indians as being very strong in the number of warriors, with remarkable ferocity. In addition to trouble with the Seminole Indians, illegal slave trade, "various frauds on our revenue", and other outrages occurred along the border between the U.S. and Florida.
As proof of how "completely extinct the Spanish authority had become", Monroe described how a small band of adventurer's "wrested" Amelia Island from an insignificant Spanish force stationed there, and established illicit slave Trade. Just before Christmas of 1817, Monroe sent in a United States Navy Squadron and a battalion of soldiers into Florida to take control of the Island and put an end to it's illicit slave trade. Florida, had become in Monroe's words a "theater of every species of lawless adventure". Spanish authority was almost non-existent, and very few Spaniards lived there. The colonial governments were in a state of revolution and the country had become the passion of every adventurer, or as Monroe described it, "the object of cupidity to every adventurer". In 1800s, U.S. authorities began attempts to recapture runaway black slaves who were living among or along side the Seminole tribes, but between 1816 and 1817, conflicts increased between the Seminoles and the U.S. along the Georgia border. The Seminole Indians had become an "effective force", and America was now at war with them. Monroe, blamed these Seminole wars on Spain. He traced them back to the interference of some of the adventurers who misrepresented the claims and titles of the Indians, stimulating savage communities to war. A war, in which these adventurer's were looking to profit off of.
The United States had been patient with Florida, for several years now, "embarrassments" had prevented Spain from reimbursing American citizens from her treasury for the losses during the Napoleonic wars. Monroe suggested that it was always in the power of the Spanish government to make amends by ceding some of this territory. Besides, even if Spain did not cede any territory, Pinkney's treaty in 1795 which had established the borders between the United State sand Florida, also stipulated that neither the United States nor Spain would incite native tribes to warfare. By neglecting the territory, and allowing adventurer's to incite the native tribes to warfare, Spain was failing to live up to their part of Pinkey's treaty. For many years, the United States had declined to press their claims in a "spirit of hostility", and according to Monroe, this should have been "duly appreciated" by the Government of Spain. But Madison concluded, "nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of amity and forbearance can in no instance be justified".
Monroe was sending a very clear message to Spain that since they did not establish proper authority in Spain, they left the United States with no alternative but to take action into their own hands. While it may have been proper to rely on friendly negotiations for the indemnity of losses, the same can not be said for allowing the "Floridas to be perverted by foreign adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the lives of our fellow citizens and the highest interests of the United States". The United States had every right to defend itself. In March of 1818, General Jackson gathered 800 U.S. regulars, 1,000 Tennessee Volunteers, 1,000 Georgia Military, and about 1,400 Lower Creek Warriors at Fort Scott. On March 15, Jackson marched his army into Florida and down the Apalachicola River. The Seminole war had begun, and President Monroe was pinning the blame on Spain. Here are the words James Monroe used to justify his actions.
"Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they were at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, providing for the adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens for injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish Government, has at length been ratified by it, but no arrangement has yet been made for the payment of another portion of like claims, not less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of claims, or for the settlement of boundaries. These subjects have again been brought under consideration in both countries, but no agreement has been entered into respecting them.Part II will becoming soon: Did General Jackson go too far?
In the mean time events have occurred which clearly prove the ill effect of the policy which that Government has so long pursued on the friendly relations of the two countries, which it is presumed is at least of as much importance to Spain as to the United States to maintain. A state of things has existed in the Floridas the tendency of which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest attention to the progress of affairs in that quarter. Throughout the whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish title extends the Government of Spain has scarcely been felt. Its authority has been confined almost exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine, within which only small garrisons have been maintained. Adventurers from every country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have found an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in the # of their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity, and whose settlements extend to our limits, inhabit those Provinces.
These different hordes of people, connected together, disregarding on the one side the authority of Spain, and protected on the other by an imaginary line which separates Florida from the United States, have violated our laws prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced various frauds on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage on our peaceable citizens which their proximity to us enabled them to perpetrate.
The invasion of Amelia Island last year by a small band of adventurers, not exceeding 150 in number, who wrested it from the inconsiderable Spanish force stationed there, and held it several months, during which a single feeble effort only was made to recover it, which failed, clearly proves how completely extinct the Spanish authority had become, as the conduct of those adventurers while in possession of the island as distinctly shows the pernicious purposes for which their combination had been formed.
This country had, in fact, become the theater of every species of lawless adventure. With little population of its own, the Spanish authority almost extinct, and the colonial governments in a state of revolution, having no pretension to it, and sufficiently employed in their own concerns, it was in great measure derelict, and the object of cupidity to every adventurer. A system of buccaneering was rapidly organizing over it which menaced in its consequences the lawful commerce of every nation, and particularly the United States, while it presented a temptation to every people, on whose seduction its success principally depended.
In regard to the United States, the pernicious effect of this unlawful combination was not confined to the ocean; the Indian tribes have constituted the effective force in Florida. With these tribes these adventurers had formed at an early period a connection with a view to avail themselves of that force to promote their own projects of accumulation and aggrandizement. It is to the interference of some of these adventurers, in misrepresenting the claims and titles of the Indians to land and in practicing on their savage propensities, that the Seminole war is principally to be traced. Men who thus connect themselves with savage communities and stimulate them to war, which is always attended on their part with acts of barbarity the most shocking, deserve to be viewed in a worse light than the savages. They would certainly have no claim to an immunity from the punishment which, according to the rules of warfare practiced by the savages, might justly be inflicted on the savages themselves.
If the embarrassments of Spain prevented her from making an indemnity to our citizens for so long a time from her treasury for their losses by spoliation and otherwise, it was always in her power to have provided it by the cession of this territory. Of this her Government has been repeatedly apprised, and the cession was the more to have been anticipated as Spain must have known that in ceding it she would likewise relieve herself from the important obligation secured by the treaty of 1795 and all other compromitments respecting it. If the United States, from consideration of these embarrassments, declined pressing their claims in a spirit of hostility, the motive ought at least to have been duly appreciated by the Government of Spain. It is well known to her Government that other powers have made to the United States an indemnity for like losses sustained by their citizens at the same epoch.
There is nevertheless a limit beyond which this spirit of amity and forbearance can in no instance be justified. If it was proper to rely on amicable negotiation for an indemnity for losses, it would not have been so to have permitted the inability of Spain to fulfill her engagements and to sustain her authority in the Floridas to be perverted by foreign adventurers and savages to purposes so destructive to the lives of our fellow citizens and the highest interests of the United States.
The right of self defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals, and whether the attack be made by Spain herself or by those who abuse her power, its obligation is not the less strong."
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29460
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole_Wars
http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/the-seminole-wars/
http://dos.myflorida.com/florida-facts/florida-history/seminole-history/
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