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No. 14.-Extract of a Letter from Winthrop Sargent, Efq. Secre tary of the North-western Territory, to the Secretary of State, dated Cincinnati, June 3d, 1797.

"General Wilkinson sending off an exprefs, I feize the occafion to tranfcribe for you fome paragraphs from a western letter.

"The Spaniards are reinforcing; their upper pofts on the Miffifippi confiderably. General Howard, an Irithman, in quality of commander in chief, with upwards of three hundred men, is arrived at St. Louis, and employed in erecting very formidable works. It likewife appears through various channels, that they are inviting a great number of Indians of the territory to cross the Miffifippi; and for this exprefs purpose, Mr. Lorromie, an officer in the pay of the crown, made a tour through all this country laft fall, fince which time feveral Indians have been fent on the fame errand, and generally furnished with plenty of cash to defray their expenfes.

"A large party of Delawares paffed down on White River about the 6th of May, on their way to the Spanish fide, bearing the national flag of Spain, fome of them from St. Louis.

"They (the Spaniards) have, above the mouth of the Ohio, on the Millilippi, feveral row-gallies with cannon."

Now, Sir, what inference can be drawn from that letter? Why, that the Spaniards have fortified San Luis, and availed themselves of every means of defence that the country afforded! But let me afk you, Sir, against whom it is that they were preparing to defend themfelves? Surely the documents which you have laid before the President, and the momentous business which now engages the attention of Congrefs, and agitates the public at large, afford a complete and fatisfactory answer.

I mentioned to you, in my letter of 2d March, that the object of the British was to attack Upper Louisiana, and take San Luis and New Madrid by furprise. It will not be questioned but that prudence required of us at that juncture to fortify the threatened points. This, Sir, was all we did; and this, Sir, you knew many months paft: yet Mr. Sargent's letter, which in fubftance Lays no more, fills you all at once with fears and felf-created apprehenfions, and makes you declare in the face of the American people," that the Spanish officers are exciting the Indians to a rupture with us." No one will fay that preparations for our felf-defence were not neceffary on our part. The affurance given you by the British minifter, with all the appearance of a confidential communication, but without any fignature, did not infpire the fervants of his Catholic Majefty with the fame blind confidence which it produced in you. We know from daily experience how religiously the British nation obferves the rights of neutrality. Witness

Witness the American failors! Witnefs the republic of Genoa, in whofe port they attacked and made prize of the French frigate La Modefte, as the lay at anchor there. Witnefs the inhabitants of Trinidad, when the British, though then in amity with them, entered their capital with drums beating and colours flying, in -purfuit of a few French who had taken refuge there. Thefe, and other inftances of the fort, too numerous to be recapitulated, make us lefs credulous on the fcore of Great Britain's refpect for the rights of neutrality than you appear to have been.

As to those tender confiderations which actuated the British minister to reject the plan on account of the inhumanity of calling in the aid of the Indians, I did expect that fuch vague unauthenticated declarations would have been appreciated as they deferved by you, Sir, who have fought in the glorious cause of American independence, who witnelled the humanity of their conduct in the courfe of that war; and you cannot be ignorant of what has happened fince.

Your afcribing hoftile views to the preparations of our felfdefence, cannot, Sir, have been matter of much furprise to me, after having heard a certain member of Congrefs, who is known to be the organ of the will of the adminiftration, declare in that Houfe, that he afcribed to the fame motives the preparations we were making for the defence of Florida, though probably he was not ignorant, at the very time, of their real object. Thus then, Sir, according to your mode of reafoning, and that of the gentleman I have just alluded to, though we were certain of being attacked, and though we were not certain that the American government had taken the proper measures for protecting its neutrality, yet we were to adopt no measures for our defence, but tamely fuffer his Majefty's forts and poffeffions to be taken; and all this for fear of creating ill-founded fufpicions on your minds! If you have not been very fuccefsful, Sir, in the folidity of your reafonings, you appear not to be more fo in the method of following them. After having denounced us to the whole American nation as ftirring up the Indians against the United States, and preparing them for a rupture, you fall into the most glaring inconfiftency in the following paragraph: Whether this plan of exciting the Indians to direct hoftilities against the United States, has been contemplated and promoted by any of our own citizens, it may be difficult to fay; but that one or more citizens have propofed and taken measures to detach the fouthern Indians from the intereft of the United States, and to deftroy the influence of the public agents over thofe nations, and thus to defeat the great objects of their appointment, the chief of which is to preferve peace, is certain."

I again appeal here, Sir, to your generous candour. How is it poffible to reconcile fuch evident contradictions? On the one hand,

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hand, the Spanish officers are thofe who excite the fouthern Indians against the United States; and on the other you quickly allow, prefuming, with fufficient foundation, in my opinion, that it may be fome citizens of the United States. But although you might entertain any doubts yourfelf on the fubject, which I am fure no perfon in America will, after reading Mr. Blount's letter, did not this very fame doubtful cafe and uncertainty require in your fituation more circumfpect language? And if, even in this cafe, you appear to have gone beyond what found policy, the tranquillity and intereft of the United States, required, how much more unjust are your infinuations against Spain, when the public poffefs, in Mr. Blount's letter, a document by which they can fee, that, if the manoeuvres with the Indians were not favourable to the United States, they were precifely combined to attack the Spaniards? From this method of reafoning of yours, it appears as if the Spaniards were, jointly with Mr. Blount, ftirring up the Indians to attack themselves.

Respecting the laft article of your report, I have only to obférve, that although you have conftantly affured me that government had not the leaft information refpecting the fubject of my reprefentations, and although the letter of Mr. Jackfon, of Georgia, appears to coincide with your ideas, nevertheless time has fhown that I have complied with my duty by not repofing on fuch affurance. The plot is difcovered, and nobody any longer doubts that the expedition was to have taken place.

After having followed you ftep by step through the various points of your report to the Prefident, I fhall make a fhort compendium of fuch as arife from this letter; from which it refults,

1. That on the 27th of February I gave you fufficient particulars refpecting the intended expedition, to have attracted the attention of this government.

2. That although to this verbal communication I added another in writing on the 2d of March, the Prefident had not the leaft knowledge of it on the 9th of the fame month; and that, without doubt, you must have had very powerful motives to prevent you from communicating it to him.

3. That it does not appear by the documents presented by the fecretary of war, that government had given orders to the military commanders to caufe the territory and neutrality of the United States to be refpected.

4. That you made to the English minifter a communication, which in my opinion you ought not; and that, even if you thought it neceffary, you delayed doing it for two months, that is, from the 27th of February to the 28th of April, although it refpected a moft urgent and important object.

5. That

5. That the Baron de Carondelet could very well have received my letters, without its neceffarily following that his had come to hand.

6. That the Baron did not reprefent Mr. Ellicott's not writing to him officially as a complaint, but as an obfervation; and that, in fact, he never has done it in thofe terms.

7. That the proofs you allege to exculpate Mr. Ellicott, refpecting his intentions of taking the fort of Natchez by furprife, are purely negative.

8. That it is not merely pretences, but very powerful reafons, which have impeded the evacuation of the pofts, and the running of the boundary line.

9. That the infinuations with which you are willing to per fuade the American people that our arming is directed against them, are unjuft as well as unfounded, as, by Mr. Blount's letter, it is clearly demonftrated to be a precaution for the mere purpofe of defence.

10. That you evidently contradict yourself, when, on 'one hand, you are pleafed to attribute to us the movements of the Indians, and, in the very next paragraph, you how it might proceed from American citizens, as it actually does according to Mr. Blount's letter; and that he acted with the knowledge and intelligence of the very fame British minifter, in whofe private notes, without fignature, and perhaps not of his own hand-writing, you place fuch implicit confidence.

11. That although, in all your official communications, you have always manifefted to me that the American government knew of nothing which indicated any foundation for my fufpicions, Mr. Blount's letter clearly proves that I was perfectly in the right.

I have thus fulfilled a very difagreeable duty. Always defirous to contribute to ftrengthen the bands of friendship which unite Spain and America, and to which their fituation, their wants, and refources, invite them, I have feen with the most profound grief, that the language and tenour of your communication to the Prefident, is not, in my opinion, calculated to promote fo defirable an object to us all. For my part, although I fhall leave nothing undone to cement the union and harmony with a nation which I refpect, neither fhall I ever fuffer the interefts of the King, my mafter, in any cafe whatever, to be facrificed to an unjust partiality.

I pray God to preferve you many years.

Your moft obedient humble fervant,

CARLOS MARTINEZ DE YRUJO,

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Speech of the American Prefident, on the opening of the Congress,
Thurfday, Nov. 23, 1797.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and Gentlemen of the
House of Representatives,

I WAS for fome time apprehenfive that it would be neceffary, on account of the contagious fickness which affected the city of Philadelphia, to convene the national legislature at some other place. This measure it was defirable to avoid, because it would occafion much public inconvenience, and a confiderable public expenfe, and add to the calamities of the inhabitants of this city, whofe fufferings must have excited the fympathy of all their fellow-citizens. Therefore, after taking measures to afcertain the ftate and decline of the fickness, I poftponed my determination, having hopes, now happily realized, that, without hazard to the lives or health of the members, Congress might affemble at this place, where it was fixed by law to meet. I fubmit, however, to your confideration, whether a power to poftpone the meeting of Congress, without paffing the time fixed by the conftitution upon fuch occafions, would be an useful amendment to the law of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four.

Although I cannot yet congratulate you on the re-establishment of peace in Europe, and the restoration of fecurity to the perfons and properties of our citizens from injuftice and violence at sea, we have, nevertheless, abundant caufe of gratitude to the Source of benevolence and influence, for interior tranquillity and perfonal fecurity, for propitious feasons, profperous agriculture, productive fisheries, and general improvements; and, above all, for a national spirit of civil and religious liberty, and a calm but fteady determination to support our fovereignty, as well as our moral and religious principles, against all open and fecret attacks.

. Our envoys extraordinary to the French republic embarked, one in July, the other in August, to join their colleagues in Holland: I have received intelligence of the arrival of both of them in Holland, from whence they all proceeded on their journey to Paris, within a few days of the 19th of September. Whatever may be the refult of this miffion, I truft that nothing will have been omitted on my part to conduct the negotiation to a fuccessful conclufion, on fuch equitable terms as may be compatible with the fafety, honour, and interefts of the United States. Nothing, in the mean time, will contribute fo much to the prefervation of peace, and the attainment of justice, as a manifestation of the energy and unanimity of which, on many former occafions, the people of the United States have given fuch memorable proofs, and the exertion of those refources for na

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