Richmond Enquirer

[From the Baltimore Patriot.]

EXPOSITION OF THE CONDUCT OF SPAIN TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES.

It would seem that the remembrance of facts sometimes soon passeth away, or that prejudice and partiality, insensibility, or a weak generosity, may influence us to palliate and forgive a perverse and unrepentant aggressor, even before we have time to forget the manifold injuries he has done us. This reflection naturally arises, from the perusal of certain observations and strictures, that frequently appear in our newspapers, and from the point of view in which some respectable writers have lately considered our relations with Spain, and the delicate position in which the revolutions of South-America are likely to place us.—But, let us not be surprised into error, led astray by their eloquence, nor mistake for a true picture the false shades and colouring which they may give to the subject, as suits their own taste and fancy. Let us not waive the solid arguments of facts for a train of suppositious reasoning ; nor admit, that in all cases where open warfare does not exist, harmony and good-understanding must necessarily prevail; nor cite treaties repeated, violated, to impress on us the obligations of respect and regard for a power that has invariably shown itself unfriendly to us in the extreme.

If we look back into the memorials of the past, and examine the volumes of daily records, how many pages will be found to remind us of what we have suffered from Spain! how patiently we have borne our sufferings, which have so long remained unredressed! and how few acts of justice or good-will towards us shall we have to acknowledge!—It is, therefore, a mis-application of words, to say, "that there is, that there can, or of right, ought to be true friendship between the United States & Spain, as long as reparation and satisfaction for accumulated offences are denied to us. It will be seen, that we have no debt of gratitude to discharge, no deed of kindness whatever to reciprocate, and no just reason why we should refrain from treating the exercise of hospitality due to our South-American brethren, or restrict our merchants from furnishing them with such means as our commercial resources are able them to afford, to relieve their miseries and distresses.

then, should we not be allowed to render charity and assistance to the children of America, to cherish them, yet in the feeble state of infancy?

Now, then, let us examine, and see how far Spain and her different monarchs have claim upon our friendship.

On the 15th of February, 1800, the King of Spain declared Gibraltar in a state of blockade against our vessels, in order, as he termed it, to make just reprisals against the enemies of his Crown. Thus, he determined to obstruct our trade, the trade of neutrals in amity with him, in order to inflict punishment on his enemies!

On the 19th of February, 1807, the King of Spain declared all the British Isles in a state of blockade, and decreed the capture and the confiscation of our vessels and property, on the common highway of nations, whenever bound to or from the ports of England and her dependencies. Was this friendly? Was it just?

On the 3d of January, 1808, the King of Spain—the sovereign of that religious and moral nation, which scrupulously observes the faith of treaties, and pretends never to have wronged us—published a decree, declaring all our vessels touching at a British port, or a port in British possession, or even visited on the high seas by a British cruizer, good and valid prizes. No exemption was made in favour of those that might involuntarily have to put into an English port by force or distress, or that might not be able to escape from being visited by a vessel of that nation, no matter where. All were denationalized; all were adjudged alike lawful prizes to the captor.

This last was signed by the famous Don Pedro Cevallos, then minister, minister now, and a very leading and conspicuous one too. May we not, then, reasonably presume, that, whilst the same minister continues to enjoy confidence and favour with the present adored monarch & his people, the same spirit of hostility exists still, although in a different shape or more secret disguise; and that the man retained in council, who had the influence, the wickedness or weakness, to recommend and lend himself to so detestable an act at that time, would have the disposition, the malice, or propensity, to wrong us as much to-day, if he only had the power and opportunity.

We will pass over the unprincipled robberies at St. Sebastians, lest an apology for Spain should be urged from the circumstance that those atrocities took place under the reign of an usurper.

It will be seen, on a reference to the journals, that the instances of aggression on our vessels, our property and our citizens, at various times, on the ocean, in Spanish ports, on our frontiers, and even within our own territory, have been numerous enough under the legitimate governments of Spain, whose conduct towards us has been marked with indignities and insults heaped upon us beyond measure.

Hearken to the words of Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, in his letter of the 5th of July, 1811, in reply to Mr. Foster:—“ I might bring to your view a long catalogue of injuries which the United States have received from Spain since the conclusion of their revolutionary war, any one of which would most probably have been considered cause of war, and resented as such, by other powers. I will mention two of these only : the spoliations that were committed on their commerce to a great amount in the last war, and the suppression of their deposit at New-Orleans, just before the commencement of the present war, in violation of a solemn treaty : for neither of these injuries has any reparation or atonement been made."

Mr. Monroe replied to Mr. Foster again, on the 2d of November, as follows :—" The Executive could not believe that the government of Spain would refuse to the United States the justice due to those accumulated injuries, when the subject should be brought solemnly before it, by a special mission.—it is known, that an envoy extraordinary was sent to Madrid in 1805 on this subject, and that the mission did not accomplish the object intended by it. The United States have considered the government of Spain indebted to them a greater sum than the province of East-Florida can, by any fair standard between the parties, be estimated at. It would be highly improper for the United States, in their respect for Spain, to forget what they owe to their own character and to the rights of their injured citizens.

The accustomed proud and imperious tone of the different Spanish plenipotentiaries, which it will be recollected, has sometimes resulted in their dismissal by our government, clearly demonstrates the sentiments which have constantly actuated their court, and the policy and conduct it has always been inclined to pursue towards this nation.

During our late war, a manifest partiality was evinced by Spain in favour of England, much to our prejudice. When she was the enemy of England, we, although neutral and amicable, were made to suffer as if a party in the contest; and afterwards, when Spain became the friend of England, we were as much treated with disrespect, scorn & injury, even bordering on hostility.

Ask the commanders of some of our private armed vessels what reception they sometimes met with in Spanish ports, at the very time that the vessels of our enemy would be honoured and welcomed, and which often stationed themselves there in security, to run out upon occasion, and surprise ours, which had hardly any place of refuge from home. Appeal to the brave defenders of the Frigate Essex, attacked, overpowered, and suffered to be taken in neutral waters, in the Spanish port of Valparaiso. Enquire of those valorous sons of Columbia what friendship the Spaniards displayed for us before and after their misfortunes in the Pacific Ocean.

The gallant Captain Porter, in his letter of the 31st of January, 1814, says :—"In running down the coast of Chili and Peru, I fell in with a Peruvian corsair, which had on board twenty-four Americans, as prisoners, the crews of two whale ships she had taken on the coast of Chili. The captain informed me, that, as the allies of Great Britain, they would capture all they should meet with, in expectation of a war between Spain & the U. States."

Was this the respect which the Spaniards consider due to the sanctity of treaties?

Captain Porter, in his letter of the 13th of July, 1814, writes as follows :—" When I asked Captain Hillyar if he intended to respect the neutrality of the port, he replied—' You, sir, have paid such respect to the neutrality of this port, that I feel myself bound in honor to do the same.' During the action, our Consul General, Mr. Poinsett, called on the Governor of Valparaiso, and requested that the batteries might protect the Essex. This request was refused. There is no doubt there was a perfect understanding between them."—Thus, the United States ship Essex was captured at anchor, within pistol shot of the Spanish shore, and the Spanish authorities mildly acquiesced in this flagrant violation of law and justice! Such are the examples of neutrality, they themselves have established for our observance.

Contrast their conduct with that of the United States on an analogous occasion, when the British ship Grange, in 1795, was captured by the French frigate L'Ambuscade, in the waters of the Delaware, and sent into Philadelphia : the U. S. caused the ship to be restored, notwithstanding the urgent demands of the French minister to the contrary.

It was stated in the New-York papers of the 25th June, 1813, on respectable authority from Havanna, that some time in February preceding, a British brig from England, laden with dry goods, prize to the privateer Saratoga, of New-York, having but a small quantity of water on board, put into Santa Martha for a supply. The vessel and cargo were there seized by the Spaniards ; the prize-master and crew put into irons, and sent to Havanna, where they were confined at hard labor, barefoot and almost naked; and one of them had been severely flogged for refusing to enter on board a Spanish man-of war.

The brig William & Mary, of Providence, bound to Cadiz, was captured near the shore, within the waters of Spain, by an English cruizer, sent into Gibraltar and condemned. How did the Spanish government resent this breach of neutrality?

Look back, and reflect on the proceedings of the Spaniards in Florida, during our war with Great Britain. See whether they did not give encouragement, succor and protection to our enemy. Was not Woodbine, a British officer, in the Spanish town of St. Augustine, in the month of December 1814, employed in raising a military force, and enlisting men of all sorts, its houses converted into magazines for military stores, to feed the war against us?—

The British Col. Nicholls, expressly informs us, in his letter to the Barratarians, dated at Head-Quarters, Pensacola, the 31st Aug. 1814 :

" I have arrived, in the Floridas, for the purpose of annoying the only enemy Great-Britain has now in the world. I ask you to cease all hostilities against the allies of Great-Britain."—Nicholls, in a proclamation, announces, " I am seconded by the powerful aid of a numerous British and Spanish squadron. The Indians have pledged themselves, in the most solemn manner, not to injure the persons or property of any but the enemies of their Spanish and English fathers."

General Jackson, in a letter of 16th November 1814, writes thus :—"My visit to Pensacola was occasioned by the unprecedented conduct of the governor, in harbouring, aiding, and countenancing, the British and their red allies."—

Does not this look as if the Spaniards made themselves accomplices in the war against us?

In the National Intelligencer of the 2d of January, it was stated on good authority, that a force went from Pensacola to scour our territory, to make prisoners of unarmed citizens, and to attack our Forts : that Americans were detained prisoners in Pensacola, as if in a hostile country, contrary to the established laws and usages of nations : that the governor sent a Spanish force to co-operate with the Indians.—

Was this respect for neutral rights? Was this the reverence which the Spaniards pay to the solemnity of treaties?

How different was the behaviour of a party of poor Mexican revolutionists! A company of them, it is stated, of about 100 strong, arrived at New-Orleans in January, 1815, solicitous to aid in defending our territory, to fight for the United States.

Before the close of our war, we heard frequent hints that Spain had not relinquished her claims to Louisiana ; that we should have to surrender to her a valuable portion of the territory of the United States—a territory, to which she had long ago disposed of all her right and title, and which had been guaranteed to us by the treaty. No doubt she indulged the hope and wish that England would wrest it from us, and was eager to come in for a share of the spoil.

After the repulse of the British before New-Orleans, their ship the Dictator, 64, proceeded to Havanna : she carried thither about 400 passengers, soldiers' wives, sick, wounded, and disabled soldiers, to relieve the enemy's camp of its ineffectives, and also to obtain a supply for the army that remained. The captain of the Dictator contracted for and began to take on board 4000 barrels of flour. And it was asserted at the same time, that a brig from New-Providence had been permitted to take privately from the royal arsenal at Havanna, eighteen pieces of brass cannon for the use of the enemy of the United States before New-Orleans.

Moreover, Havanna, as well as Pensacola, became a depot for American prisoners, captured by the British before New-Orleans, as appears from the following extract of General Jackson's letter of 21st Feb. 1815:—" The flag which I sent to the enemy's fleet, returned a few days ago, bringing a letter of assurance from adm. Cochrane, that the American prisoners, sent to the Havanna, shall be returned as soon as practicable."

Another recent example of the love which Spain bears our citizens, and of the respect which she shews for their rights, will be found in the arbitrary arrest of Mr. Meade, a respectable American, who, it is believed, is still suffering a cruel and unjust confinement in the prison of Cadiz, torn from his family, ungratefully despoiled of property due him by the government, and deprived of what is dearer than all, his liberty. How did the Spanish authority treat the remonstrances of our consul, Mr. Cathcart, on the subject of that unwarrantable outrage on the person of an American citizen?

The blood of every freeman must boil with indignation, when he reflects on the treacherous conduct of the Spanish Military Governor of Carthagena, after the capture of that place. False colours were displayed to entice our vessels to enter the port after the besieged had fallen and the blockade ceased, and our citizens with their property, some with their little all at stake, were perfidiously decoyed in, to experience not only the mortification of heavy pecuniary losses by seizure and confiscation, but to undergo the vilest personal degradation, ignominy, imprisonment and torture.—Death, more merciful to some of them than the pitiless monster of iniquity, by whom they had been kidnapped, relieved their pangs and torments, which proved too excruciating for the frailness of human nature to surmount.

An unprovoked attack has lately been made by a Spanish squadron on the United States ship Firebrand, of inferior force. The neutral flag of our country could not ensure protection to its citizens, even on board a national vessel.

Consider what has always been the policy of Spain—her mean colonial system—her usurpation of exclusive right to the navigation of an immense portion of the waters that border our continent, seas that are the common property of all nations; and she will never renounce those absurd pretensions as long as she is able to maintain her empire in these countries.

But when the standard of liberty and independence shall once rise and prevail over the face of South-America ; when light and reason shall break through the darkness of ignorance and superstition; as the progress of civilization and republicanism shall advance ; as humane and liberal institutions succeed to those of priesthood and despotism, the world at large will be highly benefited by the happy change, and the interests of the United States in particular : we shall become more powerful and more independent of Europe, as governments are established among our neighbouring people on principles of justice and equality, in harmony and unison with our own; and a new and vast field will be opened for the commercial enterprize of our industrious citizens.—

We cannot therefore but heartily rejoice at every success of the revolutionists, and ardently desire that their noble efforts may speedily terminate in the glorious triumph of their holy cause.

SIDNEY.