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Show 204 LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. shall render it necessary. I agree with you, perfectly, VI. that candour and polite language should, at all times, ~characterize the communications between the officers 1814. of friendly sovere.i gnt.i es ; and I assert, .th I fi WI out t 1e ear of contradiction, that my former letters were couched in terms tl1e most respectful and unexceptionable. I only requested, and did not demand, as you have asserted, the ringleaders of the Creek confederacy, who had taken refuge in your town, and who had violated all laws, moral, civil, and divine. This I had a right to do, from the treaty which I sent you, and which I now again enclose, with a request that you will change your translation ; believing, as T do, that your former one was wrong, and has deceived you. What kind of an answer you returned, a reference to your letter will explain. The whole of it breathed nothing but hostility, grounded upon assumed facts, and false charges, and entirely evading the inquiries that had been made. " I can but express my astonishment. at youP protest against the cession on the Alabama, lying 'Vithin the acknowledged jurisdiction of the United States, and which has been ratified, in due form, by the principal chiefs and warriors of the nation. But my astonish· ment subsides, when, on comparing it, I find it upon a par witl1 the rest of your letter and conduct ; taken together they afford a sufficient justification for any consequ~nces that may ensue. My govemment will protect every inch of her territory, her citizens and their property, from insult and depredation, regardless of the political revolutions of Europe : and although she has been at a!l times sedulous to preserve a good LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. 205 understanding with all the world, yet she has sacred CHAP. rights, that cannot be trampled upon with impunity.~ Spain had better look to her own intestine commo- 1814• tions, before she walks forth in that majesty of strength and power, which you threaten to draw down upon the United States. " Your excellency has been candid enough to admit your having supplied the Indians with arms. In ad· dition to this, I have learned tllllt a British flag has been seen flying on one of your forts. All this is done whilst you are pretending to be neutral. Yon cannot be surprised, then, but on the contrary will provide a fort in your town, for my soldiers and Indians, should I take it in my head to pay you a visit. " In future, I beg you to withhold your insulting charges against my government, for one more inclined to listen to slander than I am ; nor consider me any more as a diplomatic character, unless so proclaimed to you from the mouths of my cannon." Captain Gordon, who had been employed on t11e mission to Pensacola, had been enabled, during his stay, to obtain much more full and satisfactory information than it had pleased the governor to communicate. Appearances completely developed the schemes that were in agitation, and convinced him that active operations were intended shortly to be commenced some where in tb:e lower country. He reported to the general, that he saw from one hundred and fifty to two hundred British officers and soldiers, a park of artillery, and about five hundred Indians, under drill of ~hose officers, armed with new muskets, and dressed lll the English uniform. |