out of an open and perfectly innocent trade. For the protection and defense of such, Spain was bound unquestionably to exert all the means in her power while within the extent of her jurisdiction. And wheresoever any sale, or other improper disposition of prizes of this description, has been proved to be made within the Spanish territory, to the injury of the right owner, being a citizen of the U. S., and within the knowledge of any proper officer of the Spanish Government, the Commission has held Spain liable, and therefore allowed the claim. In order to fix such liability upon any sure and reasonable basis, however, the board has considered it right to require of the claimants in all cases, that the transaction complained of was made known to some proper officer of the Spanish Government, and its interposition required, except where the occurrence was one so open and flagrant as to furnish evidence in itself that it must have been known to and approved by the Spanish Government of the place. "În adjusting the amount of the claims allowed, the Commission has adopted these principles. Regarding the fund provided by the Treaty as designed to indemnify claimants for actual losses sustained, and not to realize profits which might or might not have been made, the board has generally taken up the voyage at its commencement, and allowed the value of the vessel and cargo at that time. To the value of the vessel, two-thirds of a fair freight for the passage in which the loss occurred has been added. A fair premium of Insurance for the risk of such a passage has been also added to each of these insurable subjects. And the costs and expenses, incurred in defraying their rights, have been allowed to all claimants who have paid such, and have offered any evidence from which the sums so paid might be inferred. Such has been the general mode of estimating the quantum of loss to be indemnified, in most of the cases where the loss has been total. In those where the loss has been partial, and in a few where the loss has been total, to which the rules now stated could not apply, different principles of adjustment analogous to these have been resorted to, the board taking care to modify these principles to suit the facts existing in each particular case. Thus a reasonable charter has sometimes been given in lieu of freight strictly so-called, where the precise voyage was not fixed. And a fair demurrage has been applied as the standard of damage produced by the illegal detention of a vessel. And here the undersigned feel it their duty to state that more than one moiety of the amount of all the claims allowed, and a larger proportion of those rejected, have been preferred by underwriters. As the loss by them complained of resulted directly and immediately from their own contract, and was to be traced to the illegal acts of others only remotely through that contract; and as, for entering into this contract, they had received a valuable consideration, in the premium paid for taking upon themselves the very risk which had produced their loss, the Commission at a very early stage of their proceeding decided that no underwriter as such had any claim upon this fund provided by the Treaty. The claims of American citizens, therefore, who came before the board claiming for the losses they had sustained by insuring the property of foreigners, which had been illegally taken by France or Spain, were never received. And it was only when the American citizen, who had sustained a loss provided for by the Treaty, having been indemnified against this loss by an American underwriter, had abandoned, or was bound to abandon and assign his interest in the subject insured to the assurer, that the claims of under writers have ever been received. But, claiming as assignees of a party who had a good claim, these their derivative claims have always been allowed for the sum by them insured and paid, where that sum did not exceed the true value of the subject insured, according to the principles settled by the board, for ascertaining this value, as above stated. "In making such allowances to underwriters, the Commission was well aware that its effect would be to allow them more than they had lost, by the amount of the premium received from the party insured, which premium he had voluntarily paid and must have lost in any event. So, too, in making the allowance of freight, the Commission was well aware that the full wages of seamen had not been paid, probably, in any of the cases where such freight was given. But, in these and many other cases which occurred, the board, having ascertained the full amount of the loss, distributed this amount so ascertained amongst the different parties claiming it before them, and seeming to have a right to receive it (no matter in what character), without deciding, or believing itself possessed of the authority to decide, upon the merits of conflicting claims to the same subject. To whom of right the sum thus awarded when paid may belong, or for whom, how, or in what degree, the receiver ought to be regarded as a Trustee of the sum received, were questions depending upon the municipal laws of the different States of the Union, the application of which to the facts existing in any case the board did not feel itself authorized to make, and therefore abstained from instituting any enquiry as to the facts necessary to such a decision. These remarks the Commission think it proper thus to make, lest their award may be considered as barring and finally settling pretensions into which this board have in truth neither made, nor believe itself authorized to make, any examination whatever; but have purposely left open, for the adjudication of others, who will have better means of ascertaining the facts. "Having thus stated the general principles which the Commission has thought it right to adopt and to apply, in receiving, examining, and deciding upon the amount and validity of all the claims that have been exhibited before it, the undersigned, with a view of showing what these claims were, have caused to be subjoined sundry schedules. The first of these, marked A, exhibits a list of all the memorials which have ever been presented to the Commission, except those which merely asked for reexamination. In this list the memorials are numbered progressively from 1 to 1859, in the order in which they were presented. It contains the name of the memorialist and the name of the vessel referred to (when such is the case), and designates which of these memorials the Commission refused to receive for examination, for the reasons herein before stated. "The second schedule, marked B, exhibits a list of all the memorials aforesaid which were received and examined. In this list these memorials are distinguished by the numbers annexed to them in the schedule A, and are arranged under the names of the different vessels to which they refer, where they do so refer, and by that of the memorialists where no particular reference is made to any vessel. In this list are also designated all those memorials which the Commission refused to allow as valid, for some of the reasons herein before stated. "The third schedule, marked C, exhibits a statement of the several sums allowed for the loss sustained in each of the cases mentioned in the schedule B, and therein not noted as having been disallowed, together with the aggregate amount of all these several allowances, viz: the sum of $5,454,545.13, and likewise the different memorialists to whom that sum has been awarded and distributed. "And the fourth schedule, marked D, exhibits a list of the sums allowed in schedule C, distributed amongst the different parties in interest, or their proper representatives, according to their different claims. These sums of course correspond in their amount with those stated in the preceding schedule; and this schedule, marked D), the Commission exhibits as its final award, in which is ascertained the full amount and validity of all the claims exhibited to it, for which Spain was liable to citizens of the U. S., and to which the renunciations contained in the Treaty of 1819 extend. "In order to enable the U. S. to comply completely with the provisions of the 14th Article of this Treaty, and to present to Spain an authentic statement of the prizes made from citizens of the U. S. by French privateers, for which injuries Spain was regarded by the Commission as having been liable, the undersigned have annexed hereto a fifth schedule, marked E (extracted from that marked C), in which is contained a list of all the vessels of the U. S. captured by French privateers, for which any allowance has been made by this board, and of the true value so allowed. For the particulars of such captures, the Commission begs leave to refer to the Vouchers and documents produced before the Commissioners, relative to the claims on this account. These vouchers and documents, together with the records of their proceedings, the undersigned Commissioners have directed their Secretary to deposit in the Department of State of the U. S. in pursuance of the provisions of the 11th Article of the Treaty aforesaid. The undersigned will add nothing further than to say, that as the full amount of the sums allowed to the different claimants is $5,454,545. 13, while the Treaty limits the extent of the liability of the U. S. 'to an amount not exceeding five millions of dollars,' the Commission found it necessary to abate each claim allowed 'pro rata.' This ratable abatement of each claim according to its amount equals 8 per cent. So that the claimants, instead of receiving the full amount of their respective claims as allowed, will be entitled to receive only the balance, after this per centage is deducted. The schedule D will show the full amount of the claim allowed, the amount after the abatement, being the balance due the claimants, which is the sum awarded by this board to them respectively. This schedule D is in addition to the documents the Commission have believed it to be their duty to furnish, for the purpose of showing the sums awarded, and to whom due. And as it has been merely extracted from the journal of its proceedings, which will be lodged with the Department of State, the schedule itself may be transferred by it to the Department of the Treasury, as a guide to direct its payments. And the Commission would recommend its speedy publication for the information of all those whom it may concern, or the adoption of any other mode which the proper officers of the U. S. may think more convenient for the attainment of this object. "All of which is respectfully submitted. "Washington, 8th June, 1824. "Attest: "T. WATKINS." "H. L. WHITE. This report was published in the National Government Journal, June 26, 1824, and a list of the awards in the next number. The following papers of the commission are in the Department of State: 1. Journal. 2. Register of claims received. 3. Claims adjudged. 4. Claims adjudged: awards and decisions. 5. Claims admitted. 6. Report of Commissioners, with a list of awards. There is also a thin quarto volume, containing an alphabetical list of the names of claimants, which was begun but not completed. Florida. CHAPTER D. EAST AND WEST FLORIDA CLAIMS. Acting on the assurance of Livingston and Monroe Question as to West that West Florida was comprised in the cession of Louisiana,' Congress, in extending the customs laws over the ceded territory, authorized the President, whenever he should deem it expedient to do so, to erect "the bay and river Mobile" and the adjacent territory into a separate district. When the Spanish Government protested against this measure, assurances were given that the United States, reserving their claims in that quarter as a subject of discussion and arrangement with Spain, meditated in the mean time no act inconsistent with the peace and friendship existing between the two nations.3 In the summer of 1810, however, while the Spanish monarchy was in the throes of dissolution, a revolution occurred in West Florida. Baton Rouge was seized, and a convention was held by which the independence of the province was declared and an application made for its admission into the American Union. The President repulsed this application, but determined to take possession of the territory as part of the Louisiana purchase. It was accordingly occupied by the American forces, but only as far as the River Pearl. The territory between that stream and the Perdido was permitted still to remain in the possession of Spain." Provision for Occupying On the 3d of January 1811 President Madison sent to Congress a secret message in which he recommended the expediency of authorizing the Executive to take temporary possession of any part of the Floridas, in pursuance of arrangements with the Spanish authorities; or without such arrangements, in case those authorities should be subverted and there should be apprehension of the occupancy of the territory by another foreign power. Acting on this message, Congress, in secret session, on the 11th of January, "taking into view the peculiar situation of Spain and her American provinces," and "the influence which the destiny of the territory adjoining the southern border of the United States may have upon their security, tranquillity, and commerce," resolved that the United States could not "without serious 1 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. II. 564. 22 Stats. at L. 254. 3 Message of President Jefferson to Congress, November 8, 1804, Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 63. Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 394–400. Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 539; Adams's History of the United States, V. 305-315. inquietude see any part of said territory pass into the hands of any foreign power," and that "a due regard to their own safety" compelled them “to provide, under certain contingencies, for the temporary occupation of the said territory," the territory so occupied to be held "subject to future negotiation." As to West Florida, Congress had, as we have seen, already empowered the Executive to exercise acts of possession; but as East Florida unquestionably still belonged to Spain, it was necessary to confer upon the President special powers in regard to that province in order to insure the object expressed in the resolution. Congress therefore authorized the President to take possession of and occupy all or any part of East Florida, "in case an arrangement has been, or shall be, made with the local authority of the said territory, for delivering up the possession of the same, or any part thereof, to the United States; or in the event of an attempt to occupy the said territory, or any part thereof, by any foreign government." For the purpose of occupying and holding the territory, the President was authorized to employ the Army and Navy of the United States; and the sum of $100,000 was appropriated "for defraying such expenses as the President may deem necessary for obtaining possession as aforesaid, and the security of the said territory." thews and McKee. January 26, 1811, Mr. Monroe, as Secretary of State, Instructions to Mat- instructed Gen. George Matthews and Col. John McKee, as commissioners for carrying the act of Congress into effect, to repair to East Florida with all possible expedition, keeping their mission secret; and if they should find Governor Folk or the local authority existing there inclined to surrender the province in an amicable manner, they were to accept the abdication in behalf of the United States, and, if necessary, agree to restore the country at a future period to the lawful sovereign. They were authorized, if necessary, to assume the debts due by Spain to the inhabitants of the territory; to guarantee titles to land; to permit the Spanish civil functionaries to retain their offices, and, if necessary, to advance a reasonable sum for the transportation of the Spanish troops. If no such arrangement could be made they were instructed to keep on the alert, and on the first undoubted approach of a foreign power to take possession of the territory. In that event they were to exercise a sound discretion as to making promises, taking care to commit their government no further than necessary. A similar course was enjoined in regard to that part of West Florida still held in the name of Spain. It does not appear that McKee acted under this comAction of Matthews. mission; but Matthews accepted it, repaired to the Florida frontier, and took up his residence at St. Marys. He found, however, that the governor and local authorities were loyal to Spain, and not inclined to deliver up the territory; nor was there any sign of an attempt on the part of any foreign power to seize it; and the general contentment of the inhabitants, arising from the agricultural prosperity of the country, was enhanced by the profits of the vastly increased trade which the United States nonimportation act diverted to the neighboring province and of which Fernandina, on Amelia Island, 13 Stats. at L. 471; Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 571. 2 H. Report 99, 20 Cong. 2 sess.; Am. State Papers, For. Rel. III. 571. |