out of the funds of the royal finance department, with interest. To say that this is not the claim which, in February, 1819, the United States had renounced and agreed to compound, would be to say that daylight is not darkness. Mr. Meade might, with as much propriety, have purchased in the market, at its current price, any other order upon the funds of the royal finance department, and brought it before the commissioners as a claim provided for by the treaty, as he could this order, a part of the sum constituting which was for interest accrued after the treaty had been signed.

Of the obligation of the Spanish Government to pay Mr. Meade, with interest, the whole amount of this sum, acknowledged by its own tribunals to be due, there can be no doubt. But it is equally clear that it is not the debt which, in February, 1819, the United States had agreed to assume, to consider as canceled, and to discharge. It was not the claim which had been exhibited, or had even existed, in February, 1819. It was a claim of a totally distinct and different character. It was a new obligation of Spain, for which no provision had been made by the treaty, and with which the United States could not, without injustice to themselves and to all the other claimants, be charged.

By the intention of including Mr. Meade's claims among those provided for by the treaty at the time of its negotiation, the American Government had shown its kindness toward him to the utmost verge of its compatibility with their duties to others. Mr. Meade's claims, as then existing, however meritorious as against Spain, were far from being, against the United States, as deserving as many others with which they were to share the benefit of the treaty. They were claims, part of which were for supplies to support the ally of Spain, then, or very shortly after, the enemy of the United States-supplies to maintain a cause to which, so far as concerned Spain, the United States were neutral, but which by its inseparable connection with Great Britain was the cause of that nation against Mr. Meade's country. There was no one point of view in which those claims could be considered that gave them a title to the special favor or support of the American Government or nation, and by extending to them the advantages of a composition which they were enabled to effect with Spain of numerous other and far more meritorious claims, in meaning to do equal justice to all, they perhaps did more than justice to Mr. Meade.

While, therefore, your position that the Spanish nation was certainly responsible (to Mr. Meade) for the total amount of the acknowledged debt is indisputable, his Catholic Majesty will find by further examination of the treaty that the Government of the United States did not take upon itself, by the latter ratification of the treaty, nor ever in any other manner, this debt. The fifth renunciation of the ninth article of the treaty neither did nor could nor was ever intended to include this debt, and the latter ratification of the United States neither did nor could in the slightest degree alter the character of obligations which the United States had contracted on the face of the treaty on the 22d February, 1819. The fifth renunciation upon its face and by its terms was limited to claims stated, but unsettled, of uncertain amount and validity as existing at the signature of the treaty. The ratification of the United States could no more change the import of this renunciation than it could change the words in which it was expressed. The fourth article of the treaty reserves the examination and decision of the amount and validity of all the claims assumed by the United States for the exclusive cognizance of a commission of American citizens, and whoever appears before them as a claimant under the treaty must abide by their decision, conformably to the treaty. For all subsequent engagements, contracts, and debts of the Spanish Government, whether with Mr. Meade or with any other claimants, Spain, and not the United States, is chargeable. If Mr. Meade claims the benefit of the treaty, by the treaty must he submit to be judged, and according to the terms of the treaty must he receive his indemnity. If he means to resort to engagements, or debts subsequently contracted, or to the decisions of Spanish tribunals, to Spain alone must he have recourse for satisfaction. This conclusion can not be departed from by the Government of the United States. It is due to the plain intent and unequivocal language of the treaty; it is due to the rights and interests of the people of the United States; it is due to those of many hundreds of their citizens whose demands upon the justice of Spain were at least as strong and clear, and whose right to the support and protection of their country was, at least, more perfect and unequivocal than those of Mr. Meade. Special, unstipulated favor to him would be flagrant injustice to them.

When, therefore, in the conclusion of your letter you beforehand solemnly and respectfully protest against any decision of the commissioners appointed in virtue of the treaty which invalidates in any manner the acknowledgment made by your Government of the total debt of Mr. Meade, agreeably to the certificate which they sent to him in consequence, and which you state to be in possession of the commis

sioners, I am directed to say in answer, first, that the Government of the United States have, no more than the Government of Spain, the right or authority to dictate or control the decisions of the commissioners appointed by virtue of the treaty of the 22d February, 1819; and that as the United States will not assume themselves, so they will not suffer from Spain, the exercise of any such dictation or control, alike repugnant to the principles of impartial justice and to that judicial independence which constitutes the excellence and the glory of the institutions both of this country and of Spain; and, secondly, that there neither has been nor is there reason to expect any decision of the commissioners to invalidate in any manner any acknowledgment by your Government of the total debt to Mr. Meade, the validity of any such acknowledgment being, like the obligation which it imports, for the exclusive cognizance of the Spanish Government itself, and importing neither obligation nor authority for which the United States are answerable or the charge of which they have ever consented to assume.

I pray you, sir, to accept the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Don HILARIO DE RIVAS Y SALMON,

Chargé d'Affaires from Spain.

(0.)

[The Count Ofalia to Mr. Nelson.-Translation.]

PALACE, March 8, 1824.

SIR: I have laid before the King, my august master, your note of the 25th of the last month, in which you propose, for the saving of time and expense, to deliver to the legation the original documents which are here, and which may be found necessary for the settlement of the claims of American citizens, in conformity with the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, in the place of copies of them.

His Majesty being informed, he commands me to say to you that the papers of this office (secretaria) have been thrown into great confusion by their removal to Seville and Cadiz, whence they are expected in a few days. As soon as they shall arrive we will proceed to search for those which you demand, and all those originals whose delivery may not be inconvenient shall be at your disposal; those also which are found to be not of this character shall be furnished, that true copies of them may be had, conformably with the treaty. With this, I have the pleasure to renew to you the assurance of my distinguished consideration.

The CONDE DE ОFALIA.

[Extract of a letter from the Count de Ofalia, secretary of state, to Mr. Nelson, dated Aranjuez, May 14, 1824. "No. 5. To his excellency the secretary of the department of finance, upon the case of Mr. Richard W. Meade." Count de Ofalia to the minister of finance.]

ARANJUEZ, May 14, 1824.

By the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, Spain obliged itself to furnish the Government of the United States of America all the documents which might be necessary for the adjustment of the reclamations of its subjects, the payment of which it remained bound for by the same treaty.

In consequence thereof the minister plenipotentiary has claimed various papers relative to the comprobation of said reclamations, and among them those relating to the contracts and other affairs of Mr. Richard W. Meade.

In your department there exist writings on this important affair which, it appears, were remitted to the department under my charge on the 24th of May, 1821, and returned on the 26th of the same month, in which there are probably many of the documents that the said minister calls for, agreeably to the tenor of the annexed exposition of the American commissioners of the 18th of April, 1823 (and which I transmit without a translation on account of the urgency with which the documents are demanded and from the scarcity of persons in this royal residence), the dispatch of the remainder, corresponding to the authorities and offices, depending upon your ministry.

The King, our lord, considering on one side the obligation contracted by the treaty, and the benefit which has accrued to the royal finance of being released by it from the payment of near ten millions of reals, to which the claims of Meade amounted,

B.

MARGARET MEADE.

ne to recommend to your excellency in the most efficacious manner that ilitate to his excellency, the aforesaid minister of the United States, or to or persons that he may delegate for the purpose, the said documents in time possible, etc. By royal order, etc. God preserve your excellency

DEL CONDE DE OFALIA.

His Excellency the SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE.

Truly extracted.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, December 14, 1824.

DANIEL BRENT, Chief Clerk.

[Extract of a letter from Mr. Nelson, minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Spain, to the Secretary of State, dated May 17, 1824.]

"Mr. Appleton, who remained at Aranjuez two days after I left it, returned to this place last night, bringing with him the copies of the orders which have been issued from the Department of State to the several offices, for supplying the papers which have been demanded under the Florida treaty."

The foregoing is a true extract.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, December 14, 1824.

DANIEL BRENT, Chief Clerk.

[Extract of a letter from Mr. Nelson, minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Spain, to the Secretary of State, dated 31st July, 1824.]

"The Spanish Government seem disposed to proceed with the calls made upon them for papers, and we may now be permitted to indulge the hope that most of the records which have been asked for will be supplied before a very distant day. From this calculation I fear we must exclude the papers in Meade's case, which, being so voluminous, although entered upon by the Spanish officers apparently in good faith to supply them, seem to forbid any well-founded expectation that they can be speedily furnished."

The above is a true extract.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 14th December, 1824.

DANIEL BRENT, Chief Clerk.

[Certificate from Dr. Watkins of admission and rejection of R. W. Meade's claim, 7th June, 1824.] [Office of the commission under the eleventh article of the treaty between the United States and Spain.]

WASHINGTON, June 7, 1824.

I, Tobias Watkins, secretary of the commission under the eleventh article of the treaty of the 22d February, 1819, between His Catholic Majesty and the United States of America, being thereto requested by Richard W. Meade, esq., do hereby certify and make known to all whom it may concern that on the 6th day of January, 1822, the said Richard W. Meade presented, to be filed in the office of the said commission in conformity with public notice, a memorial setting forth the grounds of his claim against the Spanish Government; that said memorial was, by the commission, read and considered on the 27th day of June, 1822, and on the same day, as appears by their journal of proceedings, the said memorial was "received," which term "received" was used by the commission to signify that the memorial recited a claim which was considered to be included within the provisions of the treaty aforesaid. And I do further certify that on the 29th of May, 1824, as appears by the said journal of proceedings, the claim set forth in the said memorial on the part of the said Richard W. Meade was by the said commission rejected on the alleged ground that the evidence produced was not sufficient to establish the same. In testimony of all which, and to the end that the same may be used as to the said Richard W. Meade may seem meet and proper, I have granted this present at the place and date first above written, and have signed and sealed the same with my own proper hand and seal. T. WATKINS,

Secretary to the Commission under the Eleventh Article of the Treaty Aforesaid.

(P.)

[Deposition of Don José Canga Arguelles.-Translation.]

In the city of London, on the 9th day of the month of July, in the year 1827, before me, Daniel Simon Merceron, notary public of this city, and in the presence of the witnesses after subscribing, appeared the most excellent Señor Don José Canga Arguelles, knight of the Spanish order of Charles the Third, honorary councillor of state, etc., who says and declares, as by these presents he doth solemnly say and declare for truth, that in the year 1811, whilst he, the deponent, was secretary of state and of the department of finances of Spain and the Indies, under the regency of Cadiz, R. W. Meade., esq., a citizen of the United States, through his intervention and at his request, made considerable advances of money and provisions for the maintenance and subsistence of the Spanish troops. That amongst various other contracts entered into with him by Meade during the year 1811 and the beginning of 1812 was one for 12,000 barrels of flour, which were destined for the relief of the garrisons of Cartagena and Alicant, on the coast of the Mediterranean, and without which relief those garrisons would inevitably have surrendered to the French troops by which they were besieged. That such contract, which amounted to 204,000 hard dollars, at the rate of 17 hard dollars per barrel of flour, was to be paid for out of the first funds that should arrive from the American colonies, which funds were momentarily expected from Lima and Vera Cruz; but, unfortunately, the disturbances which had commenced in the American colonies were the occasion of specie not having been remitted in such large quantities as was expected, and the regency was obliged to take possession of and appropriate the whole of the specie that arrived to other important services of the state which would not admit of delay; so that the Government, contrary to its inclination, and merely from its then urgent necessity, omitted to pay Meade agreeably to the stipulations of the contract and conformably to the right he had of demanding such payment under the most express privileges granted to him by the Cortes of the year 1812, which, likewise, recognized his claim as a national debt, by ordering and directing that the same should be punctually paid out of a moiety of the specie that might arrive from the transmarine colonies in the Spanish treasury, and out of the duties on the specie that might arrive on account of individuals which was ratified by the Cortes held in the city of San Fernando in the year 1813, there being included in the said accounts a bill of exchange for 300,000 hard dollars given to Meade on the royal treasury of Vera Cruz, but which was not. honored for want of funds, the same being ordered to be paid in Spain, and the costs and damages to be settled and reimbursed to Meade, conformably to the laws and usages of Spain, and the custom of merchants; all which is well known to the deponent from the circumstance of his having been a deputy to the Cortes in the year 1813, and having been a member of the said commission of finances thereof, and having energetically supported the same at the public session wherein the business was discussed. That in the year 1814, on the arrival of King Ferdinand in Spain, the Cortes were dissolved by an armed force, and the deponent, one of the deputies thereof, was arrested, and imprisoned with the greatest rigor until the month of March, 1820; at which period the King swore to and reestablished the constitution of the year 1812; and in the same month the deponent was called to Madrid, and appointed minister of the department of finances of Spain and the Indies; which office was exercised by him until the month of March, 1821, as appears by public documents and by the Spanish and foreign gazettes of that period. That in the month of March, 1820, at the petition of Richard W. Meade, esq., and after a previous investigation by a board of ministers, by His Majesty for that purpose specially appointed, as also after a previous inquiry on the part of the principal accountant's office at the exchequer, His Majesty sanctioned and approved of the formal liquidation of the sums that remained due to the said Meade under his contracts, advances, and services aforesaid; and the necessary certificates were granted thereof, legalized by the deponent in his then quality of secretary of state and of the department of finances, recognizing the same as a national debt, without any the least reference to the treaty, which was not ratified by Spain until some months afterwards. That at the period at which the document ascertaining the liquidated amount of Meade's debt against the Spanish nation was granted to him no treaty existed between the Government of Spain and the United States of America touching the cession of the Floridas, and the term therein prefixed for the ratification thereof having expired, and the same, for such reason, having been by the minister of the United States declared null, and as if it had never existed. That there, moreover, was another reason, of infinitely more importance, for the annulment of the said treaty, viz, that, by the constitution of the monarchy it was incompetent to the King either to alien or cede, by treaty or sale, any part of the territory of the Spanish nation without the previous

consent of the Cortes; and that, consequently, the debt of Meade was recognized and judicially substantiated by all the formalities prescribed by the laws as a national debt in the month of March, 1820, without any sort of reference to, or connection with, the treaty. That if the payment did not at that time take place it was merely to be ascribed to the exhausted state of the Spanish treasury at the moment of the reestablishment of the constitution, and to the enormous expenses incurred in the various expeditions sent out to the American colonies. That the Cortes having assembled in the month of July of the said year 1820, Meade, by his agent, presented a memorial, praying a liquidation of his claim. In the month of October, the Cortes having proceeded to a discussion of the report of the special commission, appointed out of its members, touching the treaty of the Floridas, an account was, at the same time, given by the said commission of the claim of Meade; and it is indisputably true that the whole of the members were unanimously convinced, by the declaration of his excellency the secretary of state of Spain and of his excellency the minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, that, in case of the ratification thereof on the part of the Cortes, the debt of Meade was included therein, and that payment thereof ought to be made by the Government of the United States. That the deponent having read over the annexed deposition of the late Señor Don José Moreno y Guerra, deceased, with whom he was particularly acquainted, he is persuaded that everything therein by him deposed is the truth, and conformable to what passed and took place at that period. And the deponent feels it incumbent upon him solemnly to declare that the Cortes authorized, and the Spanish Government ratified, the treaty under an idea that the debt of Meade was included therein and that the payment thereof was to be provided for by the American Government, Spain remaining exonerated of and from all results.

In testimony whereof, the said appearer hath signed with me, the said notary, and witnesses, and I have caused my notarial seal to be hereto affixed, to serve and avail where need may require, the day and year aforesaid.

In testimonium veritatis.

[L. S.]

Witnesses:

JUAN RICO,

GEO. ROBERTS.

JOSE CANGA ARGUELLES.

D. S. MERCERON, Notary Public.

Consulate of the United States of America, London.

I, Thomas Aspinwall, consul of the United States of America for London and the dependencies thereof, do hereby make known and certify to all whom it may concern that Daniel Simon Merceron, who hath signed the foregoing certificate, is a notary public, duly admitted and sworn, and practicing in the city of London aforesaid; and that to all acts by him so done full faith and credit are and ought to be given in judicature and thereout.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said consulate, in London aforesaid, this 7th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1827, and in the fifty-second year of the independence of the said United States. [SEAL.] THOS. ASPINWALL.

[The deposition of Joseph Moreno Guerra, taken at Philadelphia, before Francis Hopkinson, and by him reduced to writing, one of the commissioners appointed to take affidavits by the circuit court of the United States for the district of Pennsylvania.]

The said Joseph Moreno Guerra, on his solemn oath, doth depose and say: That he is a native of the town of Rumbla, province of Cordova, Andalusia, in Spain, and is aged about 46 years and upward; that he was duly elected from his native province a deputy to the National Cortes of Spain in the year 1820, for that and the following year, 1821; and that the said Cortes assembled at Madrid on the 7th day of July, 1820; that on or about the beginning of October, in the same year, the Cortes discussed the question relating to the treaty signed during the year before at the city of Washington between Spain and the United States of America, involving a cession of the two Floridas. At the same time a special committee, to whom the business of that treaty had been referred, made a report on a memorial previously presented by the agent of Richard W. Meade, of Philadelphia, in the United States, claiming an appropriation for the payment of a sum acknowledged to be due to him by His Majesty the King of Spain. This committee in their report informed the Cortes that, in order to decide definitively upon the claim of the memorialist, it was necessary to ascertain whether the amount of money due to Richard W. Meade, and to those