Complaint of Arbitrary Government in a Dependency (1821)

BY COLONEL DON JOSEPH CALLAVA

(ANONYMOUS TRANSLATION)

ON the 17th day of July last, at 10 o’clock in the morning, I delivered West Florida, which was that day under my charge as governor, in which character he met me, to the commissary Don Andrew Jackson, in a public act held in the government house. There he received from me all the archives and documents registered . . .

The papers of the official correspondence belonging to the secretary’s office remained in the charge of the secretary of my government; and the military papers, judicial proceedings of the national finance, and arrivals, (arribadas finecidas,) belonging to their respective branches at the Havanna, to which they have been restored by the evacuation, remained with the secretary of war and finance, which office, Don Domingo Sousa had exercised for the space of fifteen or twenty years. There also remained . . . the artillery, with what belonged to that department, kept under my protection, during the delivery or removing of it, (which in either case had to be executed by me,) according to the determination which might be made by the President of the United States, and the minister plenipotentiary of H. C. Majesty, near that government . . . I have waited for that resolution, (which is yet pending;) and the commissary Don Andrew Jackson, so understood me . . .

The day previous to these transactions (the 21st of August) three persons, dependants of Don Andrew Jackson, came to the house of the secretary Sousa, to be informed if he had in his possession some military testamentary dispositions, which they mentioned to him. Sousa told them, yes, and without reserve they were shewn to them, and he informed them that if they wished for any thing, they should ask me. All the papers which he had in his charge were closely examined: they declared that they would carry off those which they had pointed out to him, because they could not be in his possession as a private individual. Sousa told them that he was not a private individual, that he was an officer depending on my commission and authority, and that he could not give them without my order; and, finally, they went away, leaving the papers. . . .

The following day, (22d) in the morning, this officer met me in the street: he . . . told me that he had resolved to carry the boxes to my house, with all the papers which he had in his possession, and had delivered them to my steward . . .

At four in the afternoon of the same day . . . three persons presented themselves to me . . . telling me, from Don Andrew Jackson, that they came for the papers which Sousa had carried to my house, or to carry me with them to Jackson’s house; because the Governor with his authority could not respect me in any other light than as a private individual.

Astonished to find myself involved in such events, with expressive actions I intreated them to do me the honor of returning to the Commissary Governor with my compliments, asking him, how he could forget that I was the Spanish Commissary who had delivered to him that

Province, and whom he had found as Governor in it, and who at the same time had not been removed by his government, nor concluded the delivery, nor withdrawn the artillery . . . nor of other things under my power? That I was surprized at what passed between us; that he would have the goodness to reflect that every paper in my possession on that day, belonged to the government which I had exercised in that province, was sacred under my authority and character, by the privilege of the law of nations, which has always been mutually observed and respected among nations, as to those individuals of either, to whom the execution of treaties has been entrusted, or other Commissioners, and it is a thing unknown that any authority has forcibly violated a trust so sacred, without cause or reason; that whatever paper he might wish to ask, he might demand of me in writing . . . that this was the only mode agreeable to the exact usual procedure in the important charge with which we were entrusted, in the political subject between nations, in the performance of which he could not, by his authority, call my proceedings in question, nor constrain them by judicial force as Governor, by which the security of the papers in my possession could be violated, nor any other thing directly depending not on my person, but on my official situation . . .

. . . An hour afterwards, one of the three presented himself in my house, and gave me an abstract, written on a half sheet of paper, in the English language, and signed Alcalde Brackenridge. I took it; I told him that I should have it translated, and should reply to it; he went away; I gave it to the interpreter at that hour, which was nine at night, and sought repose on the bed; but, a while after, and without further preliminaries, a party of troops, with the commissioners, assaulted the house, breaking the fence, (notwithstanding the door was open,) and the commissioners entered my apartment; they surrounded my bed with soldiers with drawn bayonets in their hands, they removed the mosquito net, they made me sit up, and demanded the papers, or they would use the arms against my person. . . .

In fine, a short while after, one of the three went out, and returned, accompanied with an officer, who, placing himself before me, told me I was a prisoner, and ordered me to dress myself. . . . I dressed in my uniform, was going to put on my sword, but, upon reflection, thought it better to deliver it to the officer. I did so, and one of the three took it from his hand and threw it upon the chimney, and in this manner I was conducted through the streets among the troops.

They took me to a private house, in which they presented me to Don Andrew Jackson, who, with two other persons, was seated near a table; the house was filled with people of all ages and classes, and there he made me a sign to sit down, which I did.

By the only interpreter who had hitherto delivered and carried back the verbal messages, which I have already mentioned, he put one question to me, according to my recollection, confined solely to whether certain papers had been carried to my house by Don Domingo Sousa and delivered to my steward.

I requested him to permit me to answer in writing, and to do so with my own hand. He granted it readily. I set myself to write a regular protest, that I might go on to answer afterwards; but, I had hardly began, when Don Andrew Jackson took the paper from before me, and, with much violence and furious gestures, spoke for some time, looking at the by-standers, and, when he had concluded, the interpreter told me that he ordered me to give no other answer to all that he had asked me but yes or no. I replied, that I offered to be very brief, but that he should question me by writing the question, and permitting me to write the answer with my own hand, and give in my turn the most precise reason for it. He absolutely refused me, and the interpreter wrote upon that same paper which had been snatched from me, I know not what.

. . . Nothing was read to me, nor was I in formed of any thing which the interpreter wrote in that act, nor was may signature required of me . . .

I remained silent; they called my steward; they asked him if certain papers had been delivered to him by Sousa, at my house. He answered yes.

Don Andrew Jackson drew from among other papers one which was already written; he read it to me, and it contained the order for committing me and my steward to prison.

I got upon my feet. I begged the interpreter to ask him if he did not shudder and was not struck with horror at insulting me, and I pronounced a solemn protest against his proceedings. The interpreter informed him, and he replied, that for what he had done he had no account to give but to his government, and he told me that I might protest before God himself.

I was carried off to prison at twelve at night, and my steward also. . . . afterwards, I was informed by various persons who understood the Spanish and English languages, that the matters above related, which had been conceived against me, and were not translated by the interpreter, consisted in having endeavored to persuade the people that the papers were taken from the office of the alcalde, and that I was an accomplice in that criminal action.

At eleven in the morning of the following day, the 23d, Judge Eligius Fromentin issued a writ of Habeas Corpus for the release of my person, and Don Andrew Jackson answered, that it was not proper to carry it into execution: but on the same day, at one in the afternoon, he gave order that an officer should inform me, that I was released from prison, and might be accompanied by him to my house, to examine if the boxes were sealed. . . .

I went thither with the officer, and many other persons; it was found open, with three or four soldiers within; the papers of official correspondence scattered upon the table, and the covers open; one box which was left shut, and sealed with the seal of my government, had been burst open, the seals broken, and again shut, with different seals, and nothing was found wrong in the contents of the money chest. . . .

, January 29, 1822 (Washington, 1822), 100–107 passim. (This is House Document, 17 Cong., 1 sess., No. 42.)