Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/31

21 enlistment of adventurers in the territory of the Union, and against their equipment and military march from the very bosom of the States, for the purpose of invading Spanish America, I was answered in these, or similar terms: "That the governors of every state, watched over the observance of the law; that there had not been sufficient proof in the cases about which I complained; and that the constitution of the country allowed a free entrance into it, to every individual of the human race, without exception, provided they did not belong to a nation or power at war with the United States." I gave an account of all this to his majesty, by transmitting to him copies of my notes to the American government, and of the answers which I received from it. In my correspondence, which should be in the Office of the Secretary of State, all these cases will be found circumstantially explained and demonstrated. In that, also, may be seen my remonstrances and protests against the occupancy of Amelia Island, and the invasion of East Florida, and against the capture of the fortresses of St. Mark's, the Barrancas, and Pensacola, by the American troops—outrages which, it will scarcely be believed by posterity, were committed during a time of peace, and at the very moment when negotiations were pending for an amicable adjustment of all the differences between the two nations. The steadiness with which the American government has