e invaders of Amelia Island had assumed a popular
and respected title under which they might approach and wound us. As
their object was distinctly seen, and the duty imposed on the Executive
by an existing law was profoundly felt, that mask was not permitted to
protect them. It was thought incumbent on the United States to suppress
the establishment, and it was accordingly done. The combination in
Florida for the unlawful purposes stated, the acts perpetrated by that
combination, and, above all, the incitement of the Indians to massacre
our fellow-citizens of every age and of both sexes, merited a like
treatment and received it. In pursuing these savages to an imaginary
line in the woods it would have been the height of folly to have
suffered that line to protect them. Had that been done the war could
never cease. Even if the territory had been exclusively that of Spain
and her power complete over it, we had a right by the law of nations
to follow the enemy on it and to subdue him there. But the territory
belonged, in a certain sense at least, to the savage enemy who inhabited
it; the power of Spain had ceased to exist over it, and protection
was sought under her title by those who had committed on our citizens
hostilities which she was bound by treaty to have prevented, but had not
the power to prevent. To have stopped at that line would have given new
encouragement to these savages and new vigor to the whole combination
existing there in the prosecution of all its pernicious purposes.

In suppressing the establishment at Amelia Island no unfriendliness was
manifested toward Spain, because the post was taken from a force which
had wrested it from her. The measure, it is true, was not adopted in
concert with the Spanish Government or those in authority under it,
because in transactions connected with the war in which Spain and the
colonies are engaged it was thought proper in doing justice to the
United States to maintain a strict impartiality toward both the
belligerent parties without consulting or acting in concert with either.
It gives me pleasure to state that the Governments of Buenos Ayres and
Venezuela, whose names were assumed, have explicitly disclaimed all
participation in those measures, and even the knowledge of them until
communicated by this Government, and have also expressed their
satisfaction that a course of proceedings had been suppressed which if
justly imputable to them would dishonor their cause.