Our relations with Spain remain nearly in the state in which they were
at the close of the last session. The convention of 1802, providing for
the adjustment of a certain portion of the claims of our citizens for
injuries sustained by spoliation, and so long suspended by the Spanish
Government, has at length been ratified by it, but no arrangement has
yet been made for the payment of another portion of like claims, not
less extensive or well founded, or for other classes of claims, or for
the settlement of boundaries. These subjects have again been brought
under consideration in both countries, but no agreement has been entered
into respecting them. In the meantime events have occurred which clearly
prove the ill effect of the policy which that Government has so long
pursued on the friendly relations of the two countries, which it is
presumed is at least of as much importance to Spain as to the United
States to maintain. A state of things has existed in the Floridas the
tendency of which has been obvious to all who have paid the slightest
attention to the progress of affairs in that quarter. Throughout
the whole of those Provinces to which the Spanish title extends the
Government of Spain has scarcely been felt. Its authority has been
confined almost exclusively to the walls of Pensacola and St. Augustine,
within which only small garrisons have been maintained. Adventurers from
every country, fugitives from justice, and absconding slaves have found
an asylum there. Several tribes of Indians, strong in the number of
their warriors, remarkable for their ferocity, and whose settlements
extend to our limits, inhabit those Provinces. These different hordes of
people, connected together, disregarding on the one side the authority
of Spain, and protected on the other by an imaginary line which
separates Florida from the United States, have violated our laws
prohibiting the introduction of slaves, have practiced various frauds
on our revenue, and committed every kind of outrage on our peaceable