force, and their alleged pursuit of citizens of the United States in
the surrounding country, and the authority under which the commanding
officer of the cutter acted in any such matter," I submit for the
information of the Senate the accompanying correspondence, which
contains all the information possessed by the executive department
relating to the matters inquired about.

It will be observed that the United States collector of customs at
Cedar Keys had been driven from his office and from the town and the
administration of the customs laws of the United States at that port
suspended by the violent demonstrations and threats of one Cottrell, the
mayor of the place, assisted by his town marshal, Mitchell. If it had
been necessary, as I do not think it can be in any case, for a United
States officer to appeal to the local authorities for immunity from
violence in the exercise of his duties, the situation at Cedar Keys did
not suggest or encourage such an appeal, for those to whom the appeal
would have been addressed were themselves the lawless instruments of
the threatened violence. It will always be agreeable to me if the local
authorities, acting upon their own sense of duty, maintain the public
order in such a way that the officers of the United States shall have
no occasion to appeal for the intervention of the General Government;
but when this is not done I shall deem it my duty to use the adequate
powers vested in the Executive to make it safe and feasible to hold and
exercise the offices established by the Federal Constitution and laws.

The means used in this case were, in my opinion, lawful and necessary,
and the officers do not seem to have intruded upon any private right in
executing the warrants placed in their hands. The letter dated August 4
last, which appears in the correspondence submitted, appealing to me
to intervene for the protection of the citizens of Cedar Keys from the