P. S.--Should you find it impracticable to execute the duties
designated above, in person, the President requests that you
will be so good as to employ some very respectable character
to represent you in it, to whom you are authorized to allow a
similar compensation. It is hoped, however, that you may be
able to attend to it in person, for reasons which I need not
enter into. The expenses to which you may be exposed will be
promptly paid to your draft on this Department.
_The Secretary of State to D. B. Mitchell, Esq., Governor of Georgia._
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, _May_ 27, 1812.
SIR,--I have had the honor to receive your letter of the second
instant, from St. Mary's, where you had arrived in discharge of
the trust reposed in you by the President, in relation to East
Florida.
My letter by Mr. Isaacs, has, I presume, substantially answered
the most important of the queries submitted in your letter, but
I will give to each a more distinct answer.
By the law, of which a copy was forwarded to you, it is
made the duty of the President to prevent the occupation of
East Florida by any foreign power. It follows that you are
authorized to consider the entrance, or attempt to enter,
especially under existing circumstances, of British troops, of
any description, as the case contemplated by the law, and to
use the proper means to defeat it.
An instruction will be immediately forwarded to the commander
of the naval force of the United States, in the neighborhood of
East Florida, to give you any assistance, in case of emergency,
which you may think necessary, and require.
It is not expected, if you find it proper to withdraw the
troops, that you should interfere to compel the patriots to
surrender the country, or any part of it, to the Spanish
authorities. The United States are responsible for their own
conduct only, not for that of the inhabitants of East Florida.
Indeed, in consequence of the comportment of the United States
to the inhabitants, you have been already instructed not to
withdraw the troops, unless you find that it may be done
consistently with their safety, and to report to the Government
the result of your conferences with the Spanish authorities,
with your opinion of their views, holding in the mean time the
ground occupied.
In the present state of our affairs with Great Britain the
course above pointed out is the more justifiable and proper. I
have the honor to be, &c.,