James Madison Papers

To James Madison from George M. Troup, [ca. 28 June] 1812

From George M. Troup

[ca. 28 June 1812]

Mr Troups complts to the President.

Arradondo1 is a Spaniard of honor & is perhaps secretly well disposed towards us.

Genl Mitchell2 can draw from the Western Country ⟨rein⟩forcements to any amount—but fear he will not have time to prepare for the threatened danger.3

RC and enclosure (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, T-110:6). Undated; date assigned here on the assumption that the letter was forwarded in Washington shortly after Troup received the enclosure, which bore a 21 June Savannah postmark. Docketed by a War Department clerk as received 29 June 1812. For enclosure, see n. 3.

1Troup was probably referring to Joseph (or José) de la Maza Arredondo, who had resided in East Florida at least since January 1811. For evidence suggesting that he was sympathetic to the policy of annexing East Florida to the U.S., see Robert Smith to JM, 17 Jan. 1811, PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (4 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends , 3:123 n. 3.

2David Brydie Mitchell (1766–1837) was elected governor of Georgia in 1809, holding that office until 1813 and again from 1815 to 1817. On 10 Apr. 1812, after the U.S. government had disavowed George Mathews for his unauthorized military action in taking Amelia Island, Mitchell was appointed to replace him as special agent to East Florida. Interpreting Monroe’s written and verbal instructions to support continued U.S. involvement in Spanish East Florida, Mitchell refused to withdraw U.S. troops committed by Mathews and instead reinforced them with Georgia volunteers in June 1812 (Sobel and Raimo, Biographical Directory of the Governors, 1:285; William Harris Crawford to James Monroe, 5 Apr. 1812, nn. 2 and 3; Patrick, Florida Fiasco, pp. 129, 137–38).

3Troup enclosed a 21 June 1812 letter from Hugh McCall (3 pp.), outlining the situation in St. Augustine upon the arrival of the new governor of East Florida, Sebastián Kindelán. McCall informed Troup that Mitchell had received dispatches to the effect that five or six hundred troops had embarked from Cuba for East Florida and were expected at any time. McCall reported that the governor of East Florida had warned U.S. Army colonel Thomas Smith to depart within nine days. According to McCall, Smith had 115 troops and 75 volunteers, while “the revolutionists are said to be very disorderly & ungovernable, consequently they will not be very useful.” On the prospect of Mitchell’s being compelled to withdraw from East Florida, McCall wrote: “I think him self and the state will feel wounded at the feeble support which has been given to his mission. We are still at a loss to know the determination of the Genl. Goverment upon this subject.”

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