laws, and
Spanish civil functionaries, where no special reasons may require
changes, are to be permitted to remain in office with the assurance of a
continuation of the prevailing laws, with such alterations only as may
be necessarily required in the new situation of the country.

If it should be required and be found necessary, you may agree to
advance, as above, a reasonable sum for the transportation of the
Spanish troops.

These directions are adapted to one of the contingencies specified in
the act of Congress, namely, the amicable surrender of the possession of
the Territory by the local ruling authority. But should the arrangement
contemplated by the statute not be made, and should there be room to
entertain a suspicion of an existing design in any foreign power to
occupy the country in question, you are to keep yourselves on the alert,
and on the first undoubted manifestation of the approach of a force for
that purpose you will exercise with promptness and vigor the powers with
which you are invested by the President to preoccupy by force the
Territory, to the entire exclusion of any armament that may be advancing
to take the possession of it. In this event you will exercise a sound
discretion in applying the powers given with respect to debts, titles to
lands, civil officers, and the continuation of the Spanish laws, taking
care to commit the Government on no point further than may be necessary;
and should any Spanish military force remain within the country after
the occupancy by the troops of the United States, you may in such case
aid in their removal from the same.

The universal toleration which the laws of the United States assure to
every religious persuasion will not escape you as an argument for
quieting the minds of uninformed individuals who may entertain fears on
that head.

The conduct you are to pursue in regard to East Florida must be
regulated by the dictates of your own judgments, on a close view and
accurate knowledge of the precise state of things there, and of the real
disposition of the Spanish Government always recurring to the present
instruction as the paramount rule of your proceedings. Should you
discover an inclination in the governor of East Florida, or in the
existing local authority, amicably to surrender that province into the
possession of the United States, you are to accept it on the same terms
that are prescribed by these instructions in relation to West Florida.
And in c