eem it proper to invite the attention of Congress to the subject of
the unsettled claims of Spanish inhabitants of East Florida during the
years of 1812 and 1813, generally known as the "East Florida claims,"
the settlement of which is provided for by a stipulation found in
Article IX of the treaty of February, 1819, between the United States
and Spain. The provision of the treaty in question which relates to
the subject is the following:

The United States will cause satisfaction to be made for the
injuries, if any, which by process of law shall be established
to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and individual
Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of the American
army in Florida.

The act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1823 (3 U.S. Statutes at
Large, p. 768), to carry into effect the ninth article of the treaty
in question, provided for the examination and judicial ascertainment
of the claims by the judges of the superior courts established at St.
Augustine and Pensacola, and also made provision for the payment by
the Secretary of the Treasury of such claims as might be reported to
him by the said judges, upon his being satisfied that such claims were
just and equitable; and a subsequent act, approved the 26th of June,
1834 (6 U.S. Statutes at Large, p. 569), gave further directions for
the payment, and also provided for the hearing and determination by
the judge of the superior court of St. Augustine of such claims as
had not then been already heard and determined. Under these acts
of Congress I understand that all claims presented to the judges in
Florida were passed upon and the result of the proceedings thus had
reported to the Secretary of the Treasury. It also appears that in
the computation of damages the judges adopted a rule of 5 per cent per
annum on the ascertained actual loss from the date of that loss to the
time of the rendition of their finding, and that the Secretary of the
Treasury in 1836, when the first reports were presented to him, not
deeming this portion of the claims covered by the 5 per cent rule
just and equitable within the meaning of the treaty and the acts of
Congress, refused to pay it, but did continue to pay the ascertained
amounts of actual loss. The demand for payment of this rejected
item has been pressed at various times and in various ways up to the
present time, but Mr. Woodbury's successors in the Treasury Department
have not felt at liberty to review