18th of July last, and entitled to the privilege of a citizen of the United States, &c. therein mentioned, and designed to be conferred; for your petitioner alleges that he is in the same condition with the great majority of the people of Florida, a very small portion of whom have been able to maintain personal occupation of the Territory who were dispersed at the time of the transfer of said Province in various places, as your petitioner was himself at Charleston on a visit, and on the 17th day of July on his way to this place. That for the last three years your petitioner has resided no where except in the Havana or Florida, and that in the just and liberal construction of the above mentioned ordinance which it deserves to receive, your petitioner is entitled to the privileges it embraces.

Your petitioner having in the month of June last abjured all allegiance to foreign Governments, and having again repeated the same before the Honorable J. G. Forbes, mayor, as per certificate herewith produced, prays that your Excellency would grant him a certificate according to the terms of the ordinance aforesaid.

At a session of the Court of Appeals for the Territory of Florida, continued and held in the city of Tallahasse, on Wednesday the 27th day of January, A. D. 1841,

On the matter of David Levy, Esq., who has been qualified as an attorney, solicitor, counsellor, and advocate, in this court.

It being suggested to the court that doubts exist whether said David Levy is a citizen of the United States of America, and entitled to practise as such attorney, solicitor, counsellor, and advocate

Ordered, on motion of Leslie A. Thompon, Esq., a counsellor of this court, that David Levy show cause on Friday morning, at the opening of this court, why his name should not be stricken from practising attorneys, solicitors, councellors, and advocates, of this court, on the ground that he is not a citizen of the United States of America.

At a session of the Court of Appeals for the Territory of Florida, continued and held in the city of Tallahasse, on Saturday, the 13th day of February, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty one,

Present: The honorable

RICHARD C. ALLEN, Presiding Judge.

WILLIAM MARVIN,

ALFRED BALCH,

Associate Judges.

In the matter of David Levy, Esq., &c.-On rule to show cause, &c. The said David Levy, Esq., having shown cause to this court in compliance with and in answer to said rule, and the questions arising in said. cause being fully argued, and it being the unanimous opinion of this court, after mature consideration, that said David Levy, Esq., became and was a citizen of the United States of America, from the time of the definitive ratification and consummation of the treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States of America and the King of Spain, by which the Floridas were ceded to the former, by force and effect of the sixth article of said treaty, and hath been ever since and now is such citizen of the United States of America. It is ordered and adjudged that said rule to show cause be discharged.

TERRITORY OF FLORIDA, County of Léon, sct.

I, Richard G. Wellford, Clerk of the Court of Appeals for the Territory of Florida, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the rule and discharge of said court, at the January and February term, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-one.

[L. S.]

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the
seal of said Court, this the 23d day of June, A. D. 1841, and of the
independence of the United States of America the sixty-fifth year.
R. G. WELLFORD,
Clerk Court of Appeals.

No. 7.

Deposition of Joseph S. Sanchez.

Joseph S. Sanchez, being duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith :

I am a native of the city of St. Augustine; am 45 years old. I was in St. Augustine at the time of the cession of Florida the first time. I am sure Moses E. Levy was, I think a short time before the cession, in the store of a relative of mine at St. Augustine. In the presence of Governor Coppinger I was introduced to Mr. Levy at the place. He had arrived at St. Augustine from Havana, with a schooner, and brought with him seed cane and other tropical plants. I recollect he gave me some of the plants which he brought from Cuba with him. I planted them on my place, three miles from St. Augustine; and I abandoned that place before the cession, and returned to St. Augustine. I understood that he had come there for the purpose of settling permanently, and that he had brought out seed cane and other tropical plants as I understood. I cannot say whether he continued there at the change of flags, but I think I saw him soon after. I have no recollection of the circumstance whether he was there at the change of flags or not. I understood he arrived there from the Havana. I have continued to reside at St. Augustine since then. After the cession, I am under the impression that Mr. Levy voted at all our elections. I know nothing more than the common understanding, that he had come there to settle. I was not in Mr. Levy's company more than half an hour. The position of Mr. Gardner, the witness at the time of the cession, was a house carpenter.

And being cross-examined on the part of the remonstrants, witness said: At the time I first saw Moses E. Levy, he did not remain there long. I saw him several times after the first time; and I am under the impression it must have been before the cession. Do not know that Moses E. Levy occupied a house or a plantation before the change of flags. The transfer of flags took place in July. It was not a very long while before the change of flags that I first saw Moses E. Levy. I think it was just before the change of flags. The winter that my plants were destroyed was the first winter after they were planted; and after the change of flags I abandoned my place after I had planted the plants, and before the change of flags: I cannot exactly recollect the year. From the circumstance of planting this place, I think I must have seen Moses E. Levy before the change of flags. Cold weather killed my plants. They were such plants as would be killed by the mildest frosts. I think I understood that Moses E. Levy had come to the country for the purpose of settling. A foreigner cannot hold land in Florida, I do not recollect whether he said he had land there. I think he brought the plants there for his own cultivation. I do not know that he sold any of these plants. I never knew of his planting any. I think that was the first time he came to Florida. It must have been about the close of the spring or beginning of summer. June is about the commencement of our summer. I think he boarded in town, instead of on board his vessel. I do not know that he brought any utensils or implements of husbandry. I think it was the same year of the change of flags that I first saw Mr. Levy. I do not know of his carrying on the operation of planting until after the change of flags. I understood, at that time, he was direct from Cuba. I do not know that he brought any member of his family with him. I either understood from the person introducing me to Mr Levy, or from Mr. Levy himself, at the time of the introduction, that he came to the country for the purpose of settling. The place where I was first introduced to Mr. Levy was at the store of Francis P. Sanchez. This matter has transpired so long ago, and I did not expect to be called to testify about it, that I did not charge my mind with it, and I speak only from recollection. JOSEPH S. SANCHEZ.

No. 8.

Deposition of Thomas Baltzell.

Thomas Baltzell of Florida being examined as a witness on the part of Mr. Levy in the case of contested election depending before the Committee of Elections of the House of Representatives, being duly sworn, sayeth: That he has been a practising lawyer since the year 1825 in Florida, and mostly at the seat of Government; that he regularly attended the sessions of the Court of Appeals, and was present at the last term thereof.

That he has a recollection of the proceedings and case depending before and determined by the court, on the motion to strike Mr. Levy from the rolls. That deponent was not connected with the case as counsel or otherwise, and can only speak from his information of the case gathered in court, and through conversation with his brother lawyers.

He says that the object of the application was distinctly stated to the

court, to be to settle a question important not only to Mr. Levy, but many others, in East Florida, who were anxious to have the decision of the highest judicial tribunal whether they were citizens or not; that he does not distinctly recollect the argument of the case, but knows that the subject was considered and the case held under advisement by the court.

That the question of alienage was distinctly decided by the court, they agreeing unanimously in the opinion on that point.

THOMAS BALTZELL.

Sworn and subscribed this 1st day of September, A. D. 1841.

W. HALSTED, Chairman.

No. 9.

Deposition of Wm. P. Duval.

The deposition of Wm. P. Duval, of Florida, taken before the Committee of Elections of the House of Representatives in the case of the honorable David Levy, whose seat is contested as the Delegate of Florida to Congress.

This deponent, being first sworn, says he was the first judge of East Florida in the year 1821. That he went to that, country in autumn of 1821. At that time General Andrew Jackson was the Governor of Florida, and claimed to be invested with powers of captain-general of Cuba under the act of Congress; and by commissions under James Monroe, then President of the United States, his powers were restricted in two cases only, if I remember correctly. He was prohibited from granting lands or imposing taxes. As the judge of East Florida, my opinion was that all the judicial pow er conferred upon me was confined to cases arising under the revenue laws of the United States, and under the acts of Congress prohibiting an introduction of slaves. I believe at that time (1821) no other powers or jurisdiction was conferred on the judges of that Territory.

This deponent further states that General Jackson, as Governor as aforesaid, made and issued certain ordinances or laws, regulating the transaction of the business in and for the government of Florida. This deponent never doubted he had the right so to do within the limits of his powers as defined by law, and his commissions from the President in pursuance of law. That the courts of Florida have continued for near twenty years to adjudicate on cases arising under the ordinances, and have respected them as laws binding on the people of the Territory, except certain of the said ordinances which were repealed by Congress in the spring of the year 1822, among which was one authorizing the naturalization of the resident inhabitants of Florida. This ordinance was considered by the inhabitants as a grievance, and they disclaimed the right of the Governor to subject them to any process to enforce their allegiance to the United States, as the treaty with Spain provided that they should stand in the same situation as the inhabitants of other Territories belonging to the United States. I am under the impression that I acted for the people of the Territory in this case, as well as in some others; as I was requested by many of the citizens to attend Congress in the winter 1821,-22, to represent their condition and wants to the President and Congress, as they had no Delegate to represent them at that time, and which I did in compliance with their wishes.

This deponent states that adjudications were made by Governor Jackson under his ordinances, and since by the superior courts under judges appointed by the President and Senate of the United States, (except such as had been repealed by Congress in May, 1822,) and that afterwards the Legislative Council of Florida repealed all the ordinances not before repealed by Congress, with a saving clause as to such cases as had or might thereafter arise under the said ordinance. I speak from recollection only, and I may not remember the precise phraseology of the act; but the laws of Florida can be referred to in the State Department to render certain this point. Estates of value have been settled under and in pursuance of the said ordinances by our Superior Courts and by the Court of Appeals, and I believe satisfactorily to the members of the bar and the people of the Territory. Governor Jackson left the Territory before he resigned the office of Governor, and his two Secretaries, Colonel George Watton in the West, and Wm. G. D. Worthington in the East, acted as Governors of the said provinces, under the said ordinances, exercising the powers claimed by General Jackson, until the passage of the organic law by Congress in the spring of 1822.

This deponent, under the said organic law, was appointed the successor of Governor Jackson in the spring of 1822, and exercised no powers but such as the said law for the organization and government of Florida prescribed. This deponent resided many years in the said Territory; was absent from it from spring 1834 until the winter 1836, and has resided there ever since. And further says not.

WILLIAM P. DUVAL.

The question was put to Mr. Duval by the committee, whether, as Judge, if the ordinance relating to the naturalization of the inhabitants of Florida had been submitted to his adjudication, would he have decided that the said ordinance was legal, and within the powers granted to Governor Jackson?

Answer.-Mr. Duval says it was his opinion that the treaty with Spain provided for the incorporation of the inhabitants of Florida as citizens of the United States, and no ordinance issued by the Governor could operate against the said treaty, and so far as it might it would be null and void. Deponents states that the registration of names under the ordinance of the people of Florida was a power the Governor had a right to exercise, for all purposes, except to regulate the naturalization of its inhabitants.

Question by the chairman of the committee.-Did the Mayor of the city of St. Augustine exercise the powers of a Court of Record?

Answer. He did; and the Governor had the right, in deponent's opinion, to appoint judges, or to give the jurisdiction to the magistrates and mayors, or intendants of cities, and this deponent knows, of his own knowledge, the Mayor of St. Augustine held such courts, and kept a record of his judgments and judicial proceedings.

Question by the chairman.-Was the act of registration one of the pow ers belonging to the Court of Record, held by the said Mayor of St. Augustine? or did he exercise this power of registration by the special authority of the said ordinance ?

Answer. The Mayor's court was a Court of Record generally; but I suppose the special power of registration was conferred by the ordinance, as all his other powers were derived in the same manner.

Question by a member of the committee.-Was the act of registration an exercise of the power of a Court of Record?