Source: Amy Notes (ID702)
Author: Howard, Amy (ID633)
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It?s ironic that this pathetic outpost is now hailed as the most majestic sample of European history
It?s ironic that this pathetic outpost is now hailed as the most majestic sample of European history in America.
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FL embraced advice from the Bishop of Merida regarding cedulas: "I obey but do not execute"
Date Created: 2023-10-12 20:56:17
Source: The King?s Coffer (ID 83)
Author: Bushnell, Amy (ID 32)
Content_id: 496
During the course of the 17th century, the treasury at St. Augustine built up precedents that achieved the practical force of law. Cedulas from the crown were respectfully received and recorded, but not necessarily implemented. In this the officials followed the ancient principle of “I obey but do not execute” (“obedezco pero no cumplo”), a form of particularism expounded for the adelantado in 1567 by his friend Francisco del Toral, Bishop of Merida: “For every day there will be new things and transactions which will bring necessity for new provisions and new remedies. For the General Laws of the Indies cannot cease having mild interpretations, the languages and lands being different, inasmuch as in one land and people they usually ignore things in conformity to the times. Thus it will be suitable for your lordship to do things there [in Florida] of which experience and the condition of those natives have given you understanding.” [Note 22: Letter of 4/5/1567.] The Florida creoles, born in the New World of Spanish parents, referred to long custom to justify their actions, and this argument was taken seriously. [Note 23: Santos de las Heras and Domingo de Leturiondo 10/8/1657; Gov. Marques Cabrera 12/8/1680 and 3/20/1686; Thomas Menendez Marquez and Joachin de Florencia 7/6/1689.] The Franciscan commissary general for the Indies, writing the year after publication of the great Recopilacion de leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, observed that some practices in the Indies were not amenable to change after so long a time. [Note 24: Christoval de Viso to secretary of the Council, Madrid, 6/27/1682.] Perhaps it was only right that there should be flexibility in the application of laws. Florida was an exception to the usual colony. It had been founded for reasons of dynastic prestige, and for those reasons it was maintained, at a cost out of all proportion to benefits received. The colony did not mature beyond its initial status of captaincy general. It was a perennial military frontier that was never, under the Habsburgs, absorbed by another administrative unit. The governors were military men with permanent ranks of admiral, captain, sergeant major, or colonel, who took orders from the Council and the Junta de Guerra (Council of War) alone. It was a dubious distinction, for wartime coordination with New Spain or Havana depended upon mutual goodwill rather than any sense of obligation. The French, when not at war with the Spanish, made more reliable allies. [Note 25: Gov. Zuniga y Cerda to Gov. Chacon, castellan of el Morro, Havana, 10/3/1704, with enclosures of 1/11/1701 and 6/7/1704.] In his civil role the governor answered neither to the audiencia (high court and governing body) in Santo Domingo nor the one in Mexico City, and he took orders from no viceroy. In the 17th century the crown moved with majestic deliberation to establish the authority, first of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, then that of Mexico City, over civil and criminal appeals; responsibility for treasury audits was handed back and forth between the Mexico City Tribunal of Accounts and the royal auditor in Havana. These measures did not affect the Florida governorship, which remained independent. As Governor Marques Cabrera explained more than once, no audiencia cared to be responsible for poor frontier provinces. Distances were great, navigation was perilous, and ministers were unwilling to make the journey. AN74 [Note 26: Joseph de Prado and Domingo de Leturiondo 11/24/1660; Gov. Marques Cabrera, 6/14/1681 and 1/25/1682.] If mines of silver had been found within its borders, New Spain would have annexed Florida without delay. Not everyone was satisfied with a separate status. The friars thought that prices would be lower if the governor were subject to some viceroy or audiencia (or were at least a Christian). And royal officials grumbled that there was little point in the king’s having appointed them to a republic of poor soldiers, in which the governor disregarded his treasury officials and answered to no audiencia. [Note 27: Friars in chapter 1/14/1617; Francisco Menendez Marquez, Juan de Cueva, and Francisco Ramirez 1/30/1627.] For their own reasons, the accountant, treasurer, and factor often made the governor look more autocratic than he was. Florida may not have been a popular democracy, but neither was it a dictatorship. There were within the community carefully drawn class distinctions based on inequalities of status and income, and the officials of the treasury were gentlemen, expecting and receiving the honors due to their class. They were not mere quartermasters on the governor’s staff. As proprietors of treasury office and judges of the exchequer they were his quasi-peers, and as titled councilmen of the one Spanish city in Florida they were his civil advisory council, just as the sergeant major and captains were his council of war and the priests and friars his ecclesiastical counselors. The governor who ignored the advice of these men of experience was spoken of disparagingly as “carried off by his own opinions.” (Bushnell KC)