The Republic of the Floridas, also called Republic of Floridas, was a short-lived attempt, from June to December 1817, to establish an independent Florida. It was led by Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish military adventurer, purportedly commissioned by Simón Bolívar, who led revolts of the Spanish coloniesin America, to capture Florida from Spain. He was joined by another adventurer and soldier of fortune, the French Louis-Michel Aury, and by the Scot Richard Ambrister, whose execution by General Andrew Jackson shortly thereafter provoked an international incident. MacGregor conquered Amelia Island, which was the only territory the country consisted of. On December 9, 1817, "first year of the independence of Floridas", there was printed in Fernandina the Report of the Committee Appointed to Frame the Plan of Provisional Government for the Republic of Floridas. It was reprinted privately in 1942 under the titleRepublic of the Floridas: Constitution and Frame of Government Drafted by a Committee Appointed by the Assembly of Representatives, and Submitted at Fernandina, December 9, 1817. Believing that the occupation of Amelia Island by the men in question meant "that it would be used as a base from which to smuggle slaves and other merchandise into the U.S.", avoiding the customs duties which were the Federal government's main source of revenue, President Monroe ordered the U.S. Navy to put an end to it. The U.S. Navy — the John Adams, Saranac, and Gunboat No. 168 — took possession of the island in December, and President Monroe delivered to Congress on January 13, 1818, a Message from the President of the United States, communicating information of the troops of the United States having taken possession of Amelia Island, in East Florida. Its first sentence reads: "I have the satisfaction to inform Congress, that the establishment at Amelia Island has been suppressed, and without the effusion of blood." Monroe included "the papers which explain this transaction": the letters of Graham and Crowninshield just cited, letters of Aury, and other documentation from Federal records.
