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.
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