This was no more than had been expected. General Gaines, faithful to his own convictions of justice, took an appeal to a higher tribunal; and this appeal rendered it necessary for the court to fix a time within which the claimants should enter bail for costs and damages, or the negroes would be delivered up to General Gaines by the sheriff. In the meantime, the Executive officers at Washington had become informed of the difficulties which had lain across the path of Mr. Collins, and felt it to be desirable that the whole matter should be arranged with as little discussion as possible. General Jessup retired from the command of the army in Florida on the fifteenth of May, and returned to Washington, leaving General Zachary Taylor as commander-in-chief of our military forces in that Territory. He had shown himself prompt in the execution of all orders; cool, deliberate, and firm in battle; faithful to his men, to himself and his country; but, up to this time, he had manifested no particular zeal in the capture of negroes. Indeed, although he had penetrated farther into the Indian Country than any other officer--had fought the bloodiest battles of any commander in Florida, yet he refused to draw any distinctions among his prisoners. With him Indians and negroes were equally _prisoners of war_, and entitled to the same treatment. Nor would he listen to men who professed to own the persons whom he captured, or who had surrendered themselves as prisoners. The Administration having been a party in the sale to Watson, determined to carry out the slave-dealing arrangement with him; at least so far as regarded the thirty-one negroes who yet remained in New Orleans. In order to effect this object, it was deemed necessary to have the coöperation and aid of General Taylor. The Adjutant General, therefore, addressed him on the subject, enclosing to him the letter of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, dated the ninth of May, addressed to the Secretary of War, and heretofore referred to. General Taylor evidently thought the honor of the service would be compromited by this slave-dealing transaction. He subsequently became President of the United States; and as the reader will feel anxious to understand precisely the views which he entertained, we give that portion of his letter to the Adjutant General which relates to this subject. It is in the following words: "I have the honor to acknowledge your communication of the tenth of May, 1838, accompanied by one of the ninth from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, addressed to Captain Cooper, Acting Secretary of War, on the subject of turning over certain negroes, captured by the Creek warriors in Florida, to a Mr. Collins, their agent, in compliance with an engagement of General Jessup.