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According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED – online edition, April 2025), the phrase to walk Spanish is of U.S. origin, and means:

to (cause to) walk under compulsion, generally specifically with someone holding the collar and the seat of the trousers.

The earliest occurrence of this phrase that the OED has recorded is from Epilegomena, published in The Yale Literary Magazine. Conducted by the Students of Yale College (New Haven: B. & W. Noyes) of April 1838 [page 269]:

“Well! the thing is arranged then?” asked the President, as he wrote upon a slip of paper his directions for the infernal messenger. “Here, Bill! begone! why don’t you ‘walk Spanish?’ hence I say,
                              ‘Hence, horrible shadow! unreal mockery, hence!’”

However, the earliest occurrences of to walk Spanish that I have found seem to indicate that, in early use, this phrase:
1) occurred in British English, too;
2) had various meanings.

The following explanations are from The New Teller (York, Nebraska, USA) of Wednesday 21^st November 1928 [page 16, column 5]:

How Phrase “To Walk Spanish” Is Explained

“To walk Spanish” refers to an old sport among boys in which one boy seizes another by the collar or the scruff of the neck and the seat of the trousers and forces him along on tiptoe. “To walk turkey” is used in the same sense. Apparently the former expression originated in New England. At any rate, the earliest known uses of “to walk Spanish” occur in writings from that section. The application of “Spanish” in the phrase is obscure. It may, as some suppose, allude to the manner in which the old Spanish pirates are reputed to have handled their prisoners when starting them out on the plank. “To walk Spanish” has acquired a large variety of meanings in popular parlance. We make another walk Spanish when we discharge him from his job, when we make him step along gingerly, or when we compel him to do anything against his will. Likewise a person is said to walk Spanish when he struts, and also when he walks with an unsteady gait. More often the term is equivalent to “toe the line” or “come up to the mark.”—Exchange.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase to walk Spanish that I have found:

1-: From The Puff Oblique, by ‘A Friend to Titivation’, published in the New-York Evening Post (New York City, New York, USA) of Wednesday 1^st February 1804 [page 3, column 4]:

Where now is Don Emanuel Antonio De Biscarloaza, late comb major and tonsor generalissimo to his most catholic majesty Carolus III, dei gratia, Hispan et Ind. Rex, &c. &c.—he has either returned to twist anew his “Catholic Majesty’s most gracious whiskers, or has he been puff’d up to his kindred clouds, again “To pluck bright honor from the pale faced moon”—at any rate he has walked Spanish out of this city, and, like many other mushroom bretheren [sic], “left not a wreck (i.e. cent) behind!”

2-: From Essay on Walking, dated New York, Saturday 12^th December 1807, by ‘Ambulator’, published in The American Magazine of Wit (New York City, New York, USA) in 1808 [page 286]:

The Strut or Spanish walk. To perform this, the body must be kept erect, while the foot is brought forward with a majestic air. People suddenly made rich, and new made Aldermen, take a great deal of pains to “walk Spanish.” It is not calculated for men of business.

3-: From The Examiner (New York City, New York, USA) of Saturday 5^th August 1815 [Extra: page 304, column 1]:

It is now generally apprehended, that Na-Pole-on, feeling himself in danger of being most barber-ously lathered on his front-ears, is preparing to walk Spanish for the United States; and that as he cannot be a king in France, he means to pole-ute, with unhallowed tread, the land, “where virtue dwells, and every man’s a king.”

4-: From a correspondence from the village of Catskill, in the State of New York, dated Wednesday 21^st August 1816, published in the New-York Evening Post (New York City, New York, USA) of Thursday 22^nd August 1816 [page 2, column 5]:

A report was lately in circulation in this village, that a certain great man belonging to it had lately received a diplomatic appointment to Spain. It is true that the great man went to Washington, from whence he was compelled to walk Spanish, as the saying is. This circumstance probably occasinned [sic] the mistake.

5-: From Keep Cool, A Novel. Written in Hot Weather (Baltimore: Published by Joseph Cushing, 1817), by the U.S. author John Neal (1793-1876) [Volume 1, chapter 4, page 61]:

In they went. To prevent intrusion, Earnest locked and bolted the door, and piled half a dozen chairs and tables against it.
Scarcely had he seated himself, when the voice of the landlord was heard at the key-hole,  remonstrating in a loud tone, and threatening to burst in the door.
“Keep cool, daddy,” cried Earnest, “I am as deaf as a post.”
“Well,” says the landlord, “I’ll send the Major to you, he is a thundering fellow; and if he does not make you walk Spanish, my young spark, that’s all.”

6-: From “an Extract of a Letter from the North East Frontier of British India, written during the late Nepal war”, on rhinoceros-hunting, published in The Saint James’s Chronicle, and London Evening Post (London, England) of Tuesday 17^th November 1818 [page 2, column 1]:

My companions […] fired many times. Their balls struck the monster’s body in several places, without any evident effect […]. At last, a lucky one knocked a large flake from his horn, and caused a pleasing change in his conduct; for he walked Spanish directly afterwards, tearing through the thickets with astonishing force, at a beautiful Mahratta canter.

7-: From The Oracle of Dauphin (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA) of Saturday 11^th May 1822 [page 2, column 4]:

From the American Centinel.
THE FOREIGN RELATIONS

Of the United States appear to be in a sort of serio-comic condition—just enough to keep Mr. Adams’ hand in play, and prevent the department of state from dwindling into a sinecure. After the peaceable acquisition of Florida, it was thought to be very improbable that any further misunderstanding could take place with Spain. But Callava and Coppinger have furnished more combustible materials than even Alagan and Punonrostro; and while the Macedonian frigate is gone to Havana to fetch a bundle of papers, the chevalier Don Joachim D’Anduaga, after the explosion of all his diplomacy at Washington, is walking Spanish homewards.

8-: From The New Globe (London, England) of Wednesday 26^th February 1823 [page 4, column 1]:
—Note: Nothing in the rest of the article gives any clue as to the meaning of the phrase to walk Spanish:

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF KING’S BENCH, Feb. 25.
THE KING v. ATLEY AND FOWLER.

The Solicitor-General stated, that this was an indictment preferred by the Ranger of Hyde Park, against the two defendants for a detestable offence. [The particulars of this case cannot be entered into.]
Robert Eagle, Deer keeper of Hyde Park, examined. One of the parties was found to be a man of large property, and living in respectable circumstances in life. His companion could give no other account of himself than that “he walked Spanish.”

9-: From an untitled and unsigned poem, published in The Democrat (Huntsville, Alabama, USA) of Tuesday 27^th July 1824 [page 4, column 1]:

Our little wants must be supply’d,
Then we’ll outshine the rabble,
Our common homespun throw aside,
And furnish well our table.
Then we’ll walk Spanish every day,
We cannot be forgotten.
And all the simple world can say
We thrive upon our Cotton.