Ip • MJ?/#,A-/.-
OUR RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND:
IN WHICH ARE
-jipP e \
DISCUSSED THE VARIOUS ATTEMPTS AND SCHEMES
BY WHICH THAT •
GOVERNMENT HAS ENDEAVORED TO
CONTROL THE POLICE OF THE SEAS
AND IN WHICH IT IS SHEWN HOW THE
SLAVE TRADE HAS INCREASED CONTINUALLY,
EVER SINCE THAT
GOVERNMENT COMMENCED ITS INTERFERENCE;
i " '
THE
DESIGNS OF ENGLAND—HER FALSE HUMANITY—AND HYPOCRISY.
AND THE
SYSTEM OF SLAVERY OF BRITISH INDIA,
ARE ALSO
FULLY DISCUSSED AND EXPOSED.
EXTRACTED FROM THE JUNE NUMBER OF THE SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER,
I 842.
1842.] The Gay Flower and the Withered Leaves.—Our Relations with England. 381
THE GAY FLOWER AND THE WITHERED LEAVES.
I had placed a bright flower on my bosom,
With a sprig of green leaves, that by contrast were showing,
How rich were the colours, thatvwarmly Were flowing
Through the veins of the beautiful blossom.
I believed that the fragrance so blest,
From the heart of the flower was surely arising,
Nor dreamed the poor leaves, which I thought not of prizing
Breathed it forth as they died on my breast.
Not the idols that men fondly cherish,
Not the happy and gay, who in splendor are living,
But the crushed of the earth, such incense are giving
To the world on whose bosom they perish.
c. l. T.
OUR RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND.
Enquiry into the validity of the British claim, to the right
of visitation and search of American vessels suspected
to be engaged in the African slave-trade. By Henry
Wheaton, L.L.D., Minister of the United States at the
Court of Berlin.—Author of " Elements on International
Law." Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard ; 1842.
We have, before, expressed our opinion of this
book. We read it through at a single sitting, and
laid it down with feelings of pleasure and of pride-
pride, that it is the production of an American
citizen abroad, and pleasure to find, that the hasty
views taken some months ago in this journal, of
the law-points involved in the question, are fully
sustained by Mr. Wheaton, himself an eminent
writer on International Law. Pie reviews the
History of the African slave-trade, going back to
the time when Great Britain fastened the plague-
spot upon this country, and obtained, by the Asiento
contract with Spain, the privilege of supplying his
Catholic Majesty's dominions in America, with
4,800 negro slaves annually for thirty years.
On the accession of Charles II., it was repre¬
sented to him that the British plantations in Ame¬
rica required a greater yearly supply of servants;
and " his majesty did," says Davenant, " publicly
invite all his subjects to the subscription of a new
joint-stock for recovering and carrying on the trade
to Africa p. 9.
One of the last petitions made by Virginia (1773)
to the throne of England, was a prayer, beseech¬
ing the parent state to wipe away this leprous spot
from thfi land, and to curse it no longer with the
odious traffic,in human flesh. Massachusetts had,
as early as 1645, abrogated the buying and selling
of slaves, except those taken in lawful warfare; and
to those she guarantied the privileges allowed by the
law of Moses. But this humane statute was nulli¬
fied by the mother country, who now has hoisted the
black flag and turned renegade herself; and like all
true ones, is for showing no quarters.
Mr. Wheaton proves conclusively, that the pre¬
tensions now set up by Great Britain, are at vari¬
ance with the established principles of the maritime
code, and altogether incompatible with the free use
of the seas for lawful purposes. The author has
treated his subject in a dignified manner, and with
a force of argument perfectly convincing and con¬
clusive.
In Europe, where the intrigues of nations are
so often witnessed and well understood, this ques¬
tion has attracted much attention : so much, that
two of our Ministers there, have felt themselves
called on to vindicate, by book and pamphlet, the
motives, principles and considerations which have
operated with their government in withholding its
assent to the apparently very reasonable proposi¬
tions of England, and to which the chief maritime
powers of Europe saw no objections. In a former
No. of this journal, it was shown why this country
will not, and it is now our object to show why it
ought not, to give its assent.
We propose to review, as faithfully as time and
circumstance will permit, the grounds upon which
the United States object to give British cruisers
upon the high seas, the right of visiting and search¬
ing our merchantmen. From a dispassionate and
fair consideration of these, it can, we think, be
shewn, that though America be never so earnest,
and doubtless she is earnest, in her wishes to sup¬
press the slave-trade, she cannot accede to the pro¬
positions of Great Britain, for several reasons, each
in itself sufficient to justify her in the stand which she
has taken. These reasons are derived from the
conduct of Great Britain, as well with regard to sla¬
very and the slave-trade, as to the right of search.
The sympathy of the English people for the negro
slave, no one doubts : but as to the philanthropy of
the English government, though it be never so exalt¬
ed and great in the eyes of some; yet, when we come
closely to examine it, we shall find it to be like
Fuller's Irish mountain, with a bog on the top of it,
in which she has constantly endeavored to swamp
the commercial prosperity of America. Before en¬
tering upon this examination, it may be well to
glance at the right by which this country has re¬
fused its assent to the terms of the ' Christian
League.'
That no nation has the right, except by treaty,
to visit or interrupt in times of peace, the vessels
of another on the common and appropriated parts
of the ocean, is an undisputed principle of mari¬
time lawT, and one which has been publicly acknow¬
ledged by every naval power of Christendom.
The first time that a mutual right of search was
ever proposed, was, Mr. Wheaton tells us, by Great
Britain to France in 1814 ;—to which Prince Tal-
levrand replied, that France ' never would admit
any other maritime police than thqj. which each
power exercised on board of its own vessels.'
In 1817, Great Britain, for $2,000,000,* pur¬
chased from Spain the treaty of Madrid, which,
* £400,000.
Vol. VIII—49
382
Our Relations
with England.
[Junk,
among other things, granted a mutual right of
search. And the first vessel that was brought in,
for condemnation under it, was declared, in Eng¬
land, to afford a precedent of the utmost impor¬
tance*
With this 1 precedent' in his pocket, Lord Castle-
xeagh hastened to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle,
where he proposed to the assembled powers " the
general concession of a reciprocal right of search
p. 43.
This proposition was peremptorily and unani¬
mously rejected in the names of France, Austria,
Russia, and Prussia. Count Nesselrode stated
that it appeared to the Russian Cabinet, that 'there
were some states whom no consideration would
induce to submit their navigation to a principle of
such great importance as the right of visitation
and search :' ib.
The records of the Supreme Court of the United
States, and of the prize-courts of England, show
that these enlightened and august tribunals have
fully recognized the principle and based their de¬
cisions upon it, that no nation has the right—ex¬
cept by treaty—to visit, or in any manner to inter¬
rupt upon the high seas, the vessels of another
in times of peace.f The same principle has been
felt, acknowledged, and acted upon by all nations.
England has openly avowed and practically con¬
fessed it; else we cannot perceive why she should
have purchased, at such a great price from Spain
and Portugal what already and of right, belonged to
her. Nor can we conceive why the mutual con¬
cession of the right of visitation and search, should
have been made an article of the ' Christian League,'
but for the fact that Great Britain felt it to be a pow¬
er which she could not justly exercise except by trea¬
ty. ' Language,' says Talleyrand,' was given to man
to conceal his thoughts and while the language
used to our Minister by Lords Palmerston and
Aberdeen denied the right of our flag to protect
our vessels from visitation and search, it exposed
their thoughts, and led them virtually to confess
the right, when they asked for its surrender.
Charity begins at home. The first duty of the
* Walsh's Appeal.
fin the case of the Marianna Flora, a Portuguese vessel
captured in 1821 and brought to trial as a pirate for firing
into an American cruiser, the Supreme Court of the United
States expressed the opinion that men-of-war when cruising
for pirates and slave-traders, have no right to visit and search
a vessel, though suspected of being a pirate. They must
ascertain this by means short of detention and visitation.
About the same time there was another vessel captured as
a pirate, by an American cruiser in the West Indies. It
was fully proved before the United States Court in which
she was tried, that her boats had been engaged in acts of
piracy, though theie was no evidence against the vessel
herself. There were no means of ascertaining, which of
the crew were in the boats, and guilty and innocent were
discharged together. The owners then brought suit against
the commander of the man-of-war, and recovered damages
of him to a large amount on account of the capture.
American government is to its citizens—the go¬
vernment is theirs, created by them for their own
benefit'; and they require of their rulers, who are
but their servants, to be just, before they are per¬
mitted to be generous. They view the African
slave-trade with great abhorrence, and desire its sup¬
pression. But their maritime rights and interests,
the safety of their ships and sailors, aTe far more
dear and important to them, than the bondage or
liberty of wild Ethiopians to whom they owe no¬
thing but sympathy and such pity as a Christian
people may bestow upon the heathen in his blind¬
ness. We will take care that none of our citizens
shall rivet the shackles of slavery upon the savages
of Africa. If the subjects of other nations will
commit this sin, it is no concern of ours. And
though we view it with pity and horror, we cannot,
the more especially when the means proposed are
so inadequate to its suppression, consent to give
away those great conservative principles upon
which the peace and welfare of our country de¬
pend—upon which the merchant relies for the
protection of his ships and goods, the seaman for
the safety of his person and the security of his
liberty.
We view with Christian sympathy and regret,
the hosts of murdered Chinese who prefer instant
death at the mouth of British cannon, to the slow
poison of a British drug. But to interfere between
these two nations, let their quarrel be never so un¬
righteous and the war unholy, would not be more
foreign to the purpose, intent and object for which
this government was created and is maintained,
than it would be to interfere in the dealings between
Africa and other nations. All that we can do as
a nation in behalf of the people of that afflicted land,
is to help them to right when they suffer wrong at .
the hands of our citizens, and to observe, in our deal¬
ings with them, the golden rule. Of this desire and
this intention on our part, it becomes us to give Af¬
rica and the world an earnest, by maintaining on her
coasts, armed ships to enforce right and prevent
wrong. And this we have done, though hitherto
not to a sufficient extent.
The last words of the apostles of liberty, to us,
their children and followers, were to ' keep aloof
from European politics and wars, and to form no
tangling alliances.' It is against the spirit of our in¬
stitutions, and the genius of our people, that we
should interfere in any manner, between kings and
their subjeets; or that we should allow them any
right to intermeddle with the rights, or goods, or
persons of our citizens. The precept of our fathers,
the policy of the country, and the uniform practice
and example of the government are all against it.
And with the American people, these reasons are suf¬
ficient why we should not become a party to the
Quintuple Alliance, nor give to the high contracting
powers, the right to visit and search bur merchant¬
men. But they may not be sufficient in the eyes of
J8423
Out Relations with England.
383
foreigners, who do not so well understand the genius
of our people, or the machinery of our government;
moreover it is becoming in us, and it is due to other
Christian nations, that we should, make known to
them, all the feelings, motives and considerations,
which operate to prevent us from leagueing with
the crowned heads of Europe, for the suppression
of a traffic which we cordially despise, and hear¬
tily condemn; and which, we agree with them,
is an eye-sore to humanity, and a disgrace to the
age.
In the first place, we do not think the means
proposed by Great Britain, adequate to the end de¬
signed. What is every nation's duty, is not the
duty of any nation; for the principles and truth of
the adage, apply with as much force to bodies of
nations as to bodies of men. The powers that
have joined Great Britain in this league, keep lit¬
tle or no force themselves on the coast of Africa,
or elsewhere, for the suppression of the slave-trade;
they trust it all to her, and rely upon her to pre¬
vent their flag from abuse—which she is not able
to do. But for these treaties and this surrender of
the mutual right of search, each nation, whose ves¬
sels and subjects engage in the slave-trade, would
feel herself in duty and in honor bound, to keep a
force on the coast of Africa, sufficient to suppress
the traffic so far as her own citizens or subjects
are concerned. But for these treaties, therefore,
there would be employed many men-of-war, where
there is now one—and those of any one nation would
be more effective than all the other cruisers could
be, against her own citizens ; for the simple reason
that the man-of-war understands the practices, cus¬
toms, haunts and habits of her own citizens, better
than foreigners can do. She, through her officers,
is in correspondence with her government and all
parts of the country at home, and with her consuls
and merchants abroad. These give her officers in¬
telligence which they will not and cannot give to fo¬
reigners concerning the movements of all suspicious
craft that come to their knowledge ; they also afford
accurate descriptions of fit, rig, and appearance,
probable time of sailing, destination and so on; for
owing to the numbers that are of necessity en¬
trusted with the secrets of a vessel, some intima¬
tion of her dishonest intents, is always had before
she makes her clearance; the suspicions for the
most part are too vague to sustain proceedings at
law against a vessel building or fitting for the slave-
trade, yet they are sufficiently strong to induce
persons to watch her, and to caution others to
keep an eye upon her. With such information and
means of intelligence, the man-of-war of each na¬
tion best knows how, when, and where to cruise, in
order to intercept traders from its own coun¬
try. That such would be the practical effect of
leaving each nation to look after its own vessels,
is evident without argument; and that far less ef¬
fectual is the operation of leagues and alliances for
the suppression of the slave-trade by search, we
need only refer to actual results for proof.
In 1818, after the mutual right of search had
been granted to Great Britain by Spain, Portugal
and the Netherlands, then the great ' soul driving'
nations of the world, that excellent friend of Afri¬
ca, Mr. Clarkson, presented to the Congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle, a memorial, stating that " in point
of fact, little or no progress had been made in
practically abolishing the slave-tradep. 42.
In 1792, before Great Britain had formed any
treaties for the right of search and the suppression
of the trade, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox computed the
number of Africans annually carried away into sla¬
very, to be eighty thousand souls. In 1840-'41,
and after all the European powers whose subjects
and vessels engage to any considerable extent in
the slave-trade, had surrendered up the right to
visit, search and seize them, Sir Thomas Bux¬
ton in his work on abolition, shows beyond a doubt,
that the horrors of the trade have been increased
many fold, and that, notwithstanding the mutual
right of search, the trade had advanced from
80,000 to 150,000 a year. He shows conclusively
that the •prohibitory laws and treaties, so far from
diminishing, have vastly increased the trade, and
that it can never be put down by such means as
those adopted by the English government. But in
spite of practical results, and positive proof of
their inadequacy, these means have been so obsti¬
nately persevered in by that government, as to cause
well-informed persons to doubt if the suppression
of the slave-trade could really he its object. Lord
Castlereagh assured the House of Commons long
ago, that the motives of the British government
were thought by the better classes of people in
France, " not to arise from benevolence, but from
a wish to impose fetters on the French colonies and
to injure their commerce." Whatever might have
been the motives then with regard to France, there
can be no doubt of the motives now with regard to
the United States.
But admitting that the slave-trade could be more
effectually suppressed by granting to the armed
cruisers of England, a free right of search over
the vessels of all nations, than it could be by any
other means ; and admitting that it was not, as it
is, against the genius of our institutions, nor against
the policy of the American government to enter into
tangling alliances, there are several other reasons
why we should not grant this right, and each of
these reasons is sufficient in itself to justify us in
the eyes of the world, for keeping aloof from every
treaty, to which Great Britain is a party, affecting
the rights of ships or the freedom of the seas.
1st. Owing to the manner in which England has
abused our flag while visiting and searching our
vessels, she has lost the confidence of the Ameri¬
can people, and justly forfeited all claims ever to
be admitted into our ships again for any purpose.
384
Our Relations with England.
[June,
2nd. She views with jealousy our commercial
prosperity and maritime importance; therefore it
would be unwise to grant her any privilege, by
which she could affect the one, or injure the other.
While England is painting in such lively colors
the sufferings of Africa, and while, by her eloquent
appeals, she is exciting the sympathies of the
crowned heads and people of Christendom, for the
blacks, surely, as France said to her at Verona, we,
in extenuation of our .unalterable determination
never to yield the right of search, may remind the
world of the sufferings and dangers which she has in¬
flicted upon the whites; and we may plead in excuse,
the cruel wrongs practised upon our citizens, our
companions, relatives and friends, the last time
Great Britain had the right of exercising it upon
American vessels. We refer to the history of the
last war, and file this plea upon the causes which
led to it.
If we suspect the motives of England, and be un¬
willing to trust British officers on board American
vessels, it is because her conduct then, was such as
to justify our suspicions now.
When two nations are at war, either has the
right to search the vessels of neutrals trading with
the other, for guns, munitions and implements of
war, and other articles recognized in the interna¬
tional code, as 'contraband of war.' When these
things are found on the neutral thus trading, the
finder, being one of the belligerents, has the right
to take or destroy them to prevent them from fall¬
ing into the hands of his enemy, and the neutral
has no just cause of complaint.
In 1806 we were neutrals, and England and
France belligerents. The United States were
young and feeble; England was in the grandeur of
her power; and she then issued her ' Orders in
Council,' by which our ships, though navigated by
our own citizens, and laden with the produce of our
own soil, were seized and spoiled by her armed
cruisers and privateers, wherever found upon the
wide ocean. This was not done because we were
supplying her enemy with the contraband of war,
but because we offered to trade in lawful commerce
with France and her colonies, with whom we were at
peace and she at war. The vessels thus taken were
carried to some English port, where the ship and car¬
go were condemned and sold, and the crew and offi¬
cers turned pennyless adrift in the streets to beg or
starve ; or they were seized by press-gangs, forced
on board of English men-of-war, and made to fight
against their friends, the battles of their oppressors.
If they escaped with life, after they had finished the
long and hard term of service required of them
here, and were discharged; it was because their
persons were mutilated in battle, or because their
constitutions and health were worn and shattered
by the arduous service required of them in distant
and sickly climes, and they were no longer able to
fight the battles of old England. Many of them,
after years of absence, were returned maimed and
poverty-stricken to their friends.
We remonstrated ; but England was then at the
summit of power; she thought of us as rebels,
spurned our remonstrances, and treated us only
with greater indignity. After we had become
weary of appealing to the principles of right and
her sense of justice, after we had exhausted argu¬
ment, and lost all hopes of obtaining any redress
by the force of reason, we proceeded to threaten
retaliation by an act of hostile legislation. She
was told, that unless the ' Orders in Council' were
repealed by a certain day, our ports should be
closed against her commerce. The reply of her
ministers was, that they would be happy to repeal
the' Orders in Council,' if France would first repeal
her Berlin and Milan decrees. France did repeal;
but England would not.
The distress created in the manufacturing dis¬
tricts in England by the operation of this retalia¬
tory law on the part of the United States, and the
hope of making war with America more popular,
at length induced the English government to re¬
peal the 1 Orders in Council.'
On that occasion, Lord Castlereagh contended,
that' the Orders in Council were abandoned not so
much on the ground of this country not having the
right, as with the view to commercial expediency.
With respect to the main principles of that system,
ministers were still unaltered in their opinion, when¬
ever the conservation of the country rendered it
necessary to resort to it.' Thus the obnoxious or¬
ders were repealed, and the right claimed to issue
them again.
But the repeal came too late; war had been de¬
clared, and the people were in arms. The lan¬
guage of Mr. Madison was, " the Orders in Coun¬
cil are now no longer a question with the United
States. It is not a mere cessation to do wrong
that can now produce a peace ; wrongs done must
be redressed ; and a guarantee must be given in
the face of the world, for the restoration of our en¬
slaved citizens, and the respect due to our flag,
which, like the soil we inherit, must in future, se¬
cure all that sails under it."
Nor was it of the Orders in Council that we
complained the most bitterly ; it was the impress¬
ment of our citizens. The sentiments and feelings
of Congress, as expressed through one of its com¬
mittees, were thus conveyed : " If it be our duty
to encourage the fair and legitimate commerce of
this country by protecting the property of the mer¬
chants, then, indeed, by as much as life and liberty
are more estimable than ships and goods, so much
more impressive is the duty to shield the persons of
our seamen, whose hard and honest services are
employed equally with those of the merchants, in
advancing, under the mantle of its laws, the inte¬
rests of this country." And the war turned upon
the right of impressment.
1842.]
Our Relations with England.
385
That we may not be accused of giving to those
not familiar with the history of those times, an ex¬
aggerated account of the egregious injustice in¬
flicted upon us by England, we quote from the mes¬
sage sent by the president to Congress at the time.
The United States forebore to declare war, said he,
" until, to other aggressions, had been added the cap¬
ture of nearly one thousand American vessels, and
the impressment of thousands of seafaring citizens,
and until a final declaration had been made by the
government of Great Britain that her hostile orders
against our commerce would not be revoked, but
on conditions as impossible as unjust." Such were
the causes of war on the part of this country.
On the other hand, it was urged by the Prince
Regent, that having entered our vessels to look for
contraband of war, British officers had a right to
take from them any British seamen, they might
find. The right of impressment, said His Royal
Highness in his celebrated ' declaration,' " she
(England) has felt to be essential to the support of
her maritime power." The impressment of sea¬
men out of American vessels, was a practice
upon which, Lord Castlereagh declared, ' the naval
strength of this empire, mainly depends ;" and in
which, the lords of the admiralty, in their address
to the fleet on the occasion of the war, saw " the
maintenance of those maritime rights which are
the sure foundations of our naval glory."
In the next European war, Great Britain may
find the impressment of American seamen as es¬
sential to her ' maritime power,' ' naval strength'
and ' glory,' as she declared it to be in the last.
The right to impress, when the question was last
mooted, was claimed by her and denied by us; she
has never relinquished it; and we are pledged to
resist it again at the cannon's mouth, should it ever
be revived. With such an adjourned question be¬
tween the two governments, is it wise or prudent
that we should consent to this new right of search,
or to any arrangement by which the final decision
of such a question—a question upon which hangs
the peace of the world—should be hastily pressed
for decision 1 In giving her the right to visit our
ships, we would suspend the peace of the country by
a single thread—if she did not break it, it would only
be because she should forbear, through clemency, to
exercise a right about which she has once gone to
war, and which she has never renounced ; but which
on the contrary, she has declared to be essential to
her very existence as a maritime power. There¬
fore we ought not to give it.
We may be scrupulous upon this subject, but if
our accession to the Quintuple treaty be as essen¬
tial as she seems to think it is, and if her zeal in
the suppression of the African slave-trade be as
honest, and as purely philanthropic as she pretends
that it is, surely she might have paid some defer¬
ence to scruples that are so well founded. She
might have allayed our suspicions and conciliated
the feelings of our people on this subject, by first
making a formal relinquishment of any right to
impress seamen fpom our ships, into her service.
She does not recognize the right of any nation to
take sailors out of her ships. And if she were
really sincere and single-minded in the cause of
poor afflicted Africa, would it not have been per¬
fectly in keeping, with a just and righteous spirit on
her part, to observe the golden rule on this occasion
above all others 1
But instead of this, the very manner in which
Great Britain now urges her right to search ves¬
sels wearing the American flag, brings forcibly to
mind, the ad captandum arguments and tinkling
reasons which she used to urge, for taking people
out of our ships and forcing them to serve in hers.
The grounds are the same. Lord Aberdeen says
that unless we give British cruisers the right
to look behind our flag, English and other vessels
which she has a right to search may hoist it
and escape, and she will not be able to suppress
the slave-trade. With regard to the right of
impressment during the war, they said in Eng¬
land 'unless we continue to exercise this right,
British sailors will desert to American ships, and
our navy will perish for the want of seamen.'
" We don't want your men—take them, said we,
but let ours alone."
And so we now say : we do not intend that our
flag shall shelter your vessels, or those of any
other nation not entitled to wear it. Take your
own and those of other powers that you have a
right to capture, under whatever flag you find
them; to such, we neither claim nor offer protec¬
tion. We object to your searching vessels under
our flag, upon vague suspicions and for the mere
chance of finding some vessel wearing it that
is not entitled to it. Be sure that the vessel is not
American, and you may take her and welcome;
she is none of ours and we have nothing to do with
her. Before the last war, when your officers were
impressing from our ships, men, who in their opinion
were British subjects, if they had any doubt as to
which of the two countries a man belonged, they
took him. Rejoicing now in a little of that conse¬
quence which we derived by flogging you upon the
ocean, and substituting our right for your might,
we adopt your rules of game : when there's any
doubt about a vessel, and she shows the American
flag, she is ours ; you admit that it is prima facie
evidence that she is, and we claim her as such and
deny your right to interfere with her. It is not
only not right, but it is against the spirit of all law
that you should throw upon our vessels, the onus
of proving that they are entitled to their flag and
proceeding according to law. That is reversing the
order of justice, and is subversive of those equita¬
ble principles which have been tried by experience,
and approved by the wise men and judges of the
law in every age.
380
Out Relations
with England.
[JuNB,
It is true that England now tells us, our vessels
will be interrupted only when her officers have
really good cause of suspicion against them. But
this is the very language in which her broken pro¬
mises were made about impressment. Her offi¬
cers, she said, would only take from our ships,
those men whom they had reason to believe were
British subjects ; and they took upwards of 14,000
American seamen. We claimed no protection for
the former then, as we claim none for any ves¬
sels but our own, now. Take your whole pound of
flesh, nor less, nor more, we have always said, but
see that you touch not one drop of American blood.
' Other nations,' English ministers now say,
' have given us the right to search their vessels.
They, as well as our own, may usurp the American
flag; and, unless we ascertain by actual examina¬
tion, the right which vessels hoisting, have to wear,
that flag, our own vessels may show it to British
cruisers and escape detection. We will take care
not to interrupt your ships, unless under really sus¬
picious circumstances. As soon as we ascertain that
they are yours, we will let them go ; and, should
we now and then injure the voyage, we will make
ample reparation. But the great object which the
' States of Christendom' have in view, not ony jus¬
tifies us in asserting this right over your flag,
but renders the exercise of it indispensable.' The
language used to justify impressment was, 'we
claim the service of our own sailors; the right to
impress them wherever found, is necessary to our
very existence ; we cannot give it up. If we do
take one of your sailors by mistake, we will set
him at liberty whenever you ask for his release.
But our officers will exercise their best discretion
in this matter, for the practice is of vital impor¬
tance ; without it, our Navy would be ruined.' We
learned by painful experience how empty these
professions were, and if we now suspect their hol¬
low duplicates, England cannot complain ; for her
conduct in times past, has been such as to justify
suspicion as to her motives in times to come.
England acted towards us in the most unrighteous
manner. When her officer boarded our vessels,
he went then as it is proposed to send him now, in
the character of accuser, witness, judge and captor.
By the sentence of such judges, American citizens
were deprived of their liberty, torn away from their
country and friends, forced on board British ships,
subjected to a cruel discipline, and compelled to
fight and murder those with whom they and their
country were at peace. If they attempted to es¬
cape from this bondage, there are instances in which
they were caught and flogged through the fleet for
desertion. Our ships were robbed of their best
men ; the voice of lamentation and wo was heard
in the land ; mothers, wives and children mourning
the loss of sons, husbands and fathers.
The general grief went to the heart of the na¬
tion ; forbearance was no longer a virtue, and in one
universal burst of patriotic indignation, the cry of
war! war! was raised by an agricultural and peace-
loving people. Naked and defenceless they went
to fight the veteran hosts of England for the libera¬
tion of their fellow-citizens—and in memorable lan¬
guage, to obtain' indemnity for the past and security
for the future.' And though Great Britain ceased
to impress, she made peace with the declaration oil
her lips, that the practice was essential to her very
existence as a maritime nation, and her claims to
it would never be given up. With what grace
then, can she expect her officers to be received at
the gangway of our ship's 1 *
England was haughty then, and she is now arro¬
gant ; she had insulted us in peace, and in war she af¬
fected to treat us with contempt. She was fighting
us, the Prince Regent said, " in defence of the liber¬
ties of the world ; and, if we regard her ministerial
manifestoes now, she is equally disinterested in
behalf of the object which the 'States of Chris¬
tendom' have in view. They call it a ' Holy Alli¬
ance,' a ' Christian League ;' and, in the magnilo¬
quence of their watchwords, they remind us of
old times, when they went to war with us, in de¬
fence of the " liberties of the world;" and "to
secure the lasting peace of civilized nations !"
But it was ' the dread,' as Mr. Monroe said, to a
committee of Congress, ' which the enemy enter¬
tain of our resources and growing importance that
has induced him to press the war against us, after
its professed objects have ceased.' Has any thing
since occurred to remove that dread 1 On the con¬
trary, our population has been more than doubled;
our national resources and all the elements of
power, strength and greatness have vastly increas¬
ed and multiplied. If we were dreaded as a rival
thirty years ago, are we not much more prosperous,
formidable and mighty, and more to be dreaded now
than then 1 Therefore, it is necessary to proceed
with more caution against us; at least so thinks
England. Hence this Holy Alliance into which
she has seduced the ' States of Christendom,' which
was formed not against the slave-trade, but for mo¬
ral effect against us : it was inteuded to awe this
country into submission.
She, it was said in the last war, only wanted a
few months to give the Yankees a drubbing; to
displace Mr. Madison, (we all recollect how much
the deposing of the President was dwelt on,) and
to destroy the so-called ' republic of rebels.' Our
Navy was spoken of with the utmost contempt;
Mr. Canning described it as " a half dozen fir-built
things with bits of striped bunting at their mast¬
head." The same feeling is now manifested by
Lord Palmerston, who thinks it preposterous that
a " mere ' piece of bunting'' with the United States'
emblems and colors upon it" should protect vessels
on the high seas from visitation and search by her
majesty's cruisers. We would ask Lord Palmers-
ton if this manner of alluding to the emblems of
J€42.J
Out Relations with England.
387
sovreignty be not well calculated to wound the
pride of a patriotic people, and to offend their sense
of national dignity, and international decorum ?
Had the American minister asked Lord Palmerston,
when claiming the protection of the ' meteor flag'
for all that sails under it, if he expected the United
States to respect a piece of bunting having on it
the cross of a thief and the figure of a beast, what
would have been the course of the noble lord 1 We
suppose he would have considered it as an insult
to his country, and would, at least, have demanded
the recall and punishment of the minister.
But in comparing the old with the new pretensions
of England, we have said enough to show that we
have just cause to suspect her of designs upon us,
enough to show that our reasons for withholding
these maritime concessions, ought, to be, and are
sufficient to justify us in the eyes of the world, for
refusing our assent to the terms of the treaty.
Let us now call to mind the spirit manifested to¬
wards us before and during the war, and we shall
find that it has never slept, though it has often been
quiet. There is in that realm, a spirit of the most
deadly hostility to our Republic and its institutions.
The war, so far from allaying it, actually increased
it. And it has been secretly at work against us
ever since. This feeling of hostility is not to be
found among the people of England; for it is
against their interests that the peaceful relations
with this country should ever be disturbed. The
raw cotton alone which we send to England, and
the distribution of it when manufactured (with
which she buys nearly half her imports from all
parts of the world) give employment, it is compu¬
ted, to upwards of a million of her population.
Sir Robert Peel himself, is the son of a cotton
spinner, and it is the cotton and commercial inte¬
rests there, which have preserved the peace of the
two countries. The feeling that is really inimical
to us, and which has been treasured up against us
ever since the war of the revolution, is now con¬
fined principally to the abolitionists and to certain
portions of the aristocracy—an interest which has
always exercised influence with the government,
and commanded places in the ministry. It was
strong enough to commence with its plans at the
peace, and has gradually pushed them forward, un¬
til the ' States of Christendom' were finally in¬
duced to join them in the league. Though Wilber-
force and other great and good men and as pure
philanthropists as the world ever saw, have ear¬
nestly and devoutly labored for the suppression of
the African slave-trade, we shall show, a little fur¬
ther on, that there are those in the English gov¬
ernment who have used this noble and generous
feeling of the people at large, as an instrument
merely of national aggrandizement, and as a cloak
for their designs upon America. It is not easy for
a people who are continually changing rulers as
we are, to imagine how this can be. But we beg
our reader to bear in mind the fact, that the gov¬
ernment of Great Britain is a monarchy supported
by a nobility, who are comparatively few in num¬
ber, bound together by a community of interest
and of feeling which does not extend to the mass
of the people, and therefore they are capable of
steadily directing for years the efforts of their gov¬
ernment. As an illustration of how readily a few
men may direct the designs of government there, we
may refer to a case in point, in the persons of
' carotid cutting Castlereagh' and Canning, who,
though they disagreed and fought a duel, agreed well
enough in their enmity to act in concert against us
before and after the war. They both mocked us, jus¬
tified and vindicated the unrighteous acts and pre¬
tensions of England during and before that time;
indeed Castlereagh was in the ministry, and may be
said to have committed them himself. He com¬
menced intriguing among nations and at Congresses
for the right of search now in discussion, and he and
Canning followed it up as ministers, and caused the
subject to be renewed, first at one court and then at
another, continually, from 1814 until Canning's
death in 1827. Castlereagh, let it be borne in
mind, was the statesman who declared that the na¬
val strength of the British empire depends upon
the right to visit American vessels and to take men
out of them.
" There are those in England," wrote Cobbett,
after the peace, and the war with Algiers, to the peo¬
ple of the United States urging them to keep their
country prepared, " there are those in England,"
he remarked, " that have said America must be
put back for a century. They have called the at¬
tention of the government to the growth of your
Navy. They have said that if it be not strangled
in its birth, it will be dangerous. They actually
proposed to make you give up all your ships of
war, to stipulate never to build another, and never
more to cast a cannon, or a ball. In the whole ex¬
tent of the world, it may happen, that their princi¬
ples may find means to work up some power to as¬
sail you. Therefore, I say be on your guard.
The Navy you will not neglect." Cobbett told
many truths, and prophesied many things that have
come to pass. He foretold the effects of a war
with this country, with wonderful accuracy.
It was Lord Castlereagh as we have just said,
who declared as a British minister that, " the naval
strength of the empire mainly depends", upon the
right of impressment; and it was Lord Castlereagh
who directly afterwards, brought the right of
search—the entering wedge to impressment—before
France and the Congress of Vienna. It was Lord
Castlereagh who bought it of Spain and Portugal;
who introduced it again at the Congress of Aix-la-
Chapelle ; it was he who had the trade denounced
on account of the moral influence it would give him
in his negotiations with other powers; and it was
his lordship and Mr. Canning, who, with this moral
388
Our Relations with England.
[June,
force, had nearly hoodwinked us to grant the boon.
For thirteen years these two statesmen alone were
constantly importuning first one nation and then
another for the right of search.
If an English-man-of-war declined an engage¬
ment with a French force only twice as great, it
was considered a disgrace ; and the commander
was brought to a court-martial. And when those
'fir things of the Yankees,' with their bits of stri¬
ped bunting, met and made prizes of British ships
and fleets, in every respect of superior force, it
was a source of the most bitter mortification to the
English nation. When a single American frigate
was captured by an English squadron, it was cause
for a national jubilee. The city of London was
illuminated, and the guns of the Tower were fired
in token of the rare joy, that the President frigate
had been captured by some half dozen English
frigates and 74s. That war brought down the
pride of England, as it had never before been
humbled, and the feeling sunk deep into her aris¬
tocratic heart. She has not forgiven us for it, to
this day. The recollection of these things is what
the malignant spirit of which we spoke, feeds on.
Though she was not asked to make a formal sur¬
render of her claims to impressment, she could not
make peace with a good grace ; for she would not
forgive, and will never forget us, on account of our
success in that war.
Peace is usually proclaimed in England by he¬
ralds, who with a grand display accompanied by
troops in gay attire and bands of music, parade
through the streets proclaiming the glad tidings;
and stopping at the corners and public places, they
read the royal proclamation. But when peace with
America was proclaimed, there was no procession
at all, and none of the usual ceremonies, but only a
paragraph in one of the London papers, simply to
the effect: " Peace with America was proclaimed
to-day by reading the proclamation at the door of
the office at White Hall." This was done in so
informal a manner, we are told, that even the pas¬
sers by did not know what was going on.*
This marked a sullen feeling in the master spir¬
its of the land, which from that day to this, has
not failed to manifest itself against Republican
America and her institutions, seeking occasion for
revenge. As soon as peace was concluded, the
freeholders of Somersetshire petitioned parliament
for the repeal of the income tax. Mr. Hunt then
proposed a vote of thanks " to those by whose ex¬
ertions peace with the Americans, the only remain¬
ing free people in the world, has been restored to
this country."
Sir J. Hippisley opposed the resolution, for he ha¬
ted the Americans. Mr. Dickinson could not join
in it, for he had considerable reason to believe that
the Congress of Vienna was then employed in
* Cobbetl's letter to Earl of Liverpool, 29th May, 1815.
endeavoring to unrivet the chains of the suffering
Africans.*
This brings us to a more attentive consideration
of the conduct of England with regard to the slave-
trade; and we shall show that though there have
been many, very many, honest, upright and holy
men, and much christian sympathy, enlisted in the
African's behalf—yet there have been those to di¬
rect it, who, as we have already intimated, have
only used the suppression of the slave-trade, and
the abolition of slavery, as a cloak for their designs
upon us.
We have seen that England was humbled in the
eyes of the world by the American war. She was
stung to the quick at our success and her reverses;
she found that our Navy and other elements of true
greatness ' increased under the pressure of her
arms upon them,'—that she was fighting us into an
important Naval power, and forcing us, by the war,
to become a great commercial and manufacturing
people—and therefore she concluded to make peace
with the lips; for she had not gained a single point
about which she had taken up arms; but on the
contrary, had practically—though not avowedly—
yielded every one. While one set of Negotiators
were stipulating for peace in the West, another
set were in the East, preparing a train by which,
in her far-reaching sagacity, she hoped to compass
her rival, and sap the foundations of his greatness.
The abolition of slavery was popular with a large
and respectable class of her subjects; some were
Christians, and some were fanatics; many were
purely philanthropic, and hated slavery for its cur¬
ses and its name ; and many others arrayed them¬
selves against it, some from motives of personal
interest, and others from feelings of enmity against
us—these last were the master-spirits of the cru¬
sade, or at any rate they were the designing men
of it, who, under the popular cry of freedom to the
oppressed, sought the commercial ruin of a rival.
In one hand at Ghent, England held out to us a
treaty of peace ; and in the other, a protocol to the
Congress of Vienna, proposing the terms of a pledge
by which each of the high powers there represen¬
ted, should be bound to exclude from his dominions,
the products of all countries where the slave-trade
was lawful, receiving only " those," as quoted by
Mr. Wheaton, " of the vast regions of the globe,
which furnish the same productions by the labor of
their own inhabitants p. 30. These "vast re¬
gions," says Schcell, in his History of the Treaties
of Peace " refer to the British possessions in the
East Indies; the interest of which was found to
conform to the principles of humanity and reli¬
gion."
Spain and Portugal rejected this proposal at once,
reminding Great Britain that it might suit her de¬
signs, now that her own colonies were well stocked
with slaves, while those of her neighbors were not,
* Cobbett's Letters.
1842.]
Our Relations with England.
389
to cry out against the trade. All she obtained from
this ' Amphyctionic council of nations,' was a dec¬
laration denunciatory of the African slave-trade, on
the score of morality : p. 39.
While these things were going on, the Duke of
Wellington was instructed to lay before the French
Cabinet a proposition for the mutual concession of
the right of search, with a view to the suppression
of the slave-trade. Prince Talleyrand replied that
France would never grant it. And the English
negotiator reported, " that it was too disagreeable
to the French Government and nation to admit of
a hope of its being urged with success p. 33.
The motives of England, when she proposed to
hunt down the commerce of slave-trading colonies,
were suspected at the outset: therefore she tried
back immediately, and aimed all her efforts at the
right of search ; for one attempt, though a failure,
often suggests a resort to others. The office of
high constable of the seas, now began to dance
before her keen imagination. In that office, she
could regulate the commerce of her rivals. There¬
fore the right of search must be obtained from
some nation, for effect; and she purchased it
from Spain at a great price : also from Portugal
and the Netherlands—all of them skeleton sove¬
reigns, from whose wasted carcasses the great spi¬
rit of nations had long since fled.
And, in 1818,—Spain, Portugal and the Nether¬
lands having conceded the right in the meantime—
the proposition was again renewed by England to
France—and again rejected on the ground, that
" the offer of reciprocity would prove illusory, and
that disputes must arise from the abuse of the right,
which would prove more prejudicial to the interests
of the two governments, than the commerce they
desired to suppress p. 36.
With these Peninsula grants, however, in her
hand, she hastened to invite France, Austria, Rus¬
sia and Prussia to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle ;
where Lord Castlereagh in her behalf, again renew¬
ed her proposition for the mutual right of search, and
pleaded, as precedent, the grants of helpless Spain
and Portugal. Clarkson, the real friend of Africa,
presented a memorial to the Congress, showing that
the mutual right of search, so far, had produced no
beneficial results whatever : (p. 42.) The proposal
to concede, was unanimously rejected by all the con¬
tinental powers. "France," says Mr. Wheaton,"
proposed the establishment of a police for the
surveillance of the trade, by which the several
powers would be immediately informed of all abu¬
ses practised within the limits of their respec¬
tive jurisdiction p. 43. But this plan required
each one to be his own high constable, and
it was rejected by the great maritime aspirant.
The Russian Cabinet proposed in lieu of the
British projet, that the European powers should
unite and establish at some point on the coast of
Africa, an institution for the suppression of the
slave-trade. That they should furnish it with the
requisite means for this—that it should be preser¬
ved neutral in all wars, and its sole object should
be directed to the suppression of that guilty traf¬
fic : (p. 44.) Neither was this acceptable to Eng¬
land ; for the right of search and not the suppres¬
sion of the slave-trade, was what she really desi¬
red. All that she obtained from this Congress was
an anathema of the trade itself. This was impor¬
tant to the successful prosecution of her designs,
because, in pressing the right of search in future
treaties, she could remind crowned heads of their
solemn declarations ; and ask, if it became national
dignity, that royal resolves should end in empty pro¬
fessions.
Two years afterwards, with the moral wedge
thus tipped, Lord Castlereagh renewed, for the
second time, his efforts to obtain the assent of the
United States to the right of search. The British
Minister at Washington was directed by him in
1820, to call the attention of the American govern¬
ment to the aggravated suffering with which the
slave-trade was then carried on—that it was gene¬
rally acknowledged that nothing but a combined
system of maritime police, by which was meant
the right of search, could suppress it. He was
directed moreover to hold up for our example the
manner in which the three skeleton nations, had
conceded the right of search to the English go¬
vernment ; if he found that we were not disposed
to follow such exemplars, he was further instruct¬
ed to ask the American Cabinet to propose some
plan by which the United States would cooperate
with G. Britain. By seeming sincere, it was hoped
the confidence of this country might be won, and the
right of search be secured. The President, in reply,
proposed that as both Great Britain and the United
States had a Naval force on the coast of Africa
for the suppression of the slave-trade, the vessels
so employed should be instructed to cooperate—
those of one nation with the other, and to render
each other mutual assistance by acting in concert
and communicating all intelligence that might
prove useful for their common object. When the
British Minister communicated this excellent plan
to his government, Lord Castlereagh expressed in
reply, his ' disappointment that the counter-propo •
sal of the American government fell so far short
of the object which the British government had in
view:' p. 81. We need not say this object was
the right of search, or nothing.
In 1822, Great Britain was represented in ano¬
ther Congress of nations at Verona—and Mr. Can¬
ning, upon whom Lord Castlereagh had let fall the
black mantle, called the attention of the British re¬
presentative to the fact, " that the slave-trade, so
far from being diminished in extent by the exact
amount of what was in former times the British
demand, was, upon the whole, perhaps greater then
than at the period when the demand was highest]
Vol. VIII—50
390 Our Relations
and the aggregate of human sufferings, and the
waste of human life in the transportation of slaves
from the coast of Africa, were increased in a ratio
enormously greater than the increase of positive
numbers. Unhappily, it could not be denied, their
very attempts at prevention, under the treaties
which then authorised their interference, tended to
the augmentation of the evilp. 46.
With these confessions as to the practical effect
of the right of search, the concession of it to Great
Britain was again proposed and rejected in this
Congress. But anticipating this result, the British
Ambassador was directed to obtain at any rate,
a renewed denunciation against the traffic, on
the ground that ' its moral influence might ma¬
terially aid the British Cabinet in its negotia¬
tions with other maritime Slates:' (p. 48.) And
accordingly, the next year, this ' moral influence'
was brought to bear upon the U. States ; for it was
again proposed by the British Cabinet, that we should
grant British cruisers the right to search our vessels
for slaves. But our former objections still re¬
mained in force. And the British Minister, after
again expressing it as the opinion of his govern¬
ment, that the concession of this right of search
was the only means by which the suppression of
the slave-trade could be accomplished, asked for
another counter-proposal on our part. Mr. Adams
offered it in a law, making it piracy for foreigners
in American ships to engage in the slave-trade, and
for American citizens who should carry it on in
foreign bottoms. This counter-proposal, says our
author, ' was received in the most ungracious man¬
ner and instead of replying to it, the British Min¬
ister again urged the so often rejected ' right of
search p. 85.
Finally, in 1824, the preliminaries of a conven¬
tion, for the reciprocal right of search on the coasts
of America, Africa, and the West Indies, with many
restrictions, was agreed on between the U. States
and Great Britain. When the agreement was sub¬
mitted to the Senate for consideration, a clause
was inserted giving either of the contracting par¬
ties right to renounce the convention at any time
after six months' notice; and the coast of America
was stricken out—confining the privilege of search
to the other two regions, where alone the traffic
existed. But the erasure and insertion deprived
the treaty of all that, in the eyes of Great Britain,
was worth having ; and she receded; thereby show¬
ing that she was not seeking really to suppress the
slave-trade, but to gain some advantage by which
she hoped to head-reach her rival in the commer¬
cial race. She has invariably rejected the sugges¬
tions of all other nations, and constantly refused to
cooperate in any plan which did not give her the
right to search the vessels of other States.
France, worn out by the oft-repeated solicita¬
tions, was out-manceuvred, and at length yielded
at the treaties of 1831—'34, the right of search
ivith England. [June,
to Great Britain; which gave her the control
over the vessels of all nations, except the United
States, whose citizens engage to any extent, in
the slave-trade. The friends of Africa expected
now to see some progress made towards the ob¬
ject of their wishes. But, by having yielded to her,
this partial right of search, England was accom¬
plishing her designs ; for the control of the maritime
police of other nations, and not the suppression of the
slave-trade, was her main object. What was once
the business of every nation, was now the business of
nonation. Solongasthedifferentpowersrefused the
right of search to Great Britain, they felt in duty as
in honor bound, to keep a force on the coast of Africa
to prevent the abuse of their own flag. But hav¬
ing yielded jurisdiction over their vessels, they, for
the most part, withdrew their forces, and left the
field to that power which had manifested so much
zeal and sympathy in the cause. And the trade
increased.
In 1840-'41, Sir Thomas Buxton published his
work on the abolition of slavery. He shows that,
notwithstanding the right of search exercised by
Great Britain, the slave-trade had reached the
enormous rate of 150,000 souls in a year ; whereas,
before any of these rights had been granted, it
scarcely amounted to half that number. He fully
establishes the fact that articles for carrying on
this trade, are extensively manufactured in Great
Britain;—that, in consequence of the plan pursued
by her for its suppression, the mortality and the
horrors of the middle passage had frightfully in¬
creased ; that, while the number of human victims
to this traffic is now twice as great as it was when
Clarkson and Wilberforce commenced their labors,
each individual suffers ten fold more now than he
did then. He considers the right of search, though
all nations should surrender it, illusory, and by no
means adequate to the end proposed.
But Great Britain had not yet been appointed
Captain of the Seas; nor had she secured the right
to enter our vessels, and by consequence, the right
to take people out of them. Notwithstanding these
awful results, she still persists; for the boon she had
so long and so eagerly craved, was not yet within
her grasp. The right to search her neighbors' ves¬
sels, must be secured, and with bleeding Africa to
cloak her designs, she persuaded them into the 'Holy
Alliance' of 1841. Thus girded about with power by
the ' States of Christendom,' she was on the eve of
proclaiming herself high constable of the seas.
But she was thwarted by her rival, whose Minis-^
ters now too well understood her designs. The
United States were not invited to participate in
this treaty, nor were they advised of it, until the pre¬
liminaries were all arranged. France was treated
in a similar manner at the settlement of the East¬
ern question ; she was not consulted as to the terms
of that treaty, neither were we as to the terms of
this—and she construed the secrecy observed with
1842.]
Our Relations with England.
391
regard to her, into a blow aimed at her African inte¬
rests ; much more significant to us, is the manner in
which the Quintuple Alliance was managed. Her
national dignity was highly offended, and she talked
of war. Is the dignity of the American republic
less vulnerable than French honor ? Lord Aberdeen
in his letter to Mr. Stevenson, thought it dulce et
decorum for the American Republic to follow such
a noble exemplar as France.
Great Britain early espoused the cause of Africa,
and has, for years, made efforts, avowedly, for the
suppression of the slave-trade. But, since we will
not give her full credit for her motives in obtaining
the right of search, let us see if her dealings with
the African himself, will justify the claims of her'
friends, to motives on her part, of pure philan¬
thropy. What, we will ask the reader, who sup¬
poses that nation to be sincere in her professions of
humanity, what does she do with the poor Africans
who are taken in the Slavers captured by her crui¬
sers I She sells them in bondage to pay the expen¬
ses of the Capture. A few are liberated at her colo¬
ny on the coast of Africa. But the lion's share of
them is taken to the Brazils and West Indies, and
there they are bound, for a price, in slavery for eight
or ten years, with an agreement, it is true, that at
the expiration of that time, they shall be surren¬
dered to the government—and this operates as ef¬
fectually to bind the persons, so let out, in perpet¬
ual bondage, as though they had been bought of
the slaver himself. They are strangers when let;
there is no one to recognize them at the end
of the term ; they are often carried away hundreds
of miles in the interior; and when called on for
them, as he sometimes is, the owner falsely reports
them as dead ; or returns upon the hands of the go¬
vernment, a number of his own decrepid and worn-
out slaves, who are an expense to him and a bur¬
den to themselves ; retaining in their stead, and as
his own, those who were bound to him. The tracks
of the captured African conducted into Rio or the
Havana, by the British cruiser, are like the beasts'
to the lion's den—all going one way.
The fact is notorious that slave-fairs are regu¬
larly held in the regencies of Tripoli and Morocco,
and that vessels under the flags of Greece and Tur¬
key are as regularly employed in transporting them
thence up the Levant, where they are again ex¬
posed for sale, like cattle in the market. Greece
owes her political being to England ; and the Sub¬
lime Porte is also greatly her debtor^; for she has
but just ' covered the mountains of Syria with
corpses, and drenched the valleys with blood,' to
secure " the independence and integrity of the Ot¬
toman Empire." Being alike omnipotent with
Otho and the Grand Turk, a word from her, and
these slavers would have been committed to the
tender mercies of British cruisers. But so far
from caring for them, or any Eastern slave,
Art. II of the Quintuple Treaty, expressly provides
that no vessel shall be searched in the Mediterra¬
nean sea; while on the other hand, the limits to
the ' suspicious latitudes,' were stretched along
the very shores of the United States, where sla¬
vers are never known to come.
We have the authority of M. Barreyer of the
French Chamber, who stated it in a recent speech,
that in June of last year, the British government
issued an ' Order in Council,' to authorize the im¬
portation into Demerara of one hundred thousand
hired negroes from Africa. And, in confirmation
of this statement, late arrivals bring us, in the ' Se¬
maphore de Marseilles,' the report of the master
of a French merchantman, who, not four months
ago, saw, in the river Gambia, an English vessel
of 500 tons, take in a cargo of 500 Africans for
the English colonies. These poor, ignorant ci*ea-
tures engage for they know not what, and ship for
they know not where. Charmed with a hawk's
bell, and dazzled with a string of glass beads, they
are enticed away beyond the seas, and the ties
which bind them to kindred and to countrv are as
effectually severed, though perhaps not as rudely
broken, as if they had fallen into the hands of
the kidnapper. Being ignorant of their rights
in a civilized land, they are liable to the most cruel
wrongs : as slaves, their owner would have the
inducement of self-interest to preserve them, his
property, from wanton injury,—nay more, with the
master, who, in his conduct to his slaves, is govern¬
ed by no higher motive, there are inducements
of a pecuniary nature to secure that considera¬
tion in the treatment of slaves, which will preserve
their health so as not to impair their efficiency as
laborers. But as bondmen and apprentices, the
object of such an one—and there are many such—
obedient to the mercenary disposition of man, is to
get out of them all he can. What then is the con¬
dition of the hired savage during his long and
cruel apprenticeship 1 Many times worse than that
of the slave. And, when he has cancelled his
indentures, wherein is he better off? He has then
but just made the last payment for the privilege of
being brought over for hire, in a ship crowded to
suffocation. Our laws will not allow a ship to
bring into the country, more passengers than two
for every five tons ; and the laws of England for¬
bid vessels to crowd her own subjects on their pas¬
sage hither more closely than in the proportion of
three souls to every five tons of'measurement.
But the humane ' Orders in Council' can find in a
vessel of 500 tons, with more than half her room
monopolized by her officers and crew, ample ac¬
commodation for five hundred wild Africans who
have never known restraint. Tell us not that it is
' man's inhumanity to man' that moves that govern¬
ment to action.
To shew that the motives which operate with
the officers, are no better than those ascribed to
their government, we subjoin an extract from a paper
392
Our Relations with England.
[June,
published in the last Maryland Colonization Journal.
It is from the pen of Dr. Hall, an eminent philan¬
thropist, who has been much on the African coast in
connection with the business of the Colonization'
Societies of this country. He tells what he seEw.
"The late commandant of the station,Lord George Rus¬
sell, v\as most of the time in a state of intoxication, con¬
sequently unfit for the transaction of any business; and
with such a head it cannot be supposed that the under offi¬
cers would deport themselves over correctly. The prize
money received by the officers and crew, in case of a suc¬
cessful capture, operated as a strong inducement to seize
whatever came in their way. The apparent object of all
the officers of the squadron under Lord Russell, was the
making successful and rich captures, rather than suppres¬
sion of the slave-trade. An instance in proof came under
our own observation. The commandant of acruiser (either
the Forester or the Wanderer) boarded a small schooner
which lay at anchor near our vessel, and afterwards board¬
ed us. He stated that the schooner had enough on board
to condemn her, but she was old and would not pay him for
■"* taking her to Sierra Leone : he would wait and watch her
until she had taken on board her slaves, which would much
increase their prize money, and then capture her. She lay
off for a day or two for that purpose, but in the night the
schooner took on board her slaves and went to sea. Our
brig, the Trafalgar of this port, was boarded by a boat from
the Forester, our papers examined, and a permit demanded
for having on board oil casks which might be converted into
water casks. We informed him that our port regulations
required no such permit. He disputed and said, when the
Forester came up, the brig should be captured and taken to
Sierra Leone. It was thought best to leave the cruising
ground of the Forester before she came up, and we accord¬
ingly put out. A few weeks after, on visiting that section
of the coast again, we discovered a vessol early in the
morning, close in shore, getting under weigh. She soon
made sail, headed for us, and fired a gun. There being
many vessels in sight, we were not sure the gun was for
us, and being within three miles of our anchorage ground,
and the light land breeze gradually dying away, thought best
to keep under weigh, having hoisted our ensign. The ves¬
sel then passed an 18 pound shot directly under our main
yard, within a few feet of the man at the helm. We then
lay to until the officer boarded us. He again examined our
papers, demanded the same permit for the casks which we
, had before informed him we were not required to obtain.
He examined the hold, found 100 bushels of rice, and de¬
clared the brig a prize, and the rice a sufficient evidence of
her character as a slaver. The Forester came up, and the
commander came on board, examined papers and hold like¬
wise, and a council w as held whether or not to declare the
whole a prize. We stated to them the abundant evidence
before them that we were the owners of the vessel, that we
were well known as a regular American trader, that we
had been in an important public station on the coast to their
knowledge, and they well knew from many sources other
than the papers of the vessel, that she was bona fide Ame¬
rican property and engaged in lawful traffic. The answer
was, ' we well know that, but the only question is, cannot
we get her condemned on account of the rice?'* It was
* On. account of the rice. By Article IX of the Quintuple
Alliance, if an extraordinary number of water-casks, or
quantity of rice, or of maize, or of Indian corn, or of any
article of food, was found on board a vessel, she was to be
considered as a slaver; and though she might not be con¬
demned as such, yet by Art. XI, if one of these articles
were found on board, or if it could be made to appear that
it had been on board any time during the voyage, all claims
to indemnity for illegal capture, were forfeited.
finally decided that there was not a sufficient quantity o
rice on board to warrant-a capture. Now the only ana ogy
between this case and'that of a slaver consisted in aving
rice on board, and rice is used by the slavers or ee ing
their slaves, and a cargo of rice w ith other circumstances
would be sufficient to condemn a Spanish or Portuguese
vessel.
" We mention these facts to show how liable to abuse
the right of search must necesssarily be, from incompeten¬
cy of the officers, or too great inducements being held out
for capture, as promotion or prize money, and how guarded
any privileges of this kind ought to be, in order that.our
merchant vessels may not be subjected to vexatious search-
ings and injurious detentions."
There is in England, as there is in the U. States,
much pure philanthropy enlisted in the cause of Af¬
rica. By far, far the greatest portion of those who
cry out against the slave-trade, are operated upon
by the purest motives. But there are fanatics and
bad men on both sides of the Atlantic, who have
joined in this cause ; and no one will deny it. It
has been our aim to show, what we believe we can
prove, if indeed we have not done this already,
that these, leagued with a few designing men of
the aristocracy and government of England, who
hate our Republic and dread the influence upon the
world of our free institutions, have useci this noble
and generous feeling on the part of the many, as
au instrument, with which they have secretly and
systematically aimed a blow at America.
In 1832, when the cause of African Coloniza¬
tion—the only sure means of humanizing the com¬
merce of that land, whose staple article of trade,
from remote ages down to the present time, has
ever been ' Man'—then, when this cause was so
prosperous, and before abolition societies had pos¬
sessed the North, or firebrands, in the shape of
abolition petitions, had been hurled into our legis¬
lative halls, there was a committee raised by the
British Parliament on the subject of slavery. We
quote a few of the questions proposed by that
committee to Mr. Ogden, the American Consul at
Liverpool, and to Mr. Meir, formerly a resident and
slave-holder in Georgia.
To Mr. Ogden :
" If you could suppose that the slaves of 'Lou¬
isiana were generally able to read, and that angry
discussions perpetually took place in Congress, on
the subject of their liberation, which discussions,
by means of reading, were made known to the'
slaves of Louisiana, do you think, that with safety,
the state of slavery could endure there?
" Does there take place in the United States a
free circulation of publications on the subject of
slavery ?
" Have the friends of the slave ever proposed
the immediate abolition of slavery ?
" Has that subject ever been warmly advocated
Mr. Ogden then said ' never.'
To Mr. Meir.
" Are there any publications circulated among
them, encouraging the hope or wish for freedom ?
1842.]
Our Relations with England.
393
"Would the Magistrates suppress any publica¬
tions of the kind 1" * >
No sooner had the report from which these ex¬
tracts were taken, been submitted to Parliament,
than the very means suggested by the above interro¬
gatories, were put in the most active operation.
The London Anti-Slavery Society sent forth its
emissaries; printing presses were established;
apd in the course of two years time, our South-
ward-bound mails were loaded down with incendi¬
ary publications. The people rose up in mobs—
broke into the post-offices, and made bonfires in
the streets. Petitions were then poured in, and
" angry discussions have. been taking place
perpetually in Congress" from that time to
this. The missionaries Thompson, and others,
were sent over to fan the flame. It was not
until 1834-'35,—subsequent to this report—that
these things occurred. Is there no evidence
here in support of our assertion, that there are
designing men in the government of Great Bri¬
tain, who make a decoy-duck of the slave-trade 1
They conceal their motives under its banners ;
and cry out against it, not because they love Af¬
rica, or l|ave any sympathy for the negro, but
because they hate America. I hate America,
said Sir John Hippisley, at the meeting of the
Somerset freeholders. He was hissed* by the
people. And there are at this day, in the high
towers of England—among what is called the bul¬
wark of her strength, many Sir Johns—only they
arc more violent in their hatred, and less candid at
the confession, than he. Every nation that grant¬
ed the right of search, put a round to the ladder
by which England hoped, and was endeavoring, to
climb up into American ships.
Formerly, the Indigo plant was grown in South-
Carolina and Georgia and the dye constituted a
staple production of the island of San Domingo.
The climates of British India are, many of them,
the same as those of these regions : and efforts
were made by the servants and friends of the Com¬
pany to introduce the cultivation of the Indigo
plant on the banks of the Ganges and Burrampoo-
ter. The most effectual means of accomplishing
this, was to interrupt its cultivation in the French
colony by a blow aimed at the institution of slavery.
' Chance soon put it in their power to make the at¬
tempt. Oge, a French mulatto of San Domingo,
was invited to accompany Mr. Clarkson from Paris
to London. Here the philanthropist lost sight
of him ; and the fanatics of slavery, and the ene¬
mies of France took him in hand: they sup¬
plied him with money, arms and a ship, and sent
him across the Atlantic to foment a servile insur¬
rection in the French colony. He accomplished
his mission. And though he was caught and hung,
it was not before the seeds of a more.dreadful mas¬
sacre had been sown on the island. In consequence
* Cobbctt's Letters.
of the murder of the whites afterwards, the culti¬
vation of Indigo was suspended; the supply les¬
sened while the demand increased ; this operated
as a protection to the cultivation elsewhere; and
ncfW not a pound is grown except in British India.*
Having, in consequence of immediate abolition of
slavery in Hayti, monopolized, for her East India
possessions, the growth of Indigo—our Cotton and
Sugar were next coveted for 1 those vast regions,' as
her possessions there were darkly styled in the
Congress of Vienna. As a preparatory step to
this transfer, however, abolition of slavery in the
English West Indies—but not in the East, was
deemed to be necessary. The former are conti¬
guous to our own shores; and, by abolition there,
the many honest and simple-minded christians and
philanthropists, in their blind zeal for the cause,
would be hoodwinked, while -the Sir John Hip-
pisleys of the government could the better ' feed
fat their ancient grudge.'
' Our colonists,' Great Britain had been told, by
an East India proprietorf—' Our colonists have
been undersold and driven out of the market by
the Cotton of the Americans;' and in 1833, slavery
was abolished in the West Indies by an act of Par¬
liament. The people—for the people of England
are the friends of America, the people, in the ho¬
nesty of their purpose, were proclaiming ' emanci¬
pation to man every where from the thraldom of
man ;' but the band of enemies who possess influ¬
ence enough to give direction to the measures of
government, had no fellow-feeling for the white
slaves of England, nor for the copper-colored slaves
of India, nor for any, except for the curley head and
dark skin of Ethiopia. And accordingly, the 44th
section of the abolition act, declares, " that the
said act shall not extend to any of the territory in
possession of the East India Company, or to the
islands of Ceylon or St. Helena." This provi¬
sion shows that it was not the institution of sla¬
very against which the measures of the govern- ,
ment were directed; these were aimed only at that
slavery through which a rival might be crippled, and
not at that every where, which holds man in bondage
to his fellow-man. It was set forth in a royal statute
that it was slavery in the West, and not the more
horrid system of slavery in the East, which the
government designed to suppress; for the sys¬
tem of slavery in the East Indies is more abject
and miserable than it is any where in this country :
in proof of which we quote from the Asiatic Jour-
nal, which is published in London and supported by
Asiatic interest, and which treats knowingly, of
British India.
" We know that there is not a servant of Government in
the south of India, who is not intimately acquainted with
* Southern Quarterly Review for April, 1842. See an
excellent article in it, entitled East India Cotton, to which
we are indebted for much valuable information.
f James Cropper.
394
Our Relations ivith England.
[Junk,
the alarming fact, that hundreds of thousands of his fellow-
creatures are fettered down for life to the degraded destiny
of slavery. We know that these unfortunate beings are not
as is the case in other countries, serfs of the soil, and in¬
capable of being transferred, at the pleasure of their owners,
from one estate to another. No, they are daily sold like
cattle, by one proprietor to another: the husband is sepa¬
rated from the wife, and the parent from the child. They
are loaded with every indignity ; the utmost possible quantity
of labor is exacted from them ; and the most meagre fare that
human nature can possibly subsist on, is doled out to support
them. The slave population is composed of a great variety
of classes ;—the descendants of those who have been taken
prisonersin time of war; persons who have been kidnapped
from the neighboring States ; people who have been born
under such circumstances, as that they are considered
without the pale of ordinary castes ; and others who have
been smuggled front the coast of Africa, torn from their coun¬
try and their kindred, and destined to a most wretched lot,
and, as will be seen, to a more enduring captivity than their
brethren of the western world. Will it be believed that
Government participates in this description of property;
that it actually holds possession of slaves, and lets them out for
hire to the cultivators of the country—the rent of a whole fami¬
ly being two fanams, or half a rupee, per annum ?"
Two fanams a year; ($ 3,50,) three dollars and
a half for the hire of the slave and his family!
The climate of India is proverbially pestilential and
many times more sickly than this. There is not a
slaveholder in America, who would not readily
compound with the physician at twice this sum, for
medical attendance alone upon each family of his
servants. Neglected in sickness, scantily supplied,
and sorely tasked in health, what must be the con¬
dition of the slave in India. The mildness of sla¬
very here can give the philanthropist no idea of its
horrors there. Hypocrisy is the homage which
vice pays to virtue : rank in such tributes, the
crafty government of England has the impudence
to preach up to American statesmen, a ' Christian
League,' a ' Holy Alliance;' and, in the presence of
the ' States of Christendom,' to feign a sympathy
for the black slave of the West; while, with her
iron hoof upon their necks, she is holding in the
most cruel bondage, millions of black and red men
in the East. In the face of such facts as these,
how can it be expected that an intelligent people
will give to the British government, in its efforts
against the African slave-trade, credit for any mo¬
tives of humanity I Its hollow professions are
sounded by its own acts. Ought we to league with
such a power I
As soon though, as abolition was effected in the
West Indies—a farther development of the plot was
made : Agents were sent over to this country from
England, to engage for the East India service, per¬
sons and machinery skilled and necessary for the
culture and preparation of Cotton. How far this
step is likely to answer its object, the subjoined ex¬
tracts, cut from recent papers, will show ;
east india and american cotton.
" Alluding to the dulness of the Cotton market, the New
York American says :
" While on this point we may as well call the attention
of the cotton growers to a point to which we have ie
ferred for some time past, viz. the competition of East In¬
dia with the lowest kinds of American.
" By a table which we find in our Liverpool files, we
perceive that the import of American in the first three
months, in 1838, was - - 346,700 bales.
Of East India, - 4,800
While in the corresponding period, in 1842,
American, - 304,700 «
East Indian, - 57,200 "
" The delivery for consumption in 1838, for the same
period, was—of American, - 219,400 bales.
East Indian, - 13,100 "
Same period 1842:
American, ... - 211,000 "
East Indian, ... 32,800 "
" Showing an increase in five years' consumption of one
hundred and fifty per cent, in the latter, against a decline in
the former of about five per cent."
" The Boston Atlas affirms that every arrival from Eng¬
land, shows the constant, increase of imports of East India
cotton, and the constant decrease of American. It is sta¬
ted that during the three months of January, February and
March, 1842, there were 188,423 bales of American cotton
imported, being 47,333 less than during the same period last
year! During these same months, there was, as compared
with the year before, an increase of imports of Indian cot¬
ton to the amount of 40,014 bales ! The decrease of Ameri¬
can imports was at the rate of twenty per centum : the increase
of the East Indian at the rate of one hundred and fifteen per
centum !"
Extract from the Bombay Times of July 10; 1841.
" In the article of cotton alone, it appears we have recei¬
ved a supply exceeding that of the same period in the pre¬
vious year by 38,538,303 lbs.
" On carrying out our inquiries further, and examining
into the supplies of cotton brought to market during the 12
months ending the 31st May, we find that the result is well
calculated to astonish those who have not been marking the
progressive increase of this product, but have been dwell¬
ing with fancied security on their recollections of what
used to constitute a large supply, viz . 200,000 to 250,000
bales. It appears, then, that, from the 1st June, 1840, to
the 1st June, 1841, the imports of cotton into Bombay have
amounted to 174,212,755 lbs. This is a larger quantity than
America produced up to the year 1826, and more than was
consumed in England during the same year. In 1825, the
entire production of the United States amounted only to
169,860,000 lbs.; though, 12 years after, in 1837, it had
reached 444,211,537lbs. (Vide McCulloch, article 'Cotton.')
"As a further encouragement to the cultivators, we may
state that the consumption of East India cotton, in Great
Britain, has increased in a greater ratio than that of any
other quality whatever. In 1816, at which period the ave¬
rage price of American uplands was 181d., and that of Surat
15id., the consumption of American was 4,036 bales, and
East Indian 207 bales per week. In 1839, when the ave¬
rage price of uplands was 7.875d., and Snrats 5fd., the con¬
sumption of American was 15,644, and East Indian 2,142
packages per week; the increase in 23 years of the last
being in the ratio of ten to one, and that of the first barely
four to one. In the same period the consumption of Bra¬
zilian,Egyptian, and West Indian qualities had not doubled."
Extract from the circular of Messrs, Freeman and Cook,
dated London, January 1, 1842.
" Cotton.—The cotton trade with India for the last two
years has been highly important, in every point of view.
The imports in 1841 reached nearly one-third those from
the United States; which has had a very depressing influ¬
ence on the value of American cotton."
1842.]
Our Relations with England.
395
As soon as it could be done, the cultivation of
cotton was to be changed, de golpe, from the Uni¬
ted States to India, as indigo had been; there¬
fore the progress of the experiment in the East was
closely observed in all its stages ; and while its re¬
sults were witnessed with anxious solicitude, and
increasing satisfaction, preparations were making
in the West, for striking the last decisive blow,
should a resort to force become necessary. The chief
Naval station at Halifax, was too far removed from
the probable scene of action ; it was quietly trans¬
ferred from the North to Bermuda, within thirty-
six hours of our Southern coast, and the place
immediately strengthened and fortified. A standing
army of Blacks was organized in the West Indies.
A line of men-of-war steam packets, thence to
our coast was arranged ; they are commanded
by Navy officers, and carry their guns in the
hold* ready to be hoisted up and mounted at
any moment; the raven-colored troopers with
their sable banners, were within a few hours'
run of our shores; and they stood ready for
any service at a moment's warning. The Quin¬
tuple Treaty was to operate as an armed inter¬
vention for regulating the commerce of Ameri¬
ca, and for adjusting a certain domestic institution
of ours, in such a manner, that the staple produc¬
tions of the Southern States might be at once trans¬
ferred from the valley of the Mississippi to the
banks of the Ganges, its great rival stream. The
preliminaries of the convention were arranged in se¬
cret ; we were not consulted as to any of its provi¬
sions ; it attached suspicion to every vessel of ours
that should be seen within either of the three great
zones of the earth, and left the common highway
of nations free to us, only over the frozen seas of
the extreme North or South. It is not in the dis¬
position of the American people to be suspicious of
their neighbors. Had such preparations been made
about the dominions of an European power, they
would have excited suspicion at once, and brought
forth a demand to know their object. Indeed so
closely does England watch her neighbors, and so
easily are her fears excited by the movements of
other nations, that France cannot put a few more
than her usual complement of ships in commission,
without receiving a message from across the Chan¬
nel to know the cause of the secret or unusual pre¬
paration. But, practically, the Americans know
nothing of the intrigues of governments, and take
but little note of their manoeuvres and designs. The
first intimation that we had of these arrangements,
was in a demand, positive and peremptory, requiring
us to surrender up our rights, and permit our vessels
to be searched, because it was indispensable^ to the
great object which the ' States of Christendom' had
in view. Is there in all this, no cause of suspi-
* Guns in the hold.—So stated by Mr. Cushing in Con¬
gress as to the Dee.
+ Lord Aberdeen to Mr. Stevenson.
cion 1 Shall not the dictates of prudence be heed¬
ed J And, with such cause, ought we not to be
wary of father-land J as to this day we love to call
the ' old country.'*
The mass of the people in all countries are what
they seem. It is the designing few only who plot
and conduct the intrigues of a party or of a state;
and of those few who manage the government of
Great Britain, it is only a part that plots treason
against the Republic. It was something new to
see Great Britain first gird herself about with pow¬
er, and then approach us, brandishing and flourish¬
ing, for moral effect, a ' Holy Alliance' made with
the ' States of Christendom,' to awe us into sub¬
mission. But our old men knew what to expect
from Great Britain when leagued with other Euro¬
pean powers in alliance; and those still in the prime
of manhood can well remember how ruthlessly the
work of coalitions has been done upon the states
of Europe. They can recollect, how, by an alli¬
ance, the Republic of Genoa was given to the
king of Sardinia ; and how Poland was dismem¬
bered by an alliance. They could not forget that
* Just as the proof-sheets of this were about to leave our
hands, we were favored with the following copy of a letter,
dated:
" New-York, 19th May, 1842.
" Sir,—I am an Irish protestant who have been in this
country forty-nine years, with frequent and long absences.
I once had the honor of servingmy adopted country as con¬
sul : in this office, I did all in my power to render it respec¬
table, by holding up the American government as worthy of
imitation, and often was distressed with the aristocratic
sentiments sported in mixed companies by native-born citi¬
zens of the United Slates. In truth, I am a republican of
the Jeffersonian school; and as such, I could not. be other¬
wise than highly gratified by the perusal of your article on
"THE RIGHT OF SEARCH,"in the Southern Litera¬
ry Messenger of last month ; and 1 beg you not to stop
there. It may be proper here to inform you of two acts of
aggression which took place, 1 think, about 1806 or '7,—or
perhaps before.
" One was that a British frigate, in sight of the Jersey shore,
fired into the sloop Richard, Capt. Pierce, bound from
Brandywine Mills to New-York, with a cargo of flour and
Indian meal, and killed Mr. Pierce, the brother of the
master.
" The other was that a British frigate, commanded by one
Balderston, fired into a pleasure yacht belonging to Mr.
Washington Morton, in sight of Sandy Hook ; on board of
which the owner was, in company with other gentlemen of
this city. I mention these aggressions because they were
wanton and unprovoked, and they show the disposition of
the government and people of Great Britain (not Ireland)
towards this country. And this hatred will never be allow¬
ed to sleep, for we shall never be forgiven our Declaration
of Independence; and whatever may be the professions of
the British government, be it Whig or Tory, the hatred is
the same at heart; and they will go to war with this coun¬
try, whenever they think they can do so with success ; and
it is for this purpose and no other that they are now prepar¬
ing such a gigantic fleet of war-steamers. * *
I am yours, very respectfully,
Lt. M. F. Maury, V. S. N. )
Fredericksburg, Fa." j
396
Lines, on the Death of a Child.
[June,
it was the strong arm of an alliance, that had
robbed Denmark, and Sweden of Norway and
Finland; that had forced the republican citi¬
zens of Holland to become the subjects of a king;
that had graciously bestowed the republic of Ve¬
nice as a present to Austria. It was an Euro¬
pean alliance, we all recollect, that lopped off a
province from the dominions of the Grand Turk ;
and it was the combined forces of allied sovereigns
that destroyed his fleet and "laid waste the plains
of Syria. All these acts, and more too, were
forcibly brought to the minds of our statesmen,
when they surveyed the lines which England
had been drawing about their commerce and their-
country. She had run her wide parallels across
the commercial parts of the ocean ; and our traders
who make ventures there, read in the terms of the
treaty, a motto for their flag, which England had
gone down to paraphrase from Dante's inscription
over the infernal regions : Leave thrift behind,
it never enters here, was to be painted on the ber-
gee of every American vessel as she crossed the
dark parallel, and bounded over into the " suspicious
latitudes." The approaches of England in ' Chris¬
tian Alliance,' her present manner and previous
conduct, all warned us of intrigue, and design,
and admonish us to be on our guard. We have
taken our stand upon the broad platform of national
rights, from which we will not be moved. And
we leave it to the civilized nations of the world
to judge if right, humanity and justice be not on
our side.
We are earnest in our desires to suppress the
slave-trade, and we are willing to cooperate with
England and the States of Christendom against
the odious traffic. We know England to be ambi¬
tious, grasping and wary; we therefore must keep
her at boat-hook's length. We can never trust her
on board of our merchantmen. Our armed crui¬
sers may cooperate with hers—farther than this,
we cannot go. Let each one of the States of
Christendom, show its zeal for the African, by
sending to his coasts, its vessels-of-war. Let a
plan of mutual cooperation be established, and a
system of telegraph and signals be arranged for
them, by which they can convey intelligence readily
and rapidly to each other. And then we should
have a glorious emulation among the officers—one
nation against the other, striving not to be outdone
in the good work. Each government at home
through the vigilance of its officers and citizens,
may be kept regularly apprized of the fitting and
sailing of all suspicious vessels. By keeping its
own cruisers constantly informed on this subject,
much may be done toward the effectual suppression
of the slave-trade. Let it also be the duty of every
consul in slave-holding countries abroad, to keep
both his government and its African armed crui¬
sers, advised of all slave-trading movements that
come to his knowledge. By these means, and
these only, with the aid of colonization and the in¬
fluence of Christian principles, can the African
slave-trade be effectually suppressed. The 'right
of search,' as experience has proved,, operates as
an aggravation of the evil. If the voice of Africa
could be heard as to the conduct of England with re¬
gard to the slave-trade, it would be in the tone of
entreaty and prayer, to ' let us alone ; your inten¬
tions may be good, but your interference has only
made oppression more galling and slavery more
bitter.'
We do not think that we venture too much,
in the opinion as to what each State of Chris¬
tendom may do at home in aid of suffering Af¬
rica, simply by calling upon all good citizens, and
enjoining its custom-house officers, its consuls and
commercial agents, to collect and report all infor¬
mation concerning slavers and vessels suspected of
engaging in the slave-trade. With proper energy
in this respect, on the part of governments, the
armed cruisers on the coast of Africa might, in
the course of a very short time, be furnished with
accurate drawings and descriptions of every ves¬
sel engaged in the slave-trade. With the as¬
sistance of proper agents on the coast of Africa,
and with a code of signals, and a well diges¬
ted plan of cooperation for all the cruisers there
employed, this information would become common
property, and each cruiser might then go in pur¬
suit of the vessels of its own nation, with the ad¬
vantage of knowing where to lie in their track.
When the British government shall cease to sell its
captured slaves—when it shall abandon its intrigue^
for the right of search which has done the African so
much more harm than good—and shall advocate
some such practical plan as this for the suppression of
the slave-trade, then and not till then, will we give
the ' old country' credit for motives of humanity
and a sincere desire to succor the slave.
LINES,
ON THE DEATH OF A CHILD.
The young! the beautiful! Oh ! could not love,
And hope, and tenderness the fiat move,
Which called the young, the beautiful away,
And left us mourning round his lifeless clay ?
Oh ! could no prayers avert that doom, no sighs ?
Nor tears which seemed to burn the aching eyes ?
Could nothing serve to change the dire command,
Which gave our darling into death's cold hand ?
Alas ! alas! that fair and pearl-veined brow,
Weareth a hue like marble, and e'en now
The icy blood hath curdled round the eyes,
Which ere-while wore the tint of summer skies.
The long dark lashes rest upon the cheek,
Which, pure and white, without one life-like streak,
Seems as if cut from wax—so still and cold,
The baby lies, like artist's sculptured mould.
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