# The African Slave Trade/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V.
FAILURE OF MEASURES TO EXTERMINATE THE SLAVE TRADE.
It is a melancholy and startling fact, that the slave trade is not abolished, but continues, with all its attendant barbarities and unmitigated horrors. Cuba, Brazil, Porto Rico, and the United States, still furnish markets for men whose trade has been pronounced piracy, and whose crimes render them deserving of death. There is more cruelty, and a greater waste of life, than formerly, owing to the smallness of the vessels employed, the scanty provisions furnished, and the haste with which the captives must be taken, in order that the pirates may escape seizure by the armed vessels in pursuit of them.
Judge Joseph Story, in his charge to the grand jury of the United States Circuit Court, in Portsmouth, N. H., May term, 1820, after reviewing the laws which have been enacted for the suppression of the slave trade, remarked:
"And, gentlemen, how can we justify ourselves, or apologize for an indifference to this subject? Our constitutions of government have declared that all men are born free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are the right of enjoying their lives, liberties, and property, and of seeking and obtaining their own safety and happiness. May not the miserable African ask, 'Am I not a man, and a brother?' We boast of our noble struggle against the encroachments of tyranny, but do we forget that it assumed the mildest form in which authority ever assailed the rights of its subjects, and yet that there are men among us who think it no wrong to condemn the shivering negro to perpetual slavery?
We shall not undertake the arduous task of fixing the precise amount of guilt that belongs to our nation, for the failure of the efforts to destroy this traffic. The amount of that guilt can not be estimated, — can not be put into language. The indifference that has been manifested towards the evils of the traffic; the toleration of the domestic slave trade, by which the public conscience has been rendered callous; the extension of slave territory, in spite of the solemn remonstrances of the enlightened and patriotic portion of the people; and the refusal of the government to coöperate with the nations of Europe in their humane efforts, have tended to sustain the traffic, and place us in an anomalous position before the world.
After the refusal of the United States, in 1833, to join with England and France for the suppression of the traffic, what encouragement has there been ​for those governments to renew their applications for coöperation? This shameful refusal is thus referred to in the 128th number of the Edinburgh Review:
The New York Journal of Commerce, of September, 1835, thus refers to the article under the head of
After noticing the reception of the proposition by the other European powers, the Journal of Commerce adds:
Is the conscience of the nation absolutely dead? Is there no heart to feel, no eye to see the horrors of the traffic, no tongue to speak for the agonized sufferers in the "middle passage?" Shall we go to France and England, to Denmark, Sardinia, and Mexico to learn humanity? ​Every apology that has been made in this country for slavery; every argument used in its favor; every instance of apostasy from the ranks of freedom by influential statesmen; every attempt to drag the Bible to the support of the system; and especially every square mile of new territory opened for the introduction of slaves, has contributed to the failure of the efforts to abolish the foreign traffic. The system of slavery, as existing and supported in this
JOSE MARIA de BOCANEGRA.
[Translation of part of the law of April 6th, 1830, prohibiting the migration of citizens of the United States to Texas.]
Art. 9. On the northern frontier, the entrance of foreigners shall be prohibited, under all pretexts whatever, unless they be furnished with passports, signed by the agents of the republic, at the places whence they proceed.
The doctrine has been maintained by eminent divines, that we have nothing to do with slavery in those States where it is an established institution. Supposing this to be proved, will not slavery have something to do with us? Can these teachers of the people and creators of public opinion imagine for a moment that the master will lie down in perfect quietness within the limits formerly assigned to him, and have no desire to roam over new territory? Can his instincts be gratified, and his fierceness soothed, at the same time?
The extension of slavery and the encouragement of the slave trade are the natural growth of the institution of slavery among us. This is abundantly shown in the annexation of Texas, which is but one act of several examples that might be adduced. The determination to secure this country, which plunged us into a war with Mexico, sprang from a desire to extend slavery, although at the time, great efforts were made to blind the eyes of the people to this fact.
An accurate writer who labored zealously to ​enlighten and arouse the public mind on this point, said, in speaking of the war in Texas:
When this iniquity has so far ripened that the national government of the "great republic of liberty" were ready to plunge into a war with Mexico, to reëstablish slavery upon soil from which the curse had been removed, and were searching for pretexts for the war, the Hon. John Quincy Adams, in his speech in the House of Representatives, in May, 1836, said:
The feeling excited in England at the time, by this movement, was very great. The friends of humanity there felt that it would not only embarrass the efforts which were in progress for the suppression of the slave trade, but would actually contribute to the revival of the traffic. And this result we are beginning to experience. The following is taken from the London Times.
Before the tribunal of Heaven, before the court of civilization, our nation must stand condemned of the guilt of placing obstacles in the way of the abolition of the slave trade. The nation, of all others, which the world had a right to expect would do her duty upon this question, has been false to the first principles of justice, false to the common dictates of humanity. The great free republic has stretched out her arm to prevent Europe from breaking off the fetters from the enslaved children of Africa. What a chapter in the history of America for the historian to write two centuries hence! But a darker chapter is just now opening. Another harvest from the seeds of iniquity that have been scattered broadcast over the land, is beginning to ripen.