The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-21 00:00:00

Enquirer

" We take it that the United States have as clear a right
to say what shall constitute the property of her citizens, as
any other independent nation, and it is not for England to
call in question the validity of title to that property when it
happens to be driven by stress of weather or by mutiny and
murder, within her jurisdiction. If we choose to make even
a portion of our white inhabitants slaves, Great Britain has
no more right to question the legal ownership of that part of
our property, than she has to confiscate a cargo of Jamaica
ruin, because her tee-total societies have denounced the manu-
facture of that article an act of piracy against civilization.
We choose to consider our slaves as property—property
descended to us through the instrumentality of British im-
porters—and if a cargo of that property chances to get into
British waters, we have the same right to retain it that a
British shipowner has to be protected in his cargo of iron
in the port of New York. The negroes on hoard the Creole
were the iiona fide property of those who claim them—pro-
perty recognised by the law and by the constitution of the
country. We should like to know, therefore, what semblance
of right the British government has to call in question the
validity of an ownership sanctioned and protected by the
government of an independent country."

Our astute transatlantic contemporary might have
seen, if the villany which he seeks to justify had not
blinded his eyes, that his argument involves its own
refutation. We take his parallel between a cargo of
slaves and a cargo of iron; -the iron is safe in the port
of New York ; but why ? Simply because it is an ar-
ticle of traffic permitted and legitimized by the laws
of the State, and upon no other ground. The State of
New York, or the Federal Union might, if it pleased,
prohibit the importation of iron, and render it contra-
band ; and, in such case, no future importer of the ar-
ticle would have a right to complain if it were seized
by the authorities of the country, and confiscated to
the public service. Every state has a right to make all

such laws concerning property as are not contrary to
natural justice, or the rights of independent nations,
within its own dominions; and, in the enjoyment and
exercise of this clear right, England makes laws within
the limits of her jurisdiction in favour of the human
She certainly does not place the rational and im-
mortal being, man, quite on a level with a lump of
inert matter, or a piece of cold iron ; and, therefore,
not merely declares that the " article is contraband,"
but decrees further, that whether by " stress of wea-
ther," or by whatever other casualty the said "article"
may he brought in durance within her territory, he is
free. There is no more an ownership in him ; " his
soul walks abroad in her own majesty," and his body
stands " redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled."
The Yankee journalist evidently conceives that the
strength of his case lies in the circumstance, that the
entry of the Creole into a British port was not a vo-
luntary act on the part of her captain or owners, and,
therefore, that to take advantage either of a casualty
or a piratical act committed against her, by which she
was brought within our power against the consent of
the parties concerned in her, is a departure from the
usage of civilised nations in similar cases. And the
American would be right, if the commodity introduced
into port were any other than a cargo of MEN. It is
this trifling circumstance which makes all the diffe-
rence ; for, in defence of our fellow-creatures and of
human liberty, we go the length of saying, that not
only shall no slavery exist under our own immediate
authority, but that we will permit no slaves to be held
by others within any part of our dominions ;
moreover, that we are justified in so saying and acting
by an abstract principle of right and justice superior
to all national or conventional law whatever.
We do not interfere with America in her own in-
ternal regulations ; we do not make remittances, nor
are we aware that ,any of our people do, for the pur-
pose of inflaming an insubordinate spirit, or exciting
an insurrection among the coloured inhabitants; there
is tu, " hunters' club " among us for this purpose ;
but if her slaves do, by any accident, reach our terri-
tory, American or any other laws of human degrada-
tion do immediately cease at once to have any opera-
tion ; her slaves,—