The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-05-11
Our Foreign Negotiations:

certain American vessels laden with slaves for the
southern market were several years since wrecked
on their passage to New Orleans. The crews and
cargoes were saved and carried into some of the
British West India Islands, where, in conformity
to the British laws, which like those of Massachu-
sets, do not acknowledge men as things the car
goes were set free and suffered to dispose of them.
selves according to their own pleasure.
Ever since the occurrence of the first of these
cases. which happened in 1881, the Federal Cow
eminent at Washington has been so urgent in its
zeal and labor to recover from the British Govern
ment these liberated slaves as to have lost sight Of
all other interests and questions whatever. The
matter has been followed up with great spirit and
pernacity. Immediately after the loss of the first
vessel the Comet, instructions were sent from
Washington to our minister, to demand of the
British Government the value of the cargo. In
1882, another despatch was forwarded on the sub
Iject. The instructions were again renewed in
1888; the Secretary Of State remarking that this
case mast be brought to conclusion-the doc
trine that would justify the liberation of slaves,
is dangerous to a large section of our country To-
! be tolerated.
In 1884, fresh instructions were sent, and de-
manI ordered to be made for the value Of the
slaves in the Encomium.
| In 1885, similar instructions were sent relative
to the Enterprise.
| In 1886, the instructions were renewed ; the
Secretary observing to Mr.. Stevenson, In the
present state of our diplomatic relations with the
Government of his Britannia Majesty, the most
Immediately pressing of the matters with which
the United States legation at London is now
charged is the claim of certain American citizens
against Great Britain for number of slaves, the
c0rgocs of three vessels wrecked in the British Isl
ands in the Atlantic
We beg leave to call the attention of the citi-
zens of New England, and of the Northern States
generally, to these last quoted instructions of the
Secretary of State TO our minister near the British
Court. In the present state he says Of our d.
plonatc relations with Great Britain, THE MOST
IMMEDIATELY PREssING,-marli that, the most aann,e
diately preSSing-of the matters with which the
United States legation at London is now charged,
is, the claim of certain American citizens for GER
tain slaves, &c The claim of the State Of Maine
for ten thousand square miles her territory, and
for divers of her citizens arrested and imprisoned
by the authorities of New Brunswick,-this claim,
involving the question of the integrity of our ter.
ritories the rights and jurisdiction of a sovereign
State of the Union, to say nothing of the interest
of Massachusetts, as we'll as of Maine, in the prop
ery of the disputed territory,-this great claim,
which has lately threatened to involve the coun-
tries in ruiaous and destructive war, is pronounc-
ed by Mr.. Secretary Forsyth in his instructions to
Mr.. Ambassador Stevenson, 10 be quite second
arg matter in comparison with that most lannnede-
ately pressing affair, of a number of slaves, the
cargoes of three vessels wrecked in the British
Islands in the Atlantic!'
This most Immediately pressing matter was
accordingly pressed by MIR. Stevenson with great
urgency, and finding that the British government
had no inclination to act the part of tip slaves and
drivers to the American slave traders, Mr.. Ste
venson at length proceeded so far as to intimate
the probability of acar, if these demands We're
not acceded to. In letter to Lord Palmerson Of
December lst 1886, he expresses hope that the
British Government would not longer consent to
postpone the decision of a sub ect which had been
for so many years under its consideration and
the effect ofwhich can be none other than to throw
not only additional impediments in the way of an
adjustment, and increase those feelings of dissat-
sfaction and irritation which have already been
excited but by possibility tend to disturb and
weaken the kind and amicable relations which now
so happily subsist between the two countries and
on the preservation of which essentially depends
the interests and happiness of both
We find that this correspondence is exciting nc
small degree of interest at the South. The Charles
ton Is. CO. Mercury says:
We have never read any thing more calculated
to excite the indignation of every Southern reader
and of every American who feels for the honor of
He scarcely condescends to argue for the right Of
his Government to refuse compensation; an argu-
ment which if he had attempted, must have been
in the teeth of decisions of the most eminent iu-
1cial authorities of his own country but he viz
ualIy claims for his Government the right to alb
'ogate the law of nations He consents to make
in the cases of the Encomium and
Comet, because they put into British ports, before
he British Government had changedHe laac ofnc.
ions, by passing her Emancipation Bill; though
lie dissents from the terms of settlement on which
NIr. Stevenson insists but in the case of the Ell
erprse, which happened to lose the protection of
law, by coming within the reach Of
British hospitality after Great Britain, the author
If the Slave Trade, had in fit of humanity and
morality thought proper to reform her West India
Colonies, Lord PalmerSton, in the name of has
Government refuses compensation altogether
lie takes the ground that slaves cannot now and
ereafter be recognized ds property in any part of
he British domnions, and this whether they be
n the hands of citizens of friendly power, OF
{ British subjects. He thus assumes for his Gov,
rnment the right to determine the tenure by which
'e hold our property, to determine what Shall be.
+ not property in this country