The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1841-06-26


the Government of the United States, |
formally, in the name of the British Co
vernment, the immediate release of Mr.. |
Alexander McLeod;' that "the grounds
upon which the British Government make
this demand upon the Government of the
United States are these: That the trans
action on account of which Mr. Mcleod
has been arrested and is 10 be put upon
his trial, was a transaction of a public
character, planned and executed by per
sons duly empowered by Her Majesty's
colonial authorities to take any steps and
to do any acts which might be necessary
for the defence of Her Majesty's terrific
rles, and for the protection of Her Ma
jesty's subjects, and that consequently
those subjects of Her Majesty who enga-
g2d IN that transaction were performing
an act Of public duty, for which they can
not be made personally and individually
answerable to the laws and tribunals of
any foreign country"
The President is not certain that he
understands precisely the meaning in
tended by Her Majesty's Government to
be conveyed by the foregoing instruc
ton.
This doubt has occasioned with the
President some hesitation, but he incines
to take it for granted that the main pur-
pose of the instruction was 10 cause it to
be signifed to the Government of the
! United States that the attack on the
steamboat "Caroline" was an act Of pub
lie force, done by the British colonial
authorities, and fully recognized by the
Queens Government at home, and that
consequently no individual concerned in
that transaction can, according to the Just
principle of the laws of nations, be held
personally answerable in the ordinary
courts of law as for private offence !;
and that upon this avowal Of Her Males
: ty's Government, Alexander Mcleod,
now imprisoned on an Indictment for muir
der alleged to have been committed in
that attack, ought to be released by such
proceedings as are usual and are suitable
, to the case.
The President adopts the conclusion
that nothing more than this could have
been intended to be expressed, from the
consideration that Her Majesty's Go
; vernmcnt must lie fully aware that in the
United States, asin England, persons con-
fined under judicial process can be re-
leased from that confinement only by ju-
dicial process. In neither country, as
the undersigned supposes, can the arm OF
t I he Executive power interfere, directly
or forcibly, to release or deliver the pri
| soner. His discharge must be sought in
: manner conformable TO the principles
of law and the proceedings Of courts OF
: iudicature. If an indictment like that
? which has been found against Alexander
t Mcleod, and under circumstances like
those which belong to his case, were
! pending against an individual in one oil
q the courts of England, there is no doubt
S that the law officer of the Crown might
4 enter nOIle prosequi, or that the prison
er might cause himselfto be brought W
] on habeas corpus and discharged, if his
r ground of discharge should be adiudged
q sufficient, or that he might prove the
d same facts, and insist on the same de.
e fence or exemption on his trial.
d All these are legal modes of proceeding
a we'll known to the laws and practice o
4 both countries. But the undersigned
+ does not suppose that, if such case wa.
e to arise in England, the power of the Elk
J ecutive Government could be eXerted il
It any more direct manner. Even in the
c case Of Ambassadors and other public
/ Ministers, whose right to exemption iron
1t arrest is personal, requiring nc fact to b.
d ascertained but the mere fact of diploma
L tic character, and to arrest whom is some
Il times made highly penal offence, if tn
Of arrest be actually made, it must be dis
charged by application to the courts Q
Ie law.
,r 1t understood that Alexander McLeo
c is holden as we'll on civil as on crimina
is process for acts alledged to have bee
e done by him In the attack on the " Care
line," and his defence or ground of ac
quittal must be made the same in bot
c. cases. And this strongly illustrates, a
the undersigned conceives, the prophet
of the foregoing observations; since it
quite clear that the Executive Govern
ment cannot interfere to arrest a civ
suit between private parties in any stag
tie of its progress, but that such suit mu
n 20 on to its regular judicial Termination
nd If, therefore, any course different fro
n SUCH as have been now mentioned was
tn contemplation by Her Majesty's Cover
he ment, something would seem to hay
been expected from the Government
n. the United States as little conformable
ne the laws and usages of the English G
vernment as to those ofthe United State
to and to which this Government cannot a
nd cedc.
81 The Government of the United State
ng therefore, acting upon the presumptic