The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-03-29

Piedse, anu now we please. These SHIPS on
the bosom OF the ocean are a part of our soil
the sy0bol of our power and cur jurisdiction
floats al their mastheads, lhey are subject 10
our law, aud TO no other human law Ii they
do not voluntarily 90 within marine league Of
a Tor Ign shore, or mediate some wi(ul breach
OF It's revenue laws, any interference of the IN
habitants OF that shore, with any thing they
contain or any body that sails in them, Except
The rights Of belllgerants,) is Wdr. This prin-
ciple OF the sanctity of the neutral flag, is just
as applicable, and just as strong, in these de
iaehed parts OF our territory, as in the islands
that stud our bays and our coasts, or in the city
Of New York itself
We grant, that if a vessel-that is, mere
private vessel-go voluntarily within the jurls-
dlcton OF another State, she Is taken TO have
submitted TO that jurisdiction with all Its Incl
| dents We say mere pirate vessel-ter
| even this is not true Of a man-of-war, or pri-
| vate ship commissioned by Government, which
II she be admitted into foreign port al all, Is
presumed to be admitted with the consent
OF the foreign sovereign that she shall not
be subject TO his jurisdiction. So Of an am
bassador; SO of sovereign travelling in
the domnlons OF another, with the consent, ex-
press er implied, of that other. Nothing is less
question d or less questionable than this fiction
OF extra tcrrltoraliy, in all cases of this sort.
Now, we say that merchant ship driven
by stress of weather, or carried by pis ma
jor or forced, in short, by any ovenuling
necessity into the ports Of foreign power,
is according TO the law Of nations, fairly
entitled 10 the benefit of at least modi-
fed application Of the same principle. We
say that nation which should, like Doctor
Francla of misanthropic memory forbid all
strangers TO approach its shores on death
and con6scation, would be compeiE D make
an exception of cases of necessity, on pain Of
being treated as horde Of robbers and anthro-
pophagi. The day of Barbary pirates, general
ly acknowledged as sovereisnties, is gone by
forever, unless England is to succeed to them
as universal legatec, privilege which our re-
spect for great nation forbids US to believe she
will ever claim, but which if il be not forced
upon her, it will be no fault Of the New York
:" 1mericann and other americans OF the same
kidney. What would England say to France,
il convict ship of hers, on its way to Botany
Bay, being forced to anchor on the coast within
the jurisdiction Of the latter, or driven into her
roadsteads, She were boarded by French autho-
rites, and her prisoners compulsorily landed and
relea ed on the ground that al criminal laws
are strictly local What would She say to us
if, on the pretext that lmpressment of seamen
was against the law Of nature, we should I'M
dertake TO SET at large body of them cast by
storm or mutiny within our jurisdiction in one
OF her transports
This is not a'case in which we are calling
upon England TO enforce our laws within her
territories. No body imagines, as our 'Ameri-
cam publicist will have it, that if the negroes
had escaped 10 land, the officers Of the vessel
could have had them seized by the civil authori-
ties of foreign country, whose laws forbade
their seizure. But we dispute the right of those
civil authorities 10 board our ships and take peo-
pie out OF them in such case. We deny that
there is any analogy at all between the case put
by this writer Of fugitive slaves in Canada and
slaves not fugitive aboard Of an american
ressei or, what is just the same thing, on
IhHiViituli SLOuIu MS Is tne pUlul vi
which the whole question turns. VIII the
comfy of nations, or. indeed, any usage
Of States pretending TO the least clviliza
ton, permit, that a nation should 90 out of its
way to execute its municipal law on board Of
foreign vessel, forced BY an overriding necessi-
ty within the jurisdiction Of that nation, and
asking nothing at its hands, but a momentary
I I.,I..
too much sense to set up the monstrous prcten
sion, which these pseudo imericdnS are gra
tultously endeavorng to maintain for England
at the expense of the dearest at all the rights of
their own country, her independence as a
sovereign power. He did not affect to Justify,
for he well knew he could not justify the Off |
cious and dctire interference Of British officers
in such case He was not insane enough TO
arrogale to England, the right Of compelling
foreign States to adopt her municipal law in
stead of their own, on board of their own ships,
or stupid enough to suppose, that such arrogant
folly Chad he been guilty of ) could have re-
ceived at the hands of foreign States any thing
but the scorn it would have deserved. But
Lord Palmerston, we admit, was too narrow
minded statesman to be up to tn extrava-
gancies called for BY the occasion. He thought
his official duty as British Minister and gen
tleman, required of hin no more than that he
should make the best possible defence Of his
Government under the ea,isting lar of nations.
He was not Jacobin enough to deny that law
to be binding upon England, because she chose (
to consider it at war with reason and nature /
AmericaRs and tratorous abolitonists, for sa
crifcing all law and all right, aud every barrier
of the Independence of nations, in order at once