Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1842-03-31
(From the Baltimore Americana
THE RIGHT OF SEARCH.

IHE RlGHr OF SEARCH.
The refusal of the French Chamber of Dc
putieS to ra,iy the treaty relative to the rigl
otsearch, has placed that question in posi-
lon most interesting, and to this countr,
highly gratifying II was the design OF Eng
land To lay false issue before the nations o
Europe; 10 represent the United States as un
willing to enter into the proposed agreemen
because OF their desire to continue the SIay,
Trade and thus the Republic of the Yves,
was to be singled out TO bear the reproaches
oil the civilized world, and her resistance a.
gainst unwarrantable encroachment was to be
stigmatised as an outrage against humanity.
Our Minister 1t Paris, Gen Cass, took
rronP "'1"'",,- -, haye the real queslion
umuers'ooo. lie published pamphlet, eX-
iiioi'iig tne true state OF the case, ard caused
1t to be widely circulated The French were
made to see that England had Interior objects
III view; that il was the absolute dominion of
the seas she was aiming after-a supremacy
SO complete that no flag, if her pretensions
were allowed, could be unlurled upon the o.
cean except by her permission, that the RIGHT
of search which she claimed, though nom-
nally nothing more than what she was willing
TO concede to other powers, was in fact right
which would enure to her exclusive advan-
tage; that the United States were as much
disposed as England was to suppress the
Slave Trade, and that their laws against i
were not only as severe as those of any other
nation but that they were also enacted first:
and that this country in resisting the right of
search, as claimed in this case, was actino
with perfect consistency, and vindcating her
own right and the rights of neutruls upon the
pancst principles Of the laws ofma.ions.
The effect OF these exposi,ions was TO omen
the eyes of the French people. NJ. Guizot.
vi. Theirs, and others of the ahlest statesmen
OF France, took decided ground against the
ratification oil the treaty. NJ. Theirs remark
cd :
81 am uneasy when see this America thus
firm and ptiblo-indeed, susceptibility
belongs to frmness. And we, (the French)
we who were the nation which. for three hun
dred years sustained inviolably the rights of
neutlallty-who have sustained them by ne
EQUATIONS and by war-who, for that great
end, have formed eXtensi; c coalitions, that of
lISO, and that of lS00--a-c we now to be-
come the approvers of a treaty which Ameri-
ca repulseS And il is America that defends
the rights of neurals against all the world
against France hersclf!-Thcrc is a lesson in
this profoundly instructive. If the rights of
neutrals were not deeply implicated, | ask
why America should resist Yes she does
resist, even to the risk of Z possibility, nay, IL
probability ola war;
In the course Of the same debate Mr. Gu:.ct
said:
"But the United States have in their prc-
sent resistance to the claim of visit. a reason.
which M. Theirs has not recollectod. Enc-
land claims, in the vessels of the United
States, a right of impsessment; England main
tains that, where, for any reason whatever, she
has the right to examine an American ship,
she has theright 10 seek for English dcserters,
to take them and send them to England She
does not claim the right TO enter the Ameri-
can vessels with this special object No, she
does not so so far bat she contends that
whenever she enters an American ship, for
any purpose whatever, she can exercise the
right of impressment upon all the English
sailors she may find aboard"
Here is the great motive Of the energetic
resistance of the Americans to the English
right of entity, under whatever form and un-
der whatever preteXi it is presented, Gnd Ia
my opinion tic .3mericans are rigM. If the
English claimed 10 come TO seek English sail
ors OH board French vessels, certainly we
should resist like the Americans"
1t Is saidthat every newspaper in Paris ex-
cept one-a religious .Journal-uphoids the
American Government! in It's course OF resist
ance.