Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, W.T. [i.e. Wis.]) 1843-1844, 1843-03-25
PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
II he ITou,e Of Representatires:


the House of Representatives oil the
22d inst, requesting me 10 communal
cate to the House "whatever CORES
pondence or communication may have
been received from the British Gov.
respecting the Presidents construction
Of the late British Treaty concluded at
Washington as it concerns an alleged
right TO visit American vessels" |
herewith transmit report made to me
by the Secretary Of State. have al
so thought proper to communicate cop
les Of Lord Aberdeen's letter OF the
Goth December, l84l, to Mr.. Everett;
Mr.. Everett's letter Of the Esd Deem
Der. in reply thereto; and extracts from
several letters of Mr.. Everett to the
Secretary of State.
cannot forego the expression Of my
regret at the apparent purport oil part
of Lord Aberdeen's despatch to Mr..
Fox. have cherished the hope that
all possibility Of misunderstanding as
to the true construction of the eighth
article of the treaty lately concluded
between Great Britain and the United
States, was precluded by the plain and
well-weighed language in which it is
expressed. The desire o: both Gov
ernments is to put an end as speedi-
" as possible to the slave trade, and
that desire, l need scarcely add is as
strongly and as sincerely felt by the
United States as it can be by Great
Britain. Yet it must not be forgotten
that the trade, though now universally
reprobated, was up to late period
prosecuted by all who chose to engage
in it, and there were unfortunately but
very few Christian powers whose sub
ects were not permitted, and even en-
couraged, 10 share in the profits of what
was regarded as perfectly legitimate
comerce. II originated at period long
before the United States had became
independent, and was carried on with
in our border in opposition to the most
earnest remonstrance and expostula-
lions of some of the colonies in which
it was most actively prosecuted. Its
character, thus fixed by common con-
sent and general practice, could only
be changed by the positive assent of
each and every nation, expressed eth
err in the form of municipal law, or con-
ventional arrangement. The United
States led the way in efforts TO sup
press it. They claimed no right 10
dictate to others, but they resolved,
without waiting for the cooperation of
other powers, 10 prohibit it TO their
own citizens, and to visit its perpetra-
ton by them with condign punishment.
| may safely affirm -that 1t navar
CURED to this Government that any new
maratime right occrued to it from the
position it had thus assumed in re-
gard to the slave trade. If, before our
laws for its suppression, the flag of ev-
cry nation might traverse the ocean
unquestioned by our cruisers, that free
dom was not, in our opinion, in the
least abridged BY our municipal legis-
laton.
Any other doctrine, it is plain,
would subject TO an arbitrary and ev-
er-varying system of mqratime police,
adopted at will by the great naval pow
er for the time being, the trade of the
world in any places, or in any articles,
which such power might see fit to pro-
hibit to its own subjects or citizens
A principal of this kind would scarce
ly be acknowledged, without subjecting
comerce to the risk of constant and
harassing vexations The attempt 10
justify such pretension from the right
TO visit and detain ships upon reasona-
bic suspicion of piracy, would deser
vedly be exposed to universal con-
domination, since il would be an attempt
TO convert an established rule of mara
time law, incorporated as principal in
to the international code by the consent
of all nations into a rule and principle
adopted by single nation, and enforc-
ed only by its assumed authority. To
seize and detain a ship, upon piracy,
with probable cause aud in good faith,
affords no just ground either for COM
plant on the part of the nation whose
flag she bears, or claim oil indemnity
on the part of the owner. The uni
versal law sanctions, and the common
good requires, the existence of such a
rule. The right, under such cireum-
stances, not only to visit and detain,
but to search ship is a perfect right,
snd involves deither responsibility nor