The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1851-09-12

does not deprive them OF the protection Of our govern
men the contrary, these treaty stpulaons are IN
tended for the very purpose OF protecting Them when
accused OF offences, and TO secure them fair trial,
according 10 the usual and ordinary forms OF
law.
Even if the men thus summarly executed had been
charged with piracy they would have been entitled under
the treaty of 1885, TO fair trial But the pretence that
they were pirates is absurd. and worse than absurd
They were not comprised within the legal definition OF
pirates known to every jurspruden throughout the
civilized world Pirates have been lastly characterized
and defined hos les humans gsneris. They are men
who at sea for the purpose of plumber, with
out regard to the nation whose citizens or subjects
they may plumber This not the object OF the
men who composed the Cuban expedition their OBJ
ject 10 overthrow the Spanish authority in Cuba ;
and surely that intention not sufficient in itself
TO prove them hosies humaai gensris. but rather the
contrary II they had been delivered up to our govern
ment they could not have been tried in our courts for
piracy but merely for the violation OF the of 1918
No piratcal expedition OF such extent, and COM
prlsing many respectable nen, could have been fitted
out in this country We never hear OF piratical ex-
petition fitted out in port OF the United States by clt
zens of the United States This stigma has never at
ached to people but the cannot be said of the
people of Spain, and especially of the Spanish nhab-
ants Of the island OF Cuba For quarter OF century
suffered greater annual loss from pira.
cies committed with the connivance of the Spanish
horties in Cuba and other Spanish islands in the West
Indies, than it would have suffered from open
with Spain
In the year 1922 committee Of the House of Repre-
| sentatives reported that ,.a..... ....
"The extent to which the system of plumber upon the
ocean is carried on in the West India and Gulf Of
Mexico is truly alarming, and calls imperiously
for the prompt and efficient inerposon of the general
government. Some fresh instance OF the arocy with
which the pirates nfesting those seas carry their dep
relations accompanied, too, by the indiscrimnae
sacre OF the deenceess and unohendng-s brought by
almost every mail, that the intercourse between the
northern and southern sections OF the Union by sea is
| almost cut off
"The committee are induced to believe that this system
OF piracy spreading itself to vast extent, attract
ing TO il the idle, vicious, and desperate of all nations
and more partcu ary those who have heretofore been
engaged in the slave trade, from which the vigilance OF
the American cruisers has driven them and that if they
not winked at by the authorities the island OF
Cuba, they are in no respect restrained by their inter-
ference"
The cargoes plundered from our merchant. vessels
were openly sold at auction in Matanzas and the towns
in the Spanish islands, and the connvance of the Spanish
authorities well established that MIR. Clay, in
speech delivered in Congress in 1922, urged it of
the ouages which would have justified in declaring
against Spain. But instead of compelling the Span
sh TO rid its coasts of these feebooers and
punish the local authorities who protected and encour-
aged hem our government incurred the expense of des-
patching squadron to the West Indies, under Commo-
doe Porter, for the sole purpose of extlrpatng the p
rates and when that gallant officer, in his anxiety 10 dis
charge his duty, hurried into aggression upon the
town of Foxardo, in Porto Rco-which perfectly
excusable under the crcumsances-he was recalled
court naraed and driven from the service of which he
one of the brightest ornaments Such the
anxiety of the administration of that day Chat of John
Quincy Adams) to avoid giving umbrage to the dynasty of
Ferdinand the Beloved. ....
Spain has never mered such scrupulous decacy from
us in the observance Of International obligations
Scarcely the ink dry the treaty of i7es. when the
Spanish government resumed the Vaccinations which
had commenced prior TO that treaty for the of
our Union. This dshonorable and fragrant violation OF
the pledge of friendship and amity then recently
given not the act OF unauthorized Individuals like
the Cuban expedition, but was the deliberately planned
pehdy of the government itself, whose money and inu
freely used for the purpose of corupng our
cizens-a purpose which, in at least, Chat
Of Judge in Kentucky,) was successful. Our nation
was then young and weak, and unable 10 resent the
outrage but surely it is old enough and strong enough
now 10 insist upon rights guaranteed by treaty, even
should it, BY doing, incur the wrath OF England,
France. and Spain.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 1851. A. Il.