The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1852-10-23
The Anair OF inc Crescent City-The Govern
ment ana Iapt. POrter-H hly Important.

The AFFAIR INC Crescent .ity-The Govern
ment ana capt. rOrter-EIishly Important.
Our special tckgraphic despatch from W ashing-
ton, which we publish to- day. in relation to the un.
settled difficulty between the Crescent City and the
Cuban authorities, is of the highes, Importance
From the tenor Of this despatch of the correctness
Of whict we have no Doubt appears that the
government does not sanction the high ground
taken by Captain Porter in his protest against the
exclusion of the ship under his command from the
port Of Havana, but substantially justifes the con-
duct Of the Spanish authorities. Captain Porter
IS called, accordingly, to Washington, to be in
structed in the true principles of international law
in the premises, and Of commercial stipnlations
with Spain.
Mr. Kennedy, the Secretary Of the Navy, Qor we
presume he is the expoun Ter of the law in this mat
teri takes as We regret to be informed, the same
view Of the case of the Crescent City as the free
soil Eutniag Pest of this city, and the Journal of
Commerce, justifying the repeated outrages upon
the Crescent City, the ground that the State of
South Carolina exercises surveillance over sus-
pected obnoxious outside persons, equally rigid
and despotic, as well as from the common usages Of
nations in such cases Now, this narrow view Of
the subject betrays either great ignorance of the
real issue or disposition the part of our cabinet
to evade it.
What is the real issue! Not that the Spanish au-
thorties have not the right to exclude suspected or
ebn oxious persons from entering the harbor Of Ha-
vana, or any other Spanish harbor. Not at all.
But the real question is, have they, in view Of ex
Guiding an obnoxious or suspected individual, the
right to deny the entrance of an American vessel
into port, thus obstruc.ing the business of thou
sands of citizens, and driving numerous innocent
and unexpected passengers back again to sea? That
is the question. Are our treaty stipulations with
Spain subj Jet to the will caprice Of the Captain
General of Cuba! Does his word rise above the
common rights secured to commerce by the laws of
nations? If he can exclude vessel account of
an Objectionable person on board, may he not ex-
clude every ship which sails under the United States
flag, and declare the Island of Cuba, as far as we
are concerned, in a state of non-intercourse! Why
not! But if he to do it, would it not be clearly
a casus bell? And what, upon the same excuse, is
the difference in principle between the exclusion Of
one ship, or hundred or thousand?
In South Carolina, when a vessel from Havana or
elsewhere arrives with a free negro among the
crew, he is taken ashore, and kept in confinement
while the ship is in port, to prevent his tampering
with the slave population, which so numerous,
especially in Charleston, to make it important,
in the highest degree, to keep them clear of abo-
ltion emssaries. But the ship is not excluded; she
enters, discharges her passengers and cargo, and
remains in port till she is ready to SAIL when the OBJ
noxious person is returned to the ship. The prac-
tce has been, among all friendly nations, to dis
criminate between the ship and any obnoxious per-
son on board For example, a year or two since
an American vessel entered the port of Havre,
with an obnoxious American socialist on
board Albert Brisbane, one of the Tribune
school; but although the socialist emissary
was not permitted to land, the ship was not
excluded from the harbor. So, too, with the
United States steamship Mississippi, when she
brought the great Magyar from his exile in Turkey.
She was permitted to touch freely at the different
ports of the Mediterranean but Kossuth, her revo-
lutionary passenger, was watched with some vgi.
lance. At Marseilles, it will be recolected that
although there some danger of his exciting an
emeute among the inHammabe materials collected
in that town, from his presence board ship, the
ship was not ordered away.
The fact is. Mr.. Secretary Kennedy must meet
the issue in regard, not to the exclusion of Mr..
Smith, but to the driving Of the Crescent City from
the harbor of Havana. The general belief is that
that act was outrage upon our commerce and our
flag.
1t is, in a word, the duty Of the government to
demand an apology in this matter and to bring the
question to solution, by insisting that the presence
of Mr. Purser Smith, on board an American ship,
shall not exclude the ship from entering the ports Of
Spain, at the hazard of rupture The deck of an
American vessel is, in law, American SOIL It is to
be hoped that Mr. Secretary Kennedy will not for
ro@ hat Cad .o Ill 4I.4:
Porter is permitted to return with his ship to Ha
vana, it will not involve the dismissal of Mr. Pur-
ser Smith from the vessel. His presence on board
is necessary to proper settlement of the CASE We
shall see how it wi II end.