Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-07-02
SOUTH CAROLINA AND coLoRED sEAMEN

"
State Of South Carolina colored seamen arriving in
port assured their ordshps that bringing this subject
before them he had intention of renewing upon this
side of the water the angry discussions which had taken
place with reference to it upon the other side Of the At
antc Neither did he wish avail himself of that OPP
portnny of decaimng generally upon the hard condition
Of the coored population, His object to bring the
exact state of the under the consideration of the
House. and to point that there were, in his opinion,
of removing the existing difficulties without doing
any thing whatsoever offensive to the State of South Caro-
lima He would also wish to take the opportunity of
pressing hope from what he had of the proceed
ngs of certain high authorities there that they tax
ing steps of their good win which might efectuay
produce the result which all DESTROYS to effected
Their ordships doubt Of the laws
with regard to coored men arriving in the State of South
Carolina. State law extant there which obliged
the sheriff of the district 60 board every ship which
arrived from any quarter of the world and whether put
ting in under stress OF weather or In the natural
Of trade to examine if there any coored persons
board and if he found them to seize them to convey
them forcbly to the public jail to conhne them during
the whole period the ship remained and then to march
them back the vessel when she about leave the
place Upon this subject there had been several laws
passed by the State Of South Carolina but the act in
operation that of 1885, and he must ask their lord
ships to pay attention to the date because upon most
important question turned. 1t entitled An act for
eecuay preventing free negroes and other persons
or from entering this state Inc hrst section
sted that should be lawful for any person of color
be brought into that State under pretext whatever
by land or by water ltthen provided that any free
gro person of color refusing to leave the State should
be subject to corporal punishment such other punish
ment the court might award and further provided
that if he continued after that corporal punishment he
should be sold by public auction as slave The second
section of the act prohibited any free negro from
ing any port of the State in any ship cook, &C.
and the third section inflicted any free negro offending
against the act Imprisonment and whipping for first case
and na La,r olav tnAa
With view the operation Of the act it the
of the sheriff to visit every trading vessel that into
the port Of Charleston and to remove any free negro he
might find board, the captain being obliged to subs
ute slave labor for the free labor of which he thus
deprived The House that there existed
ties between Great Britain and the United States giving
certain privileges to merchants, and cap
ains trading with the United States, and the question
had been the effect of these treaties the law to
which had referred Undoubtedly the treaties were
made subsequent to the municipal law, the treaties,
less special provision made to the contrary, must
be subject to the municipal law. There a CONNER
cal treaty between Great Britain and the United States
dating far back 1915, and in that treaty
acted that there should be between the two States recpro
city in commerce. and that the respective merchants, &C.
should enjoy free subject to the laws of the
country" BY act Of Congress in 1880 the commercial
advantages enjoyed under this treaty by Great Britain
extended to the British West Indies 1t would ap
pear that the British Government had interpreted the
municipal law of South Carolina and the treaty together
to that the law should override the treaty and in
procure the sanction of the South Carolina Government to
this interpretation The British Consul in 1850 became
very active in the matter and addressed various
ncatons to the Legislature of South Carolina the sub
ject. That Legislature appointed committee to inquire
into the question: and the committee reported any
modification Of the law In March, 1852 occurred the
of Manuel Pereira colored person. who taken
by the Sheriff of Charleston from ship that had been
driven into the harbor by stress of weather. and put into
Jail. motion made in the Federal Court for writ
of habeas corpus to release the prisoner but it
Governor South declared,
moreover that had it been granted he should have in
structed the sheriff not to give up the prisoner similar
of seizure occurring subsequently attempted
be remedied by similar appeal to the Federal Court
but with equal want of and the only result of
Consuls efforts to remedy the grievance had been to
extraordinary degree of irritation in the minds of
the South Carolinans the subject. 1t had become
quite clear that the only efectual mode of dealing with
the question to effect in some mode that the inta
tive in the way Of modifying the law should be taken by
the Legislature of South Carolina and indeed it had al
ready been ntmated by the Governor of that State that
but for the anger excited by efforts the Legislature
might perhaps have not been indisposed modify the
law TO the extent Of simply making it compulsory the
captains Of vessels in the port of Charleston to keep their
coored sailors board subject to any ticket Of leave
that night be granted by the sheriff Under these cir
cumstances he trusted that future endeavors would
be- waving any demand of right to induce the
Legislature Of South Carolina to take the initiative in the
way of modification of the law.
The Earl of CLARENDON had been greatly pleased with
the tone of moderation in which his noble friend had
this subject before the House, and which certainly
contrasted in q striking with the extreme irra
ton which the subject had excited in the State referred
Since the noble lord had given notice of this motion
he had looked at the correspondence the subject
voumnous correspondence, extending over period
Of thirty years. and exhibiting the great difficulties with
which this subject had BEEN and unfortunately still was
surrounded The main difficulty was that the commercial
treaties between this country and the United States WERE
his noble friend had stated subject by distinct provso
the of the individual States the
strength Of this proviso that South Carolina had through
out insisted enforcing the municipal law which his
friend had described and he must add that the opin
ion Of the successive law officers Of the Crown to whom
the point had been referred clearly that however
unjust and harsh the law might be- had right to
claim its suppression under the treaties and no claim
for any damage that by its operation might be sustained
by British subjects The opinion Of the injustice of the
law, and of its contravenng the spirit Of the treaties
quite shared by many Of the highest constitutional
and legal authorities connected with the United States
Government and an attempt had been made from that
quarter impress these views upon the Government and
Legislature Of South Carolina; the attempt however,
had merely aroused such excitement in South Caro-
lima that the foreign Secretary of the United States had
ntimated to this Government that il England persisted
in demanding the concession, the only course for the
United States would be to give notice determining the
treaty itself Great Britain, he might add was not the
only sufferer by this law Of South Carolina which applied
equally to all the States Of the Union; emphatic com
plants had been made the subject by the State Of Mas
sachusetts, but to purpose whatever. He quite
willing TO give the papers moved for but he must in
doing express the hope that they would not lead 10
any irritating discussions TO the treatment Of the mat