New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-06-28

tbemeelves of on such good-natured Judges and
jurors o. interpreter CASHIER CLERKS or what not
II is next 10 impossible even in the most nserant
calts in which outsiders have not the least doubt
90 TO the real sate Of the facts to obtain ccnvic.
ton.
Mr.. Commissioner Morton, before whom the
preliminary steps in these proceedings are taken,
ourdoes even Judge Betts. Not content with
cobstru,ps the Law wrong, he sets it at open
defance, and declines to perform the duties which
it imposes upon him-ss least this is the course
which be seems to have adopted iu . notable pro-
Get din Itp rttd in THE TRIBUNE Of Thursday
TIE Urit.d States Commissioners are clothed with
full authority under an act Of Congress to commit
pri oners who are out on bail, and to require OF
them additional and increase bail as condition of
going at large. The Commissioner had bailed
one Da Costa, one Of the parties found on board
the BIamsn, lately seized in our harbor on the
charge of bring fitted out for the sayetrade in the
cum Of $4,000, the only circumstance then ap-
peariDg against him being bis presence on board.
subse quently, the Captain having agreed to turn
State eviderce and his testimony being ample TO
convict Da Costa, the District-Attorney came with
the Captain into the Commissioners Court, and
finding Da Costa there-the examination in the case
of the Braman being then going On-he demanded
OF The Commissioner that Da Costa should be
committed to prison, stating the fact of new evil
dence Obtained az the basis of that demand. The
Commissioner, however, refused to DO a., pretend
ing that, as the man Vas out on bail. be bad no
power to recommt him; and when the Mxrshas,
at the request of the Distrct-AtDrney, refused to
allow Ds Costs to depart, the Commissioner COM
planned that the officers were making prison of
bis private ofhce-a complaint which we
never heard of his making in a slave
csse-ard be directed the Marshall, if they wished
to detain De Costa, to take him down to the Mar
shsl's Office. This was done, but a. the Marshal
had no warrant to detain him, he was allowed to
depart, flying instantly across the North River,
ard not likely to be seen or heard of more and it,
in the end, it does OF turn out that the bail pre-
viouly taken from this man, whose escape from
justice the Commissioner has thus favored, is
straw bail and good for nothing, the United States
will have occasion to consider themselves exceed
iIgly lucky.
At prestnt we must say that Mr.. Commissioner
Morton stands before the public in very extraor-
binary and even suspicious position 1t is possible
that bis conduct may admit of some explanation,
or at least of some palliaiOn; If go, the sooner
that explanation is forthcoming the better for Mr..
Commissioner Morton. The testimony subse-
QUE ntly given in the case of the Braman by Capt.
Delano throws great light on the arts resorted to
by the slave.traders to avoid arrest, and sufi-
ciently explains why 90 many vessels, known
to be slavera, are suffered to depar. from this
port without any attempt to seize them. The
habit appears to be to take on board here
only such articles as an indulgent judge
and ~ mpathizing jurymen may be likely to be per-
suaded to believe might have been perhaps intended
for lawful voyage; and to meet at Gardeners Bay
or some other out-of.the-way place, where inter.
ruption by revenue cutters is not very likely,
an ther vessel not intended to 60 the vOy age nor
calculated for it, but having board the necessary
articles OF outfit to be transferred on board the in
tended slaver.
Considering the great expenses attending the
seizure ard st. pppg of vessel, all Of which must
fall upon the Deputy Marshals personally if the ar
rest should fail besides the chance OF prosecution
for damages, the Marshals officers are unwilling
to run the rifk of seizure except in q very posi-
tive Casa caution on their part augmented, as it
naturally would be, by the experience they have
had of the amount of evidence demanded by the
judicial officers before whom these cases come.
Yet With all the difficulties to be encountered in
the enforcement of the law, it is evident from va.
rety of circumstances that the gang Of slaveraders
most Of them Portuguese and Spanish-by which
this city s infested are thoroughly frightened, and
that the United States officers, poorly as they are
backed in certain quarters, have only to continue
to exhibit their present energy and determination
efFectually to free our city from the disgrace Of
being the headquarters of this detestsble traffic.