The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1857-03-20


The nfammabe material among the English people and
has been set in blaze against system OF do
nestle slavery by writers and speakers whose burning
aud eloquent pens have been directed by the cold
the crafty and the caicuang policy of English states
manshp IL the eugent galaxy of States could be dim
med by the fall OF single from the glorious constel
laonf by sowing the seeds Of dscordifb by prompting
unreasonable exactions from the South and exciting
taatory spirit in the North in short in order TO break
that chain brighter and more valuable than gold which,
as zone, binds all these starry Eliminates together she
could lessen the representative greatness of the national
flag which this Capitol all the labor the talent
the money expended would be abundanty repaid. What
80 likely to accomplish this result to address that in
nc OF the American heart the object of its doatry the
idol of it's political afectionsour love of bsrty2 The
American people cherish liberty positive good for iIs
own sake-as good worthy of all vigilance, even as
deity to be devoutly worshipped But English writers
mistake our zeal il they suppose in offering up devo
tons at the shrine of this deity, willing to invoke
more malignant demon than despotsm ITSELF
English writers appeal in justification OF their activity
to event in their history favoring the absolute
sacredness of soil from the touch of slavery They call
upon the lovers of freedom in this country in the north
ern States to redeem our land and prevent il from
being polluted by the touch OF slave and ourselves from
being deed by sending back fugitive his maseto
that master from whose claims and whose protection he
has fed In the face of all these high pretensions if
look into the history of England from early period
the present time shall find that it is identified with the
expansion of the save-trade and with the pemanence of
American slavery and that slaves could and did breathe
in England when their poet wrote do not here refer to
the existence of unmgaed serdom under the degrading
|
modified in many of its features several ages ago TO
the introduction of slaves into her North American colo
Mes and its legal maintenance there by acts of Parliament
down almost to the era of Independence. No. Sir
do not refer to these but in connection with the latter
to the direct participation OF Great Britain in that niqu
tous trade to whose abuse and extension she largely
contributed by admiralty edicts OF Parliament and
her great mercantile marine After enjoying its rich prof
its for years. when it ceased to be lucrative branch of
commerce. especially after the loss of her American colo
MES, the powerful and pens of English writers
aided to render the traffic which had been diligently
fostered not merely odious but to denounce IL as nhu
man and piratica.
In the reign of Elizabeth and under her protection Sir
John Hawkins equipped three vessels in 1862 to Sierra
Leone on the African coast where he obtained, among
other merchandise three hundred slaves whom he carried
to Hispaniola and disposed of to great advantage The
OF this expedition excited the cupid of the Eng
iish government ise who in 1854 equipped fet Of
vessels and placed them in command of Captain Hawkins
the successful commander of the former enterprise la
1913 James the First granted exclusive charter Sir r
Rlch aud other merchants Of London, of the trade to
Guinea, which transferred by Charles the First
other private adventures But it would be tedious trace
through the volnminons pages of English history, the
granted during century and half for the benefit not
only of merchants but of the gentry of the nobility of
dukes and of the monarch himself Such the
popularity Of the traffic. and the avidy to mingein lis benz
es the year 1898 the the trade
broken up and thrown open all the subjects of
the realm by an act of William and Mary 10 w and
cap. 26) We come next to the grand act of l7l3,
when by the celebrated Assieno treaty with Spain Great
Britain agreed 10 supply e Spanish colonies @dh ne
dred and fortyfour thousand stapes al the rate o. lou
sand eight hundred gear In 1889, Parliament led
private traders whose interests nurousy affected by
the statutes of and 10 William and Mary, the Of
100000 TO sustain their stave factories. This
nually continued until the year 744 when owing to the
dangers and ADVERTISEMENTS incident to which broke
out with France and Spain in that year. the grant
doubled In the middle of the eighteenth century the Af
can fever was at its height in England for then it Tin
the year 1750) that act passed by Parliament en
tied An act for extending and improving the trade with
| Africa
The interests of Envah comuarce which the
public mind, resisted all efforts it, The colonies
of North America which threw off their subsection En-
gland in l776, loud in their renpnsauces and
demnation But in defiance Of their feelings and in eppo
sion to their interests the lords of the admiralty and
even the King himself returned contempuous of
| rejection to their repeated petitions
The first shipoad Of Africans to this country that
which went directly from the coast of Guinea Virginia
in the year 1921 Between that year and l7l2a period
little less than tenturythe number of slaves imported
into the northern and southern colonies constituting
the thirteen original States Of this Union than
two hundred thousand Such were the convictions of
Pennsylvania against the traffic that in the year l2 her
colonial assembly during the life OF William Penn, passed
an act to prevent s continuance Pennsylvania in
connenty Iebuked for the repeal of this act by Queen
in council Other colonies peoned for the abolition of
the trade but they answered by fat refusal In
l760 South Carolina following the example of Pennsyl
vana passed act prohibit the further importation of
slaves into her territory but Great Britain rejected
with Indignation declaring that the slave trade bene
fetal and necessary to the mother country The colonies
were reprmanded, and circular letter despatched
all the colonial governors warning them against bold
mesa unbeco,ning faithful and obedent colonists aud
against the commission of offence which involved the
| commercial interests Of the realm
BY passing many intermediate acts with which the stat
ue-books OF England replete to the year 74
just years otter the famous of Somerset was de-
cided and just years before that independence was de-
clared which put end to these insults expressions
In IVA varioas enacted for the regulation
of slaves in those English colonies which became independ
ent in l776 and in l774 two bills actually passed by
the assembly of Jamaica restrict the African slave trade
in that colony Liverpool and Bristol petioned against
the proposed restriction in jamaica and the Board of
Trade obedeny decided by report in favor of the En-
mercenary spirit of the report the grounds justice
humanity but the Earl of Dartmouth, president of the
board, silenced the remonsrants by emphaticay de.
clarng We cannot aoc the COLONIES cheek DISCOURAGE
tragfc so beneficial TO The nation"
But While this language used and this policy adopt
ed towards The aggreved and complaining cooniss of Eng
Land, that same Epgland two years before deciding,
through her eminent Chief Justice, that slavery so
odious thGt slave coad not live the free sc of Brit
ain 1t was in the celebrated case of the negro Somerset
decided by Lord Mansfield in ira that the doctrine was
proclaimed or repeated which has intoxicated peo
pie and msled their own. Somerset slave brought
by his master into England from Virginia land the eues
on was whether his residence in that kingdom dissolved
the relation in which he had stood his former owner
The learned and able jurist hesitaed long, ordered
reargument and finally decided that Somerset was free
for the reasons that slavery abhorrent the
mon law Of England and that man could not in that
kingdom DO the legal subject Of property / propose
to show that this decision neither more nor less
than the fiat of the individual judge that il was pure
and unmlxed Judicial legislation and that 1t is opposed
to the whole current OF English practice English his
tory, and English Jurisprudence But the decision was
made and the distinguished phanthropists among whom
Eran will Antno AL