The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-06-17
Right of Search and Foreign Slave Trade.
SPEECH Of HON. C. B. COCHRANE.


SPEECH Of HON. C. B. C0CHRANE,
OF NEW YORK.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
JUNE 8, 1858.
Mr. CHAIRMAN: The recent outrages comm;tted
by British cruisers upon American vessels in the
Gulf of Mexico have excited-and, as think
justly excited-the indignation of our people in
every section of the Confederacy. No intentions,
however good, no object, however laudable, can
justify these seemingly persistent assaults upon
our commerce.
The ocean is the great highway of nations, and
upon her bosom the ships of all are equal The
rights of nations to traverse the seas are as free
as absolute, and as equal, as are the rights of
American citizens to travel the peoples high
ways. As the citizens of every free country pos
sess a community of privileges within the State,
SO each independent nation is regarded as a moral
person, having its own distinctive identity. and
is in all respects precisely equal to every other
member in the sisterhood of States No matter
how weak or how uncomfortable may be any
given Power in the intercourse and transactions
of nations she stands upon equal footing with
the largest and most powerful.
This is favorite and fundamental doctrine in
international law, absolutely essential to the
growth and freedom of commerce, the progress
Of civilization, and to the honor, integrity, and
even existence of independent nationalities.
Another principle, equally well grounded in
reason and public law, and one of universal rec
ignition, is, that the jurisdiction and distinctive
sovereignty of each nation follow and cover its
vessels to the remotest seas, rendering them as
exempt from seizure and molestaton upon the
waters as the soil of their country from invasion
upon the land. 1t follows as q necessary coro-
larry from these settled doctrines of international
and maritime law-doctrines forever fixed and
forever closed to the discussions of mankind
that an assault upon, or an assumption of con-
troll over, the ships of one country, matter for
what cause, or under what pretext, if against its
consent, is act of hostility an invasion of ma
tOnal jurisdiction, and breach of public law,
to the observance and vindication of which all
are bound by considerations of the highest obli-
cations and solemnity, and if avowed, constitute
just cause of war. II, as is ncontroyertible
our national sovereignty and jurisdiction follow
and surround our ships upon the waters of the
world, their detention and search by British
cruisers, though for the purpose of detecting and
furnishing crime admits of no other or better
justification than the invasion of the soil of the
Union for similar purposes. The right of the
United States to execute its penal laws is as alb
solute and as exclusive as its right to make them
To rigidly enforce and faithfully execute our
criminal code, whenever and wherever violated
by our citizens, whether upon the land or upon
the sea, is a duty OF the highest and sternest
obligation, as well laws against external as
against internal crime. But to admit the unin-
vited and unreciprocal aid of a foreign Power in
the administration of our laws, is at once a con-
fession of weakness and surrender of independ-
ence. To tolerate such an unasked- for protec-
torate, no matter under what pretences sought to.
be imposed, would be but the deserved forfeiture
of national honor and the common respect of
mankind
1t would involve upon our part, as one of the
great and enlightened Powers of the world, the
basest infdelity to those great principles of ma
tional personality and equality which constitute
the condition to the civil and commercial free
dom of the world
No nation can arrogate to herselfthe police and
espionage of the ocean, without violating its free
dom and trampling upon the honor and rights
Of others. BY the law of nature and nations
American ships upon the high seas are as free
as the pillows over which they bound, and the
stars upon the flag they carry are as high above
the reach of foreign invasion as the stars they
symbolic
The plea under which these assaults upon our
commercial rights by the Government of Great
Britain are sought to be excused, if not justified
is her desire, which do not doubt is sincere to
suppress the African slave trsde-a traffic long
since declared piracy by the laws of both coun-
tries, and now prosecuted with increased activity
and comparative impunty, under the fraudulent
assumption of the flag of the United States. If
the practice complained of could admit of any
apology, none more potent could be devised
The Christian world for more than half CEN
fury have united in branding the accursed trade
AS crime against nature and humanity as I'M
paralleled in its intrinsic atrocity, and aggrava-
ted to the climax of horror by the circumstances
of cruelty attendant upon its prosecution.
The fact that a foreign trade in human beings
commerce which Jefferson more than eighty
years ago, while yet in the freshness of his man
hood and the dawn of his great fame denounced
as "the opprobrium of inidel Powers" should,
in the last half of the nineteenth century, be re-
vived, and vigorously and VIGOROUSLY carried on
under the protection of Christian flag is well
calculated to induce the more humane of our
people to acquiesce in the claim and practice of
the English Government, now again, as often
heretofore, made the subject of complaint This
leaning towards acQuiescence is rendered the more
powerful, from the fact that the prosecution of
the traffic is supposed to command the sympa-
thy, If not the indirect cooperation, of an inu-
entail and resoute class of our own citizens,
who make Slavery expansion and the increased
supply of slave laborers a cardinal principle of
their political creed, while at the same time it
must be confessed that no very effectual means
or efforts are made, on the part of the Admins
tration or the Federal authorities, to prevent or
punish the piratical use to which the flag of the
Republic is thus shameessly prosttuted
But be it remembered, that a great good NAV
be purchased at too dear a rate. There is no
single object within the compass or contempla-
ton of the social effort, so commanding or desira-
BILE as to justify for its accomplishment the sac
rihce OF any one of those great principles which
lie at the foundation of broader philanthropy,
and, elaborated and established by the wisdom
and experience of ages, furnish those primary
processes by which alone the freedom and civ
illzation of the race to be carried forward
to their ultimate perfect triumph. Progress is
a law of our humanity, but the improvement of
men and of nations advances by principles as fixed
as those which have brought the physical uni
verse from chaos to a state of order and beauty
Among the principles of international law, none
are better settled than those to which have
referred. The Government of Great Britain pro-
fesses to admit them to their fullest extent, and
to be governed by them. She admits that the
right OF search is strictly belligerent right and
cannot be exercised in time of peace unless such
right be granted by treaty stipulation, but seeks
to draw distinction between the right of search,
as defined by public law, and right of vista
tion In suspicious cases, for the purpose merely
of ascertaihing the vessels nationality. The
claim of the British Government is clearly and
fairly stated in note addressed by Lord Aber-
deem to Mr.. Stevenson, when our Minister at the
Court of st. James, under date of October 10, /
lS4l. 1t contains these words:
"The undersigned readily admits that to visit
and search American vessels, in time of peace,
when that right of search is not granted by
treaty, would be an infraction of public law
and violation of national dignity and inde-
pendence. But no such right is asserted. We
sincerely desire to respect the vessels of the
United States; but we may reasonably expect
TO know what it really is that we respect