The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-07-08

| lI1. III the convention winch the
stitution, language equally denunciatory OF this
| traffic was used, and Mr.. Madison informs us
that he himself declared, in Convention, that it
| would be wrong to admit in the Constitution
that men hold property in their fellow men.
Some of the States, however, felt DESTROYS OF
| continuing the slave trade for q time; but so
strong was the sentiment of the people against
that barbarous commerce, that it was deemed
necessary to provide, by express stipulation, that
Congress should not prohibit it prior to the year
1908. Before that day arrived, Congress passed
law FOR the total abolition of the African slave
trade--the act to take effect on the 1st day of
January of that year.
Unfortunately, by the same law, Congress pro-
vided that persons might carry slaves from one
port of the United States to another, under GER
tain regulations. This coastwise transportation
OF slaves was then supposed necessary for fami-
lies who emigrated from one slave State to an
other, for at that day no such commerce was
known as the Interstate slave trade. But this
provision in the act of 1907 has for many years
been prostituted to the protection of an increas-
ing commerce in human flesh.
AT the close of the war in 1914 both England
and the United States felt the Inconsistency
which had characterized their action in the re-
cent contest by authorizing their people TO
butcher each other on the battlefield; and,
having been regarded as two leading nations
of abolishing this execrable commerce. Lord
Gambler and his associates, acting for Great
Britain, were distinguished men, and Albert Gal
latin, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, James
A. Bayard, and James Russell, Commissioners
on the part of the United States, were conscious
of the odium which rested upon our people by
reason of their supporting this slave trade. By
mutual agreement, they inserted in the treaty of
Client the tenth article, which reads as follows;
Whereas the traffic in sIdUes is irreconcilable
with the principles of humanity and justice; and
whereas both his Majesty and the United States
are DESTROYS of continuing their efforts to pro-
mote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that
both contracting parties shall use their best en-
dearOrs to accomplish so desirable object"
desire the Committee to mark the language
of this solemn treaty The two Governments
mutually bound themselves to use their best
eRdearOTs 10 ENTIRELY ABOLISH THE TRAFFIC. IN
SLAVES" This treaty stipulation had no more
reference to the AEiean than to the american
slave trade. Under British laws there was a
commerce carried on between their West India
Islands in the bodies of men and we had author
lied a similar commerce on the American coast,
and the sages who formed this treaty had no
conception that it was more criminal to buy and
sell Gods image in Africa, than in America.
They intended this solemn stipulation to apply
to the CRIME and not to the place Of committing IT,.
II any member doubts this intention, invite him
to examine the remarks of Mr.. Adams, made on
that subject in this body, think in ls42. Con-
gress proceeded to carry out this stipulation, so
far the African trade concerned. 1t
passed law declaring that commerce to be
"Piracy," and We assumed upon ourselves all the
duties incident to that view of it. But during
forty-four years we have maintained the Amer
lean slave trade, in violation of that treaty an Uio-
fdtton Of JUSTICE AND OF HUMANITY. Neither the
treaty, nor the laws declaring the slave trade to
be piracy" changed or modified any principle
or existing element in our moral obligations
these had been established by the law OF nature
and of natures God but our treaty and acts of
Congress constitute an acknowledgment of the
duties then resting upon our nation, and mark
our subsequent recreancy to principle.
Having avowed these sentiments, our Govern
ment appeared to rest satisfied without even an
effort to abolish coastwise traffic. That
crime greatly Increased, and produced large
profits to those engaged in it. 1t soon became
popular with shareholders; and respectable men,
who had surplus slaves, sold them to those
who dealt in mankind, and they were transported
10 the barracoons of more Southern cities, where
open markets were kept for buying and selling
men. Shareholders then understood that every
owner of slaves was directly remotely involved
IN the moral guilt of the slave trade that every
purchaser OF slaves encourages and sanctions
their importation. Every man who sells slave
thereby encourages the slave trade and no re-
ilectlng mind can regard the coastwise slave
trade less criminal than that which is carried on
upon the shores of Africa. In truth, it was born
OF the African trade, and in its effects it is |
more atrocious, as its victims more intelli- |
gent 1t is thus that the African slave trade, the
coastwise slave trade the Interstate slave trade
the holding of slaves, the breeding of slaves the
selling and buying of slaves, are all connected |
and interviewer in one general network of moral |
constituting excrescence, a cancer, |
upon the body polite of our nation. The Afri-
can slave trade constitutes the germ, the root, |
from which our American slave trade, and all |
the various relations of that institution in this
country, have sprung. If the tree be piracy, it is
clear that its fruit be nothing else than pira-
cy; and when the nation stamped that commerce
as piraticdi, it proclaimed the guilt of every man
who voluntarily connects himself with Slavery
Men who aSpired to moral, political, and social
position, could not submit to this ostracism.
They were constrained to emancipate their slaves
or render slaveholding honorable. To effect this
latter object, the wheels of progress must be
stopped religion, civilization, and Christianity,
must cease their onward march slaves must be
disrobed OF their humanity, and transformed into
and the Federal Government must be-
come a patron of the slave trade, instead of
using our best endeavors to entirely abolish tie
traffic m sfdres;" and Congress was called on to
sustain and encourage ito violate our plighted
faith before the nations of the earth
In 1884 two slave ships, the Comet and Enco-
MUM, one from Alexandria, and the other, ]
believe, from Norfolk, Virginia, bound to New
Orleans, were shipwrecked upon British islands |
III the Gulf. The slaves of course became Free |
by landing on British soil. They were suddenly
from chattels into immortal beings, |
destined to an eternity of happiness or misery. |
The slave merchants returned to this city, cha |
grined and mortified. The people of the West |
Indies looked upon these wretches with con-
tempt; our countrymen regarded them with |
horror, felt they were worthy of the galows, |
rather than Executive favor. But the President,
himself a STAKEHOLDER, Involved in all the moral
turpltude of these hucksterers in our common
humanity, at once espoused their cause and di- |
rected our Minister at the Court of ST. James to
demand compensation from the people of England |
Tor permitting their African brethren thus to
enjoy their God-given prerogatives A more
arrogant and insulting demand was never nut
forth 10y one nation upon another. All under |
stood that the laws of England knew no dis
tIncuon between these masters and the slaves
whom they claimed as property. Neither the
people, nor the officers of the British Govern
ment, nor the King himself, had he been present.
would have had any authority whatever for de-
liverlng one of these people to the CUSTODY or
control of another
Our Minister at London, however was himself
breeder of slaves. That noble patriot, Daniel
OConnell, had refused to extend to him the civil
tiles due to a Christian statesman, and he felt
the more determined to make the Government
OF England dignity this American piracy" by
acknowledging it to be legitimate vocation
To effect this object however, he saw but one
fourse-that was, to regard the slaves as properfy
4and not as persons. The crime for which indem-
nifty was sought was so obvious, that truth could
not sustain it. The laws which govern the moral
universe forbid the idea that truth can suhserve