The eastern clarion. [volume] (Paulding, Miss.) 1837-1863, 1859-08-10

the negroes so imported are held in bond |
age.
The Northern States once held slaves,
and their acts of emancipation generally |
followed the transfer Of the property to
the Southern States; their people engaged
in the importation of African slaves and
now persecute the South, though holding
by purchase from them and the sons of
those who conducted the trade would |
throw upon Us the task of defending their
fathers from the charge of having been
pirates and man-stealers
Ii is not unirequently asserted, and it
has been effective in creating prejudice
against Us, that shareholders exercised an
undue influence in the affairs Of the gen
cral government, as shown by the fact /
that their property had been specially |
favored 10y legislation. If the statement |
be innocently made it is surely erroneous,
as glance at our history will show it has |
been the subject of peculiar inhibition |
and obstruction, and has received less /
than the ordinary amount of protection |
hy government. In l1S1, when Virginia.
in Il spirit of generosity, and to promote |
the formation Of the Union, had ceded TO |
the Northwest, territory, sufficient in ex-
tent and natural capacity for an empire, |
the Congress of the confederacy assumed /
to set the seal of its disapprobation on the /
institution of slavery by excluding it from |
all OF that vast domain.
In the convention which formed the |
Constitution, the opponents of African |
servltude having vainly sought for the |
| general government the power to prohibit |
the importation of slaves, succeeded in |
inserting a clause which has been con- |
strued as declaring such prohibition after |
| n a
| law which fixed penalties upon the i'm
| portation of negro slaves of such magni-
tude as exhibits not the purpose to eXer-
| else the power of commercial regulation,
| but to prohibit it as a species of commerce
/ which should be destroyed. In 1920, the
| Congress as the condition of admitting a
| Slaveholding State, carved out of territory
| TO which, by treaty, was secured all the
| rights Of person and property, prohibited
| the continuance of involuntary servitude
in all that portion of the territory which
lay exterior to and north of the State then
| admitted.
| Call they it favor when the price de-
manded and paid for the enjoyment of
an indisputable political right was the
| surrender of a right of property equally
| unquestionable, both resting on the Con-
stitution, and fortified by the specific OBJ
legations of treaty with France for the ac-
QUESTION Of the territory?
In the same year, period prolific of
| departures from the principles of our
| Government, the Congress by legisla-
tive act. declared the slave trade to be pi-
| racy. thus not only Withholding from an
American citizen who should engage in
that trade the protection Of his govern
ment, but Withdrawing from him the right
To be tried under the laws and by the
courts Of his own land pronounced him
the enemy of mankind, and abandoned
him to the mercy of whOmsoever should
capture him.
This law Is not to be confounded with
that Of isis. They differ essentially in
their effect; their policy, and the author
ity which must be relied on to maintain
their validity. From the power to regu-
late commerce, to conduct foreign inter
course and to establish rules of naturali-
zation much may be drawn in relation to
the migration or importation of persons.
| am not prepared to deny that it may
not extend to exclusion, yet as a general
rule il would be more cOnsOnant with the
genius of our government and the rights
Of the States to leave the subject to the
control of the several States as "a domes-
tic interest. which each community can
best decide for itself. There are few, if
any among Us. who would admit that the
| general government possesses the power to
authorize the importation into a State of
| persons to whom admission was forbidden
bv the laws Of that State. In this con-
ncCtiOn il deserves to be remembered
that upon this point arose the early con-
trover-y between the State of Virginia
and the general government, and it will
also he remembered that if viewed
simply as a question of commerce, the
Congress have no power over the foreign,
, than over the interstate trade.
But how stands the case in relation to
| the act of 1870, declaring the slave trade
r. to he piracy? From what clause of the
| Constitution, is the authority of that act
r | derived? 1t Is commonly assigned, and |
f | know of no other source. to the grant of
I | power "to define and punish piracies,
p and fclonies committed on the high seas.
4 | and offences against the law of nations"
I To define Is not to create or give a new
t meaning; and to punish offences against
e the law of nations Is not authority To in
IA troduce a new article into the code. Con
+ ceding the power for justifiable reasons to
Il exclude the importation of a class of per
i sons. authority surely cannot be thence
I
It of other nations, and by police Of the
l. seas to destroy trade between two for
n eign nations which is recognized by the
e laws of both: or to brand as neiarious q
traffic which has existed from the earliest
I period of human history, and been con
k Quoted bv nations which have most illus
It tratcd the annals of man. So great de
G parture from well established policy anC
q, obvious principle, which suggests the in
j. quirv by whom and for what purpose wa
n it made? ! have been satisfied that i
ar was one of those departures which resul
10 from substituting a temporary eXpedienc,
e, for immutable truth?
Il After the termination of the genera
n wars which prevailed in the early part o
> this century, rowing and adventurous mel
ly accustomed to the hazards of miltar
a life, were thrown out of employment
X and every sea on which there was tn
n temptation of commerce. became infest
ot with pirates. Expelled elsewhere, the
be at last made Judgement in the West In
'h dies About the time of the treaty fo
H. the transfer of Florida to the Unite
=: States an organized band seized the i
III land of Fernandino. and assumed to el
ol erciSe dominion over it. They were III
lfs derstOod to be pirates generally, and
IL be engaged in the slave trade pa
10 ticularly. President Madison sent an e,
m petition of naval and land forces to tax
OF possession of the Island, and the Congre
nI of the next year (lS2O) passed the a
oy which declares the slave trade to be pir
oi cy. There is reason to believe that tn
.er was done not in opposition to slave pro
m crty, but to the pirates who had engage
in the trade. The previous law had i
on terdicted the importation into the Unite
laN States, and there was no doubt also
r't purpose by the act of 1890, to render Il
90 prohibition of 1918 more eiiectual.
81 If considerations of public safety or i
-, terest warranted the termination of Il
VI w trade they could not justify the COVER
~ ~ ment in branding as infamous the sour
- from which the chief part of our labC
- ing population was derived.
1t is this feature of the law wh
ne makes it offensive to us and stimulates
! Of to strive for its repeal. What let me a
has has been its results? 1t has magnifi
i've the horrors of the middle passage; it b
Wis led us to an alliance with Great Britai
i'm bv which we are bound to keep a nav
Lut squadron on the deadly coast of Afrit
for where American sailors are sacrificed tC
false policy, arged under the plea of
tho manitv: il has destroyed lucrative ira
ava for ivory, oil and gold-dust, which c
the merchants had long conducted with t
ars inhabitants of the coast, and transferr
No it to our commercial rivals the British
the Truly have we gone . out a shearing
dis- come home shorn." The manner-as
on have been informed-in which our ira
in has been destroyed, is generally this.
rror American vessel of the character VIII
the engages in that trade when boarded b,
nee British cruiser on the coast of Africa
sion she shows the flag and papers of an Am
dis lean trader, will he turned over to a '
the sci of our squadron, and probably be $
.ong home for trial as pirates, but if her
the and papers are thrown overheard, Il
g is the slave trade not being piracy by
lern law Of nations Notwithstanding our 5
the ute) the vessel is held as the prize of
rhts captors, and the officers and crew are
here charged. 4 recent instance has occur
,ong in which a vessel sent home for trial
the discharged on the ground that the circl
Ition stances did not warrant the conclus
oun- that she visited the coast of Africato
gage in theslaA trade.
fluc- Ny friend Senator Clay. of Alaba
!, OF This services entitle him to the friends
upon of the South) as Chairman of the c
mittee of commerce, instituted at
a L. 4