Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1863-04-02

i
authority, but there is the implied prohibition
resulting from the fact that all duty on the sub
| ject is imposed on different branch of the Gov
ernment"
| 1T is very singular that Mr. Benjamin should
have suddenly discovered that the Confederate
treaty making power is smitten with such para
ysis the subject of the foreign sieve trade when
it has already entered into stpuatons with foreign
Governments on other subjects which, according to
the Confederate " compact" are RENTED to the
jurisdiction of Congress. 1t has acceded to three
out of the four propositions embraced in the Paris
declaration, which establishes among the Powers SO
acceding to that declaration certain rules Of mari
time law in time of war; notwithstanding the Con-
federate Constitution expressly contains the follow
ing provisions /" The Congress shall have power
to define and punish piracies and felonies commit
ted on the high seas, aud offences against the law
Of nations to declare war, grant letters of marque
and reprisal, aud make rules concerning captures
on land and water" Mr.. Bepjamin's associates
seem to have found no impediments in these con
stitutional provisions W.T. they accepted the lim-
tations fixed by the Paris declaration on certain
points, coming under powers delegated to the Con-
federate Congress neither more nor less fully than
the power requiring that Congress to prohibit the
foreign slave trade. Why does the treaty making
power of the socaed Confederate States shrink
from entering into compacts with foreign States on
subjects which the Congress has more or less of
control, only when slavery is called in question
Is it because of determined but secret purpose
to leave the States free to revive the trade should
the Confederate authorities su ceed in establishing
their independence?
1t is difficult to conceive any other solid reason
against ouch an engagement as Mr. Benjamin re-
pels on grounds so sophistica and which have been
already practically undermined by earlier nego
tiations
And in the face of such singular constituencies
on this topic, it is refreshing to mark Mr.. Benja-
Minis assurance when he holds the following Ian
guage:
"Whe It is totally beneath the dignity of this Govern
ment give for the purpose of vndicatiDg
itself from any unworthy suspicious of s good faith
this that may be disseminated by the agents Of the
United sates it may not be improper that should
point out the superior efficacy OF constitutional pr0vi
sion to any treaty stipaiations zoe could make"
son have their suspicious aroused (and they are
likely to be more than ever aroused by the publ
cation of this despatch) are exborted to put their
faith in the stability of the Confederate Constitu
ton, which less than three years ago was founded
by revolutionary agitators the sovereign and in
dependent right of the separate States to secede
from the National Government at their will and
pleasure 1t raises an involuntary smile to find
the advocate of such polity instructing Mr. Com
missioner Lamar to say to foreign Governments
that the Confederate Constitution, in this matter
of re-opening the foreign slave trade, could not be
changed, unless by approach to unanimity, or
without the destruction of the Confederate Govern
ment. For, in the absence Of any foreign engage
ments binding the Confederate Government, and
through it the States represented by it, not to
tablish the foreign slave trade, nothing could be
easier than any State which desired to revive this
infamous traffic, to do so by exercising the right of
peaceable secession But this is not all. In the
absence Of any such engagements, it would not be
difficult for party 10 the Confederate States sup
posing their independence achieved, to set on foot
an agitation for the restoration Of the slave trade
with Africa Nor isit just to say, as Mr. Benjamin
does that seven should it be possible hereafter to
procure the consent of the number Of States neces
sary to change it the constitutional prohibition of
the foreign slave trade, the forms and delays de-
signedly interposed by the trainers to check rash
innovations, would give ample time for the most
mature deliberation and for strenuous resistance
on the part of those opposed to- such change"
For what are the provisions of the Confederate
Constitution on the score Of amendments They
provide that "upon the demand Of any three States
in their several Conventions, the Congress shall
summon Convention Of all the States to take int,
consideration such amendments to the Constitution
as the said States shall in suggesting at the
time when the said demand is made" If, there
fore, at any time any three States of the South
ern Confederacy," as established under the Con-
federate Constitution, and unbound by foreign en-
gagement on the subject should desire to revive
the foreign slave trade, they could propose this
amendment as the condition Of their continued ae-
glance to that "compact," and failing to carry
their point with the acquiescence of their sister
States, they could at least withdraw without ques-
ton, and found not only Slaveholding Confede-