[Footnote 144: Relating to redress from the British Government for
the illegal capture of the fishing schooner _Argus_ and other American
vessels engaged in the fisheries, under a pretended infraction of the
convention of October 20, 1818.]
WASHINGTON, _February 20, 1845_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, copies of certain
dispatches recently received from Mr. Wise, our envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary at the Court of Brazil, upon the subject of the
slave trade, developing the means used and the devices resorted to in
order to evade existing enactments upon that subject.
Anxiously desirous as are the United States to suppress a traffic so
revolting to humanity, in the efforts to accomplish which they have been
the pioneers of civilized states, it can not but be a subject of the
most profound regret that any portion of our citizens should be found
acting in cooperation with the subjects of other powers in opposition to
the policy of their own Government, thereby subjecting to suspicion and
to the hazard of disgrace the flag of their own country. It is true that
this traffic is carried on altogether in foreign parts and that our own
coasts are free from its pollution; but the crime remains the same
wherever perpetrated, and there are many circumstances to warrant the
belief that some of our citizens are deeply involved in its guilt. The
mode and manner of carrying on this trade are clearly and fearlessly set
forth in the accompanying documents, and it would seem that a regular
system has been adopted for the purpose of thwarting the policy and
evading the penalties of our laws. American vessels, with the knowledge,
as there are good reasons to believe, of the owners and masters, are
_chartered_, or rather purchased, by notorious slave dealers in Brazil,
aided by English brokers and capitalists, with this intent. The vessel
is only nominally chartered at so much per month, while in truth it is
actually sold, to be delivered on the coast of Africa; the charter party
binding the owners in the meantime to take on board _as passengers_ a
new crew in Brazil, who, when delivered on the coast, are to navigate
her back to the ports of Brazil with her cargo of slaves. Under this
agreement the vessel clears from the United States for some port in
Great Britain, where a cargo of merchandise known as "coast goods," and
designed especially for the African trade, is purchased, shipped, and
consigned, together with the vessel, either directly to the slave dealer
himself or to his agents or accomplices in Brazil. On her arrival a new
crew is put on board _as passengers_ and the vessel and cargo consigned
to an equally guilty factor or agent on the coast of Africa, where
the unlawful purpose originally designed is finally consummated. The
merchandise is exchanged for slaves, the vessel is delivered up, her
name obliterated, her papers destroyed, her American crew discharged, to
be provided for by the charterers, and the new or _passenger_ crew put
in command to carry back its miserable freight to the first contrivers
of the voyage, or their _employees_ in Brazil.
During the whole progress of this tortuous enterprise it is possible
that neither the American crew originally enlisted nor the _passenger_
crew put on board in the Brazilian ports are aware of the nature
of the voyage, and yet it is on these principally, ignorant if not
innocent, that the penalties of the law are inflicted, while the guilty
contrivers--the charterers, brokers, owners, and masters; in short, all
who are most deeply concerned in the crime and its rewards--for the most
part escape unpunished.
It will be seen from the examinations which have recently taken place
at Rio that the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty as well as our own
citizens are deeply implicated in this inhuman traffic. British factors
and agents, while they supply Africa with British fabrics in exchange
for slaves, are chiefly instrumental in the abuse of the American flag;
and the suggestions contained in the letter of Mr. Wise (whose judicious
and zealous efforts in the matter can not be too highly commended),
addressed to Mr. Hamilton, the British envoy, as to the best mode of
suppressing the evil, deserve your most deliberate consideration, as
they will receive, I doubt not, that of the British Government.
It is also worthy of consideration whether any other measures than those
now existing are necessary to give greater efficacy to the just and
humane policy of our laws, which already provide for the restoration to
Africa of slaves captured at sea by American cruisers. From time to time
provision has been made by this Government for their comfortable support
and maintenance during a limited period after their restoration, and it
is much to be regretted that this liberal policy has not been adopted by
Great Britain. As it is, it seems to me that the policy it has adopted
is calculated rather to perpetuate than to suppress the trade by
enlisting very large interests in its favor. Merchants and capitalists
furnish the means of carrying it on; manufactures, for which the negroes
are exchanged, are the products of her workshops; the slaves, when
captured, instead of being returned back to their homes are transferred
to her colonial possessions in the West Indies and made the means of
swelling the amount of their products by a system of apprenticeship for
a term of years; and the officers and crews who capture the vessels
receive on the whole number of slaves so many pounds sterling _per
capita_ by way of bounty.
It must be obvious that while these large interests are enlisted in
favor of its continuance it will be difficult, if not impossible, to
suppress the nefarious traffic, and that its results would be in effect
but a continuance of the slave trade in another and more cruel form; for
it can be but a matter of little difference to the African whether he is
torn from his country and transported to the West Indies as a slave in
the regular course of the trade, or captured by a cruiser, transferred
to the same place, and made to perform the same labor under the name of
an apprentice, which is at present the practical operation of the policy
adopted.
It is to be hoped that Her Britannic Majesty's Government will, upon a
review of all the circumstances stated in these dispatches, adopt more
efficient measures for the suppression of the trade, which she has so
long attempted to put down, with, as yet, so little success, and more
consonant with the original policy of restoring the captured African to
his home.