CONCLUSION--NECESSITY OF SQUADRONS FOR PROTECTION OF COMMERCE AND
CITIZENS ABROAD--FEVER IN BRAZIL, CUBA AND UNITED STATES--INFLUENCE
OF RECAPTURED SLAVES RETURNING TO THE DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THEIR OWN
COUNTRY--COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH AFRICA.
Where a nation has commerce, it has a dwelling-place--a scene of action
and of traffic on the sea. It ought to find its government there also.
The people have a right to be protected, and the government is bound to
enforce that right wherever they go. If they visit foreign countries,
they have a right to just treatment. The traveller--the merchant--the
missionary--the person of whatever character, if an American citizen,
can demand justice. The sea is no foreign territory. Where a merchant
vessel bears its country’s flag, it covers its country’s territory.
Government is instituted to be watchful for the interests and safety
of its citizens. A navy is the organ through which it acts. People on
shore see nothing of this kind of governmental protection. There is
there no marching and drumming, or clearing the streets with horsemen
or footmen, or feathers and trumpets. It is the merchant who is most
directly benefited by naval protection; and yet all classes share
in its advantages. The planter and the manufacturer are interested
in safe and free commerce; our citizens generally avow that they are
also interested, by the sensitiveness with which the rights of our
flag are regarded. It is more politic to prevent wrong than to punish
it; therefore we have police in our streets, and locks on our doors.
The shores of civilized governments are the mutual boundaries of
nations. Our government is disposed to show itself there, for there
are its people, and there are their interests. The shores of savage
lands are our confines with savages. Just as forts are required on
the frontiers of the Camanches or Utahs, so are they at Ambriz or
Sumatra. Cruisers are the nation’s fortresses abroad, employed for
the benefit of her citizens, and the security of their commerce. It
would be discreditable, as well as unsafe, to trust to a foreign power
to keep down piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, or in the West Indies
and in the China seas. As commerce extends, so does the necessity
of its supervision and defence extend. The navy therefore requires
augmentation, and for the reasons assigned in the late report of the
Head of that Department, it may be inferred that it will have it, in
reorganized and greatly improved efficiency.
On this subject, the following are extracts, in substance, from a
lecture delivered on the evening of February 3d, 1854, before the New
York Mercantile Library Association, by the Hon. Mr. Stanton, of
Tennessee, the chairman of the judiciary committee of the U. S. House
of Representatives, and for a long time chairman of the naval committee
of that body:
“A strong naval power is the best promoter of commerce, and hence men
engaged in commercial pursuits, cannot but feel an interest in the
history of the rise and progress of that navy, to which the successes
of their business undertakings are principally due. At a very early
period, navies became an indispensable power in war. The later
invention of ordnance, and the still more recent application of steam
as a motive power to ships of war, render it at present a question of
some difficulty, to predict the extent to which naval military power
may hereafter arrive.
“What we have to do in times of peace, is to maintain our naval
force in the highest state of efficiency of which it is capable, and
ready to enter upon action at a moment’s warning. With the lessons
of the British war before us, it cannot be possible that the recent
experiments of Lieutenant Dahlgren at Washington, and the discoveries
which have resulted from them, will fail to prove of high practical
service. But with all our appliances or discoveries in this regard,
we cannot conceal from ourselves the fact, that we are behind other
nations in all that concerns the structure of our ships.
“We must have machinery and all proper appliances, as well as the raw
materials, for the construction of a naval power when required. We
must have independent establishments on both sides of the continent,
to protect our Pacific as well as our Atlantic coasts, which should be
connected by a railroad stretching across the breadth of the country.
The requirements of commerce, and the advances which it has been
making in increasing the facilities for navigation, will force us into
improvements in our naval power, in order to uphold our commerce.
“It may be safely presumed, that at the present state of our affairs, a
moderate and efficient navy would be a great civilizing power; it would
hover around the path of our ships, and by the very exhibition of its
power suppress all attempts to molest them in their mission of peace
and brotherhood across the seas. But in addition to this, our navy is
even now aiding strenuously in the march of geographical discovery, and
in enlarging our stock of scientific knowledge, and our familiarity
with the facts of physical philosophy. When we consider the character
of our institutions--when we consider that our great interests lie
in the paths of peace--we must be impressed with the fact, that
the contributions to science, and the civilizing influences of our
navy, are one of the most powerful means by which we can uphold our
interests, and carry out our institutions to the fullest development
of which they are capable.
“Under all circumstances and all disadvantages, the navy has never, at
any period of our history, failed to do honor to itself, and to shed
lustre on the American character. From the Revolutionary war down to
the late conquest of Mexico, in every case in which its co-operation
was at all possible, it has given proofs of activity and power equal to
the proud and commanding position we are to occupy among the nations
of the earth. We have opportunities to supply the service with the
means of moral and physical progress, to free it from the shackles of
old forms, and suffer it to clothe itself with the panoply of modern
science, and to be identified with the spread of civilization and
enlightenment over the world. It will continue to be our pride and our
boast, the worthy representative upon the ocean, of the genius, the
skill, and the enterprise of our people--of the boundless resources of
our growing country--of the power, and grandeur, and glory, as well as
the justice and humanity of our free institutions.”
The legislatures of some states, the reports of some auxiliary
colonization societies, the speeches of some distinguished senators
and representatives in congress, the addresses of some colonization
agents, have represented the great sacrifice of life and treasure in
“unsuccessful efforts,” by the African squadron, for the extermination
of the slave-trade, and proposed to withdraw it. Whereas, it has
been shown that the African squadrons, instead of being useless,
have rendered _essential service_. For much as colonization has
accomplished, and effectual as Liberia is in suppressing the
slave-traffic within her own jurisdiction, these means and these
results have been established and secured by the presence and
protection of the naval squadrons of Great Britain, France and the
United States. And had no such assistance been rendered, the entire
coast, where we now see legal trade and advancing civilization, would
have been at this day, in spite of any efforts to colonize, or to
establish legal commerce, the scene of unchecked, lawless slave-trade
piracy.
Strange and frightful maladies have been engendered by the cruelties
perpetrated within the hold of a slaver. If any disease affecting the
human constitution were brought there, we may be sure that it would be
nursed into mortal vigor in these receptacles of filth, corruption and
despair. Crews have been known to die by the fruit of their own crime,
and leave ships almost helpless. They have carried the scourge with
them. The coast fever of Africa, bad enough where it has its birth,
came in these vessels, and has assumed perhaps a permanent abode in
the western regions of the world. No fairer sky or healthier climate
were there on earth, than in the beautiful bay, and amid the grand and
picturesque scenery of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. But it became a haunt
of slavers, and the dead of Africa floated on the glittering waters,
and were tumbled upon the sands of its harbor. The shipping found, in
the hot summer of 1849, that death had come with the slavers. Thirty
or forty vessels were lying idly at their anchors, for their crews had
mostly perished. The pestilence swept along the coast of that empire
with fearful malignity.
Cuba for the same crime met the same retribution. Cargoes of slaves
were landed to die, and brought the source of their mortality ashore,
vigorous and deadly. The fever settled there in the beginning of 1853,
and came to our country, as summer approached, in merchant vessels from
the West Indies. At New Orleans, Mobile, and other places it spread
desolation, over which the country mourned. Let it be remembered that
it is never even safe to disregard crime.
Civilized governments are now very generally united in measures for
the suppression of the slave-trade. The coast of Africa itself is
rapidly closing against it. The American and English colonies secure
a vast extent of sea-coast against its revival. Christian missions,
at many points, are inculcating the doctrines of divine truth, which,
by its power upon the hearts of men, is the antagonist to such cruel
unrighteousness.
The increase of commerce, and the advance of Christian civilization,
will undoubtedly, at no distant date, render a naval force for the
suppression of the African slave-trade unnecessary; but no power having
extensive commerce ought ever to overlook the necessity of a naval
force on that coast. The Secretary of the Navy, it is to be hoped, has,
in his recent report, settled the question as to the continuance of the
African squadron.
The increasing influence of Liberia and Cape Palmas will prove a
powerful protection to their colored brethren everywhere. “With them
Sierra Leone will unite in feeling and purposes. Their policy will
always be the same. It must necessarily happen that a close political
relationship in interests and feelings will unite them all in one
system of action. Their policy will be that of uncompromising hostility
to the slave-trade.
There are two aspects of this question well worthy of consideration:
The Liberians are freemen, recognized as having their proper standing
among the nations of the world. The people of Sierra Leone are
Englishmen, having the legal rights of that kingdom. Therefore, seizing
the citizens of either the one or the other community in time of peace,
and carrying them captive to be sold, amounts to the greatest crime
which can be committed on the ocean.
Now as this may be surmised in the case of all slavers on that coast,
the guilt of the slaver in the eye of national law becomes greater than
before; and the peril greater. It may be presumed that if a case were
established against any slave cargo, that it contained one of either
of the above-mentioned description of persons, the consequences to the
slavers, whatever their nation might be, would be much more serious
than has hitherto been the case.
But a principle of higher justice ought long ago to have been kept in
view, and acted upon. Let the caitiff have his “pound of flesh,” but
“not one drop of blood.” If a man throttles another, or suffocates
him for want of air, or stows eight hundred people in a ship’s hold,
where he knows that one or two hundred in the “middle passage” will
necessarily die, every such death is a _murder_, and each man aboard of
such vessel who has any agency in procuring or forwarding this cargo,
is a _murderer_. It has therefore been contrary to justice, that the
perpetrators of such crimes should have been dismissed with impunity
when captured. Such considerations ought to weigh with men in the
future.
There has been already a commencement of a coasting trade, conducted
by colored men. There is a Liberian man-of-war schooner, the “Lark,”
Lieutenant-Commanding Cooper; and the English, after furnishing
the schooner, have proffered the assistance of her navy officers to
instruct the young aspirants of the republic, in the art of sailing the
cruiser, and in the science of naval warfare. Captain Cooper will not
take exception at the remark, that it is “the day of small things” with
the Liberian navy. But his flag bears the star of hope to a vigorous
young naval power.
A returning of recaptured slaves, instructed and civilized, to the
lands which gave them birth, has taken place. Some hundreds passed
by Lagos, and were assailed and plundered. Some hundreds passed by
Badagry, and were welcomed with kind treatment. The one occurrence
reminded them of African darkness, obduracy and crime; the other of
the softening and elevating effects which Christianity strives to
introduce. They have gone to establish Christian churches, and have
established them there. Such things we are sure have been reported
far in the interior, and Christianity now stands contrasted with
Mohammedanism, as being the deliverer, while the latter is still
the enslaver. The report must also have gone over the whole broad
intertropical continent, that Christian nations have joined together
for African deliverance; and that for purposes so high the race of
Africa has returned from the west, and by imitation of western policy
and religion, is establishing a restorative influence on their own
shores.
There has thus been presented a view of Africa and of its progress,
as far as its condition and advancement have had any relation to our
country and its flag. How far its growth in civilization has been
dependent on the efforts of America has been illustrated; and how
essentially the naval interference of the United States has contributed
to this end, has been made evident. It cannot escape notice that this
progress must in the future depend on the same means and the same
efforts. Our own national interests, being those of a commercial
people, require the presence of a squadron. Under its protection
commerce is secure, and is daily increasing in extent and value.
It is impossible to say how lucrative this commerce may ultimately
become. That the whole African coast should assume the aspect of
Liberia, is perhaps not an unreasonable expectation. That Liberia will
continue to grow in wealth and influence, is not improbable. There is
intelligence among its people, and wisdom and energy in its councils.
There is no reason to believe that this will not continue. Its position
makes it an agricultural community. Other lands must afford its
manufactures and its traders. There will, therefore, ever be on its
shores a fair field for American enterprise.
The reduction, or annihilation of the slave-trade, is opening the whole
of these vast regions to science and legal commerce. Let America
take her right share in them. It is throwing wide the portals of the
continent for the entrance of Christian civilization. Let our country
exert its full proportion of this influence; and thus recompense to
Africa the wrongs inflicted upon her people, in which hitherto all
nations have participated.
THE END.
Transcriber’s Notes
In a few places, obviously missing punctuation has been added.
Page 158: “some time under Amercan” changed to “some time under
American”
Page 182: “bearing the the Liberian” changed to “bearing the Liberian”
Page 254: “PERRY AMD STEAMER” changed to “PERRY AND STEAMER”