Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

malignity from piracy, or why a milder punishment should follow the one than the other crime.

On the other hand, the purchase of the unfortunate African, after his enlargement from the floating dungeon which wafts him to the foreign market, however criminal in itself, and yet more in its tendency to encourage this abominable traffic, yields in atrocity to the violent seizure of his person, his sudden and unprepared separation from his family, his kindred, his friends, and his country, followed by all the horrors of the middle passage. Are there not united in this offence all that is most iniquitous in theft, most daring in robbery, and cruel in murder? Its consequences to the victim, if he survive, to the country which receives him, and to that from which he is torn, are alike disastrous. If the internal wars of Africa, and their desolating effect, may be imputed to the slave trade, (and that the greater part of them must, cannot now be questioned) this crime, considered in its remote as well as its proximate consequences, is the very darkest in the whole catalogue of human iniquities; and its authors should be considered as hostes humani generis.

In proposing to the House of Representatives to make such part of this offence as occurs upon the ocean piracy, your committee are animated, not by the desire of manifesting to the world the horror with which it is viewed by the American people, but by the confident expectation of promoting, by this example, its more certain punishment by all nations, and its absolute and final extinction.

May it not be believed, that, when the whole civilized world shall have denounced the slave trade as piracy, it will become as unfrequent as any other species of that offence against the law of nations? Is it unreasonable to suppose that negotiation will, with greater facility, introduce into that law such a provision as is here proposed, when it shall have been already incorporated in the separate code of each State?

The maritime powers of the Christian world have, at length, concurred in pronouncing sentence of condemnation against the traffic. The United States, having led the way in forming this decree, owe it to themselves not to follow the rest of mankind in promoting its vigorous execution.

If it should be objected that the legislation of Congress would be partial, and its benefit, for a time at least, local, it may be replied, that the constitutional power of the Government has already been exercised in defining the crime of piracy, in accordance with similar analogies to that which the committee have sought to trace between this general offence against the peace of nations and the slave trade.

In many of the foreign treaties, as well as in the laws of the United States, examples are to be found of piracies, which are not cognizable as such by the tribunals of all nations. Such is the unavoidable consequence of any exercise of the authority of Congress to define and punish this crime. definition and the punishment can bind the United States alone.

The

12

SIXTEENTH CONGRESS-FIRST SESSION.

MAY 8, 1820.

Mr. MERCER reported the following bill to incorporate the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Bushrod Washington, William H. Crawford, Henry Clay, John Mason, Henry Foxall, Stephen B. Balch, James Laurie, Obadiah B. Brown, William Wilmer, William Hawley, Walter Jones, Thomas Dougherty, Jacob Hoffman, Francis S. Key, Henry Ashton, William Thornton, Elias B. Caldwell, Richard Smith, and John Underwood, and others, composing the society in the District of Columbia denominated the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States, and their successors, duly elected in the manner hereinafter mentioned, be, and they are hereby, constituted and declared to be a body politic and corporate, by the name and title of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States,

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That said corporation be authorized and empowered to take and receive any sum or sums of money, or other property, real and personal, of any kind or nature, which shall or may hereafter be given, granted, or bequeathed to the said corporation, by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable of making such gift or bequest: Provided, That money or other property be laid out or disposed of for the use and benefit of said corporation, according to the intention of the donors.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said corporation hereby created shall have full power and authority to fill all vacancies which may happen in their number; to make, ordain, establish, and execute, such bylaws and ordinances as may be deemed useful to the society, and the same to alter, amend, and abrogate at pleasure; to make, have, and use a common seal, and the same to break, alter, and renew at pleasure; to appoint such officers and agents as may be required for the management of the concerns of the said society, and to assign them their duties; and, generally, to provide for the transaction of all business appertaining to said society: Provided, That no by-law, rule, or ordinance, of the said corporation shall be made repugnant to the laws of the District of Columbia.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That there shall be an annual meeting of the members of said corporation, at such time and place as the proper officers of said corporation may appoint, of which due notice shall be given in one or more of the newspapers published in the District of Columbia; at which time and place the members present shall elect or choose the officers of the society, to serve for one year ensuing their election, and until others shall be elected, and consent to serve in their places; but the present officers of the society may serve till the next annual meeting, and until others be appointed or chosen.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said corporation shall not engage in any banking operations; and that the charter hereby granted shall be liable to be amended, altered, or repealed, at all times hereafter, by the Congress of the United States.

MAY 12, 1820.-The Committee of the Whole was discharged, and this bill was postponed until the first day of the next session of Congress; at which session it was not taken up.

SIXTEENTH CONGRESS-FIRST SESSION.

MAY 8, 1820.

Mr. MERCER reported the following amendments, proposed by the Committee on the Slave Trade to the bill from the Senate, entitled "An act to continue in force an act to protect the commerce of the United States, and punish the crime of piracy, and also to make further provision for punishing the crime of piracy."

After the third section of the hill, insert the following sections:

And be it further enacted, That, if any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned in whole or in part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall land, from any such ship or vessel, and, on any foreign shore, seize any negro or mulatto, not held to service or labor by the laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with intent to make such negro or mulatto a slave, or shall decoy, or forcibly bring or carry, or shall receive, such negro or mulatto on board any such ship or vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person shall be adjudged a pirate, and, on conviction thereof, before the Circuit Court of the United States for the district wherein he may be brought or found, shall suffer death.

And be it further enacted, That, if any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned wholly or in part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall forcibly confine, or detain, or aid and abet in forcibly confining, or detaining, on board such ship or vessel, any negro or mulatto, not held to service by the laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with intent to make such negro or mulatto a slave, or shall, on board any such ship or vessel, offer or attempt to sell, as a slave, any negro or mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, or shall, on the high seas, or any where on tide water, transfer, or deliver over, to any other ship or vessel, any negro or mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such negro or mulatto a slave, or shall land, or deliver on shore, from on board any such ship or vessel, any such negro or mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or, having previously sold, such negro or mulatto as a slave, such citizens or person shall be adjudged a pirate, and, on conviction thereof before the Circuit Court of the United States for the district wherein he shall be brought or found, shall suffer death.

NOTE. These amendments were agreed to by the House, and became a part of the bill which passed both Houses of Congress, and was approved by

the President of the United States, May 15, 1820. When the bill was read the third time in the House of Representatives, and was on it passage:

Mr. Rich moved its re-committment to a select committee, with instructions to strike out the last section of the amendments; which motion was rejected by the House.

MAY 9th, 1820.

Mr. MERCER, from the committee consisting of Mr. Hemphill, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Strong, of New York, Mr. Edwards, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Rogers, Mr Lathrop, and Mr. Abbott, reported the following resolutions:

1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be requested to negotiate with all the governments where ministers of the United States are or shall be accredited, on the means of effecting an entire and immediate abolition of the slave trade.

2. Resolved further, That the President of the United States be requested to enter into a stipulation or formal declaration with the several maritime Powers, recognising the independence and permanent neutrality of any colony of the free people of color of the United States, which shall be established on the western coast of Africa.

3. Resolved further, That the President of the United States be requested, in such use as he may deem it expedient to make of the public ships of the United States, to afford every aid, not inconsistent with the public welfare, to the efforts of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Color of the United States upon the Western coast of Africa.

These resolutions were committed to a Committee of the Whole House.

MAY 12th, 1820.

Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina, moved that the Committee of the Whole to which is committed the bill to continue in force the act, entitled "An act to protect the commerce of the United States, and to punish the crime of piracy;" the bill to incorporate the president and managers of the American Colonization Society, and the resolution authorizing the President of the United States to negotiate with foreign governments on the means of effecting an entire abolition of the American slave trade, be discharged from the further consideration thereof;

And the question being taken thereon,

It passed in the affirmative.

Mr. Edwards then moved that the said resolutions do lie on the table. A division of the question on that motion was called for;

And on the question, Shall the first of the said resolutions lie on the table?

It was determined in the negative, {Nays,

The question was then put: Shall the second resolution lie on the table? And decided in the negative.

35,

78.

And the question was then put: Shall the third resolution lie on the table? And passed in the affirmative.

Mr. Brush then moved that the first and second resolutions be postponed until the next session of Congress.

And on the question: Shall the first resolution be postponed as aforesaid?
It was decided in the negative.

The question was then put: Shall the second resolution be postponed?
And passed in the affirmative,

The first resolution was then ordered to be engrossed, and read a third time to-day.

The said first resolution being engrossed, was read the third time, passed, and sent to the Senate for concurrence.

SIXTEENTH CONGRESS-SECOND SESSION.

MONDAY, DEC. 4, 1820.

On motion of Mr. Mercer,

Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to lay before this House any correspondence, that he does not deem inexpedient to disclose, which may have existed between the Executive of the United States and the government of any of the maritime powers of Europe, in relation to the African slave trade.

In pursuance of the call contained in the foregoing resolution, the President of the United States transmitted to the House of Representatives two messages, which, with their accompanying documents, are as follows:

I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying it, contain all the information in possession of the Executive, requested by a resolution of the House, of the 4th of December, on the subject of the African slave trade. JAMES MONROE.

Washington, 4th January, 1821.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
January 4th, 1821.

The Secretary of State, to whom has been referred the resolution of the House of Representatives, of the 4th ult. requesting the communication to that House of any correspondence that the President does not deem it inexpedient to disclose, which may have existed between the Executive of the United States and the government of any of the maritime powers of Europe, in relation to the African slave trade, has the honor of submitting copies of the papers requested by the resolution. With the exception of a note from the late Spanish minister Onis, communicating a copy of the treaty between Spain and Great Britain on this subject, the only Government of Europe with whom there has been such correspondence is that of Great Britain; and these papers contain all that has passed between them on the subject, in writing. Since the arrival of Mr. Canning, various informal conferences between him and the Secretary of State have been held, in which.

« AnteriorContinua »