Footnotes

The presence of American capital in these enterprises, and the connivance of the authorities, were proven in many cases and known in scores. In 1837 the English government informed the United States that from the papers of a captured slaver it appeared that the notorious slave-trading firm, Blanco and Carballo of Havana, who owned the vessel, had correspondents in the United States: "at Baltimore, Messrs. Peter Harmony and Co., in New York, Robert Barry, Esq."57The slaver "Martha" of New York, captured by the "Perry," contained among her papers curious revelations of the guilt of persons in America who were little suspected.58The slaver "Prova," which was allowed to lie in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and refit, was afterwards captured with two hundred and twenty-five slaves on board.59The real reason that prevented many belligerent Congressmen from pressing certain search claims against England lay in the fact that the unjustifiable detentions had unfortunately revealed so much American guilt that it was deemed wiser to let the matter end in talk. For instance, in 1850 Congress demanded information as to illegal searches, and President Fillmore's report showed the uncomfortable fact that, of the ten American ships wrongly detained by English men-of-war, nine were proven red-handed slavers.60

The consul at Havana reported, in 1836, that whole cargoes of slaves fresh from Africa were being daily shipped to Texas in American vessels, that 1,000 had been sent within a few months, that the rate was increasing, and that many of these slaves "can scarcely fail to find their way into the United States." Moreover, the consul acknowledged that ships frequently cleared for the United States in ballast, taking on a cargo at some secret point.61When with these facts we considerthe law facilitating "recovery" of slaves from Texas,62the repeated refusals to regulate the Texan trade, and the shelving of a proposed congressional investigation into these matters,63conjecture becomes a practical certainty. It was estimated in 1838 that 15,000 Africans were annually taken to Texas, and "there are even grounds for suspicion that there are other places ... where slaves are introduced."64Between 1847 and 1853 the slave smuggler Drake had a slave depot in the Gulf, where sometimes as many as 1,600 Negroes were on hand, and the owners were continually importing and shipping. "The joint-stock company," writes this smuggler, "was a very extensive one, and connected with leading American and Spanish mercantile houses. Our island65was visited almost weekly, by agents from Cuba, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and New Orleans.... The seasoned and instructed slaves were taken to Texas, or Florida, overland, and to Cuba, in sailing-boats. As no squad contained more than half a dozen, no difficulty was found in posting them to the United States, without discovery, and generally without suspicion.... The Bay Island plantation sent ventures weekly to the Florida Keys. Slaves were taken into the great American swamps, and there kept till wanted for the market. Hundreds were sold as captured runaways from the Florida wilderness. We had agents in every slave State; and our coasters were built in Maine, and came out with lumber. I could tell curious stories ... of this business of smuggling Bozal negroes into the United States. It is growing more profitable every year, and if you should hang all the Yankee merchants engaged in it, hundreds would fill their places."66Inherentprobability and concurrent testimony confirm the substantial truth of such confessions. For instance, one traveller discovers on a Southern plantation Negroes who can speak no English.67The careful reports of the Quakers "apprehend that many [slaves] are also introduced into the United States."68Governor Mathew of the Bahama Islands reports that "in more than one instance, Bahama vessels with coloured crews have been purposely wrecked on the coast of Florida, and the crews forcibly sold." This was brought to the notice of the United States authorities, but the district attorney of Florida could furnish no information.69

Such was the state of the slave-trade in 1850, on the threshold of the critical decade which by a herculean effort was destined finally to suppress it.

Footnotes1Beer,Geschichte des Welthandels im 19tenJahrhundert, II. 67.2A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance:—1738,John Jay, fly-shuttle.John Wyatt, spinning by rollers.1748,Lewis Paul, carding-machine.1760,Robert Kay, drop-box.1769,Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle.James Watt, steam-engine.1772,James Lees, improvements on carding-machine.1775,Richard Arkwright, series of combinations.1779,Samuel Compton, mule.1785,Edmund Cartwright, power-loom.1803–4,Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine.1817,Roberts, fly-frame.1818,William Eaton, self-acting frame.1825–30,Roberts, improvements on mule.Cf. Baines,History of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 116–231;Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., article "Cotton."3Baines,History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 215. A bale weighed from 375 lbs. to 400 lbs.4The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to the London market. The average price in 1855–60 was about 7d.5From United States census reports.6Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,The Cotton Kingdom.7Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,The Cotton Kingdom.8As early as 1836 Calhoun declared that he should ever regret that the term "piracy" had been applied to the slave-trade in our laws: Benton,Abridgment of Debates, XII. 718.9Governor J.H. Hammond of South Carolina, inLetters to Clarkson, No. 1, p. 2.10In 1826 Forsyth of Georgia attempted to have a bill passed abolishing the African agency, and providing that the Africans imported be disposed of in some way that would entail no expense on the public treasury:Home Journal, 19 Cong. 1 sess. p. 258. In 1828 a bill was reported to the House to abolish the agency and make the Colonization Society the agents, if they would agree to the terms. The bill was so amended as merely to appropriate money for suppressing the slave-trade:Ibid., 20 Cong. 1 sess., House Bill No. 190.11Ibid., pp. 121, 135; 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58–9, 84, 215.12Congressional Globe, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 328, 331–6.13Cf. Mercer's bill,House Journal, 21 Cong. 1 sess. p. 512; also Strange's two bills,Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 200, 313; 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 123.14Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297–8, 300.15Senate Doc, 28 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 217, p. 19;Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 3, 10, etc.; 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47, pp. 5–6; 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99, p. 80;House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 117–8; cf.Ibid., 20 Cong. 1 sess. p. 650, etc.; 21 Cong. 2 sess. p. 194; 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184;House Doc., 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43, p. 11;House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 5, pp. 7–8.16Senate Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 335;House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257.17Statutes at Large, III. 764.18Cf. above, Chapter VIII. p. 125.19Cf.Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1827.20Ibid.21House Reports, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 223.22This account is taken exclusively from government documents:Amer. State Papers, Naval, III. Nos. 339, 340, 357, 429 E; IV. Nos. 457 R (1 and 2), 486 H, I, p. 161 and 519 R, 564 P, 585 P;House Reports, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 65;House Doc., 19 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 69; 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 42–3, 211–8; 22 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45, 272–4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 48, 229; 23 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 315, 363; 24 Cong, 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 336, 378; 24 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506; 25 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. 771, 850; 26 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612; 26 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450. It is probable that the agent became eventually the United States consul and minister; I cannot however cite evidence for this supposition.23Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1824.24Ibid., 1826.25Ibid., 1839.26Ibid., 1842.27British and Foreign State Papers, 1857–8, p. 1250.28Lord Napier to Secretary of State Cass, Dec. 24, 1857:British and Foreign State Papers, 1857–8, p. 1249.29Parliamentary Papers, 1847–8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133,Papers Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 2.30Report of Perry:Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 118.31Consul Park at Rio Janeiro to Secretary Buchanan, Aug. 20, 1847:House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 7.32Suppose "an American vessel employed to take in negroes at some point on this coast. There is no American man-of-war here to obtain intelligence. What risk does she run of being searched? But suppose that there is a man-of-war in port. What is to secure the master of the merchantman against her [the man-of-war's] commander's knowing all about his [the merchant-man's] intention, or suspecting it in time to be upon him [the merchant-man] before he shall have run a league on his way to Texas?" Consul Trist to Commander Spence:House Doc., 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34, p. 41.33A typical set of instructions was on the following plan: 1. You are charged with the protection of legitimate commerce. 2. While the United States wishes to suppress the slave-trade, she will not admit a Right of Search by foreign vessels. 3. You are to arrest slavers. 4. You are to allow in no case an exercise of the Right of Search or any great interruption of legitimate commerce.—To Commodore Perry, March 30, 1843:House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104.34House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 765–8. Cf. Benton's speeches on the treaty of 1842.35Report of Hotham to Admiralty, April 7, 1847:Parliamentary Papers, 1847–8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133,Papers Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 13.36Opinions of Attorneys-General, III. 512.37Tenth Annual Report of the Amer. and Foreign Anti-Slav. Soc., May 7, 1850, p. 149.38Opinions of Attorneys-General, IV. 245.39Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 108, 132.40House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 18.41Foote,Africa and the American Flag, pp. 286–90.42British and Foreign State Papers, 1839–40, pp. 913–4.43Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,Cotton Kingdom.44House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. p. 118.45Ibid., 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184.46Ibid., 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14, 15, 86, 113.47Senate Journal, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 191, 227.48House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. I. No. 5, p. 7.49Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 152.50Ibid., pp. 152–3.51Ibid., p. 241.52Cf. e.g.House Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. pt. I. No. 148; 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43;House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61;Senate Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 28; 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6; 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47.53Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 218.54Ibid., p. 221.55Palmerston to Stevenson:House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, p. 5. In 1836 five such slavers were known to have cleared; in 1837, eleven; in 1838, nineteen; and in 1839, twenty-three:Ibid., pp. 220–1.56Parliamentary Papers, 1839, Vol. XLIX.,Slave Trade, class A, Further Series, pp. 58–9; class B, Further Series, p. 110; class D, Further Series, p. 25. Trist pleaded ignorance of the law: Trist to Forsyth,House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.57House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.58Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 290.59House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 121, 163–6.60Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV No. 66.61Trist to Forsyth:House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115. "The business of supplying the United States with Africans from this island is one that must necessarily exist," because "slaves are a hundredper cent, or more, higher in the United States than in Cuba," and this profit "is a temptation which it is not in human nature as modified by American institutions to withstand":Ibid.62Statutes at Large, V. 674.63Cf. above, p. 157, note 1.64Buxton,The African Slave Trade and its Remedy, pp. 44–5. Cf.2d Report of the London African Soc., p. 22.65I.e., Bay Island in the Gulf of Mexico, near the coast of Honduras.66Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 98.67Mr. H. Moulton inSlavery as it is, p. 140; cited inFacts and Observations on the Slave Trade(Friends' ed. 1841), p. 8.68In a memorial to Congress, 1840:House Doc., 26 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 211.69British and Foreign State Papers, 1845–6, pp. 883, 968, 989–90. The governor wrote in reply: "The United States, if properly served by their law officers in the Floridas, will not experience any difficulty in obtaining the requisite knowledge of these illegal transactions, which, I have reason to believe, were the subject of common notoriety in the neighbourhood where they occurred, and of boast on the part of those concerned in them":British and Foreign State Papers, 1845–6, p. 990.

1Beer,Geschichte des Welthandels im 19tenJahrhundert, II. 67.

2A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance:—1738,John Jay, fly-shuttle.John Wyatt, spinning by rollers.1748,Lewis Paul, carding-machine.1760,Robert Kay, drop-box.1769,Richard Arkwright, water-frame and throstle.James Watt, steam-engine.1772,James Lees, improvements on carding-machine.1775,Richard Arkwright, series of combinations.1779,Samuel Compton, mule.1785,Edmund Cartwright, power-loom.1803–4,Radcliffe and Johnson, dressing-machine.1817,Roberts, fly-frame.1818,William Eaton, self-acting frame.1825–30,Roberts, improvements on mule.Cf. Baines,History of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 116–231;Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., article "Cotton."

2A list of these inventions most graphically illustrates this advance:—

Cf. Baines,History of the Cotton Manufacture, pp. 116–231;Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., article "Cotton."

3Baines,History of the Cotton Manufacture, p. 215. A bale weighed from 375 lbs. to 400 lbs.

4The prices cited are from Newmarch and Tooke, and refer to the London market. The average price in 1855–60 was about 7d.

5From United States census reports.

6Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,The Cotton Kingdom.

7Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,The Cotton Kingdom.

8As early as 1836 Calhoun declared that he should ever regret that the term "piracy" had been applied to the slave-trade in our laws: Benton,Abridgment of Debates, XII. 718.

9Governor J.H. Hammond of South Carolina, inLetters to Clarkson, No. 1, p. 2.

10In 1826 Forsyth of Georgia attempted to have a bill passed abolishing the African agency, and providing that the Africans imported be disposed of in some way that would entail no expense on the public treasury:Home Journal, 19 Cong. 1 sess. p. 258. In 1828 a bill was reported to the House to abolish the agency and make the Colonization Society the agents, if they would agree to the terms. The bill was so amended as merely to appropriate money for suppressing the slave-trade:Ibid., 20 Cong. 1 sess., House Bill No. 190.

11Ibid., pp. 121, 135; 20 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 58–9, 84, 215.

12Congressional Globe, 27 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 328, 331–6.

13Cf. Mercer's bill,House Journal, 21 Cong. 1 sess. p. 512; also Strange's two bills,Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 3 sess. pp. 200, 313; 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 123.

14Senate Journal, 25 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 297–8, 300.

15Senate Doc, 28 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 217, p. 19;Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6, pp. 3, 10, etc.; 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47, pp. 5–6; 34 Cong. 1 sess. XV. No. 99, p. 80;House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 117–8; cf.Ibid., 20 Cong. 1 sess. p. 650, etc.; 21 Cong. 2 sess. p. 194; 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184;House Doc., 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43, p. 11;House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 5, pp. 7–8.

16Senate Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess., Senate Bill No. 335;House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 1138, 1228, 1257.

17Statutes at Large, III. 764.

18Cf. above, Chapter VIII. p. 125.

19Cf.Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1827.

20Ibid.

21House Reports, 24 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 223.

22This account is taken exclusively from government documents:Amer. State Papers, Naval, III. Nos. 339, 340, 357, 429 E; IV. Nos. 457 R (1 and 2), 486 H, I, p. 161 and 519 R, 564 P, 585 P;House Reports, 19 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 65;House Doc., 19 Cong. 2 sess. IV. No. 69; 21 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 42–3, 211–8; 22 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 45, 272–4; 22 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 48, 229; 23 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 1, pp. 238, 269; 23 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 315, 363; 24 Cong, 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 336, 378; 24 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 450, 506; 25 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 3, pp. 771, 850; 26 Cong. 1 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 534, 612; 26 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 2, pp. 405, 450. It is probable that the agent became eventually the United States consul and minister; I cannot however cite evidence for this supposition.

23Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1824.

24Ibid., 1826.

25Ibid., 1839.

26Ibid., 1842.

27British and Foreign State Papers, 1857–8, p. 1250.

28Lord Napier to Secretary of State Cass, Dec. 24, 1857:British and Foreign State Papers, 1857–8, p. 1249.

29Parliamentary Papers, 1847–8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133,Papers Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 2.

30Report of Perry:Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, p. 118.

31Consul Park at Rio Janeiro to Secretary Buchanan, Aug. 20, 1847:House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 7.

32Suppose "an American vessel employed to take in negroes at some point on this coast. There is no American man-of-war here to obtain intelligence. What risk does she run of being searched? But suppose that there is a man-of-war in port. What is to secure the master of the merchantman against her [the man-of-war's] commander's knowing all about his [the merchant-man's] intention, or suspecting it in time to be upon him [the merchant-man] before he shall have run a league on his way to Texas?" Consul Trist to Commander Spence:House Doc., 27 Cong. 1 sess. No. 34, p. 41.

33A typical set of instructions was on the following plan: 1. You are charged with the protection of legitimate commerce. 2. While the United States wishes to suppress the slave-trade, she will not admit a Right of Search by foreign vessels. 3. You are to arrest slavers. 4. You are to allow in no case an exercise of the Right of Search or any great interruption of legitimate commerce.—To Commodore Perry, March 30, 1843:House Exec. Doc., 35 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 104.

34House Reports, 27 Cong. 3 sess. III. No. 283, pp. 765–8. Cf. Benton's speeches on the treaty of 1842.

35Report of Hotham to Admiralty, April 7, 1847:Parliamentary Papers, 1847–8, Vol. LXIV. No. 133,Papers Relative to the Suppression of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, p. 13.

36Opinions of Attorneys-General, III. 512.

37Tenth Annual Report of the Amer. and Foreign Anti-Slav. Soc., May 7, 1850, p. 149.

38Opinions of Attorneys-General, IV. 245.

39Senate Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IX. No. 150, pp. 108, 132.

40House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61, p. 18.

41Foote,Africa and the American Flag, pp. 286–90.

42British and Foreign State Papers, 1839–40, pp. 913–4.

43Cf. United States census reports; and Olmsted,Cotton Kingdom.

44House Journal, 26 Cong. 1 sess. p. 118.

45Ibid., 27 Cong. 1 sess. pp. 31, 184.

46Ibid., 27 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 14, 15, 86, 113.

47Senate Journal, 28 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 191, 227.

48House Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. III. pt. I. No. 5, p. 7.

49Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 152.

50Ibid., pp. 152–3.

51Ibid., p. 241.

52Cf. e.g.House Doc., 28 Cong. 2 sess. IV. pt. I. No. 148; 29 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 43;House Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 2 sess. VII. No. 61;Senate Exec. Doc., 30 Cong. 1 sess. IV. No. 28; 31 Cong. 2 sess. II. No. 6; 33 Cong. 1 sess. VIII. No. 47.

53Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 218.

54Ibid., p. 221.

55Palmerston to Stevenson:House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, p. 5. In 1836 five such slavers were known to have cleared; in 1837, eleven; in 1838, nineteen; and in 1839, twenty-three:Ibid., pp. 220–1.

56Parliamentary Papers, 1839, Vol. XLIX.,Slave Trade, class A, Further Series, pp. 58–9; class B, Further Series, p. 110; class D, Further Series, p. 25. Trist pleaded ignorance of the law: Trist to Forsyth,House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.

57House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115.

58Foote,Africa and the American Flag, p. 290.

59House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115, pp. 121, 163–6.

60Senate Exec. Doc., 31 Cong. 1 sess. XIV No. 66.

61Trist to Forsyth:House Doc., 26 Cong. 2 sess. V. No. 115. "The business of supplying the United States with Africans from this island is one that must necessarily exist," because "slaves are a hundredper cent, or more, higher in the United States than in Cuba," and this profit "is a temptation which it is not in human nature as modified by American institutions to withstand":Ibid.

62Statutes at Large, V. 674.

63Cf. above, p. 157, note 1.

64Buxton,The African Slave Trade and its Remedy, pp. 44–5. Cf.2d Report of the London African Soc., p. 22.

65I.e., Bay Island in the Gulf of Mexico, near the coast of Honduras.

66Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, p. 98.

67Mr. H. Moulton inSlavery as it is, p. 140; cited inFacts and Observations on the Slave Trade(Friends' ed. 1841), p. 8.

68In a memorial to Congress, 1840:House Doc., 26 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 211.

69British and Foreign State Papers, 1845–6, pp. 883, 968, 989–90. The governor wrote in reply: "The United States, if properly served by their law officers in the Floridas, will not experience any difficulty in obtaining the requisite knowledge of these illegal transactions, which, I have reason to believe, were the subject of common notoriety in the neighbourhood where they occurred, and of boast on the part of those concerned in them":British and Foreign State Papers, 1845–6, p. 990.

80.The Movement against the Slave-Trade Laws.It was not altogether a mistaken judgment that led the constitutional fathers to consider the slave-trade as the backbone of slavery. An economic system based on slave labor will find, sooner or later, that the demand for the cheapest slave labor cannot long be withstood. Once degrade the laborer so that he cannot assert his own rights, and there is but one limit below which his price cannot be reduced. That limit is not his physical well-being, for it may be, and in the Gulf States it was, cheaper to work him rapidly to death; the limit is simply the cost of procuring him and keeping him alive a profitable length of time. Only the moral sense of a community can keep helpless labor from sinking to this level; and when a community has once been debauched by slavery, its moral sense offers little resistance to economic demand. This was the case in the West Indies and Brazil; and although better moral stamina held the crisis back longer in the United States, yet even here the ethical standard of the South was not able to maintain itself against the demands of the cotton industry. When, after 1850, the price of slaves had risen to a monopoly height, the leaders of the plantation system, brought to the edge of bankruptcy by the crude and reckless farming necessary under a slaverégime, and baffled, at least temporarily, in their quest of new rich land to exploit, began instinctively to feel that the only salvation of American slavery lay in the reopeningof the African slave-trade.

It took but a spark to put this instinctive feeling into words, and words led to deeds. The movement first took definite form in the ever radical State of South Carolina. In 1854 a grand jury in the Williamsburg district declared, "as our unanimous opinion, that the Federal law abolishing the African Slave Trade is a public grievance. We hold this trade has been and would be, if re-established, a blessing to the American people, and a benefit to the African himself."1This attracted only local attention; but when, in 1856, the governor of the State, in his annual message, calmly argued at length for a reopening of the trade, and boldly declared that "if we cannot supply the demand for slave labor, then we must expect to be supplied with a species of labor we do not want,"2such words struck even Southern ears like "a thunder clap in a calm day."3And yet it needed but a few years to show that South Carolina had merely been the first to put into words the inarticulate thought of a large minority, if not a majority, of the inhabitants of the Gulf States.

81.Commercial Conventions of 1855–56.The growth of the movement is best followed in the action of the Southern Commercial Convention, an annual gathering which seems to have been fairly representative of a considerable part of Southern opinion. In the convention that met at New Orleans in 1855, McGimsey of Louisiana introduced a resolution instructing the Southern Congressmen to secure the repeal of the slave-trade laws. This resolution went to the Committee on Resolutions, and was not reported.4In 1856, in the convention at Savannah, W.B. Goulden of Georgia moved that the members of Congress be requested to bestir themselves energetically to have repealed all laws which forbade the slave-trade. By a vote of 67 to 18 the convention refused to debate the motion, but appointed a committee to present at the next convention the facts relating to a reopening of the trade.5In regard to this action a pamphlet of the day said: "There wereintroduced into the convention two leading measures, viz.: the laying of a State tariff on northern goods, and the reopening of the slave-trade; the one to advance our commercial interest, the other our agricultural interest, and which, when taken together, as they were doubtless intended to be, and although they have each been attacked by presses of doubtful service to the South, are characterized in the private judgment of politicians as one of the completest southern remedies ever submitted to popular action.... The proposition to revive, or more properly to reopen, the slave trade is as yet but imperfectly understood, in its intentions and probable results, by the people of the South, and but little appreciated by them. It has been received in all parts of the country with an undefined sort of repugnance, a sort of squeamishness, which is incident to all such violations of moral prejudices, and invariably wears off on familiarity with the subject. The South will commence by enduring, and end by embracing the project."6The matter being now fully before the public through these motions, Governor Adams's message, and newspaper and pamphlet discussion, the radical party pushed the project with all energy.

82.Commercial Conventions of 1857–58.The first piece of regular business that came before the Commercial Convention at Knoxville, Tennessee, August 10, 1857, was a proposal to recommend the abrogation of the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington, on the slave-trade. An amendment offered by Sneed of Tennessee, declaring it inexpedient and against settled policy to reopen the trade, was voted down, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia refusing to agree to it. The original motion then passed; and the radicals, satisfied with their success in the first skirmish, again secured the appointment of a committee to report at the next meeting on the subject of reopening the slave-trade.7This next meeting assembled May 10, 1858, in a Gulf State, Alabama, in the city of Montgomery. Spratt ofSouth Carolina, the slave-trade champion, presented an elaborate majority report from the committee, and recommended the following resolutions:—

1.Resolved, That slavery is right, and that being right, there can be no wrong in the natural means to its formation.2.Resolved, That it is expedient and proper that the foreign slave trade should be re-opened, and that this Convention will lend its influence to any legitimate measure to that end.3.Resolved, That a committee, consisting of one from each slave State, be appointed to consider of the means, consistent with the duty and obligations of these States, for re-opening the foreign slave-trade, and that they report their plan to the next meeting of this Convention.

1.Resolved, That slavery is right, and that being right, there can be no wrong in the natural means to its formation.

2.Resolved, That it is expedient and proper that the foreign slave trade should be re-opened, and that this Convention will lend its influence to any legitimate measure to that end.

3.Resolved, That a committee, consisting of one from each slave State, be appointed to consider of the means, consistent with the duty and obligations of these States, for re-opening the foreign slave-trade, and that they report their plan to the next meeting of this Convention.

Yancey, from the same committee, presented a minority report, which, though it demanded the repeal of the national prohibitory laws, did not advocate the reopening of the trade by the States.

Much debate ensued. Pryor of Virginia declared the majority report "a proposition to dissolve the Union." Yancey declared that "he was for disunion now. [Applause.]" He defended the principle of the slave-trade, and said: "If it is right to buy slaves in Virginia and carry them to New Orleans, why is it not right to buy them in Cuba, Brazil, or Africa, and carry them there?" The opposing speeches made little attempt to meet this uncomfortable logic; but, nevertheless, opposition enough was developed to lay the report on the table until the next convention, with orders that it be printed, in the mean time, as a radical campaign document. Finally the convention passed a resolution:—

That it is inexpedient for any State, or its citizens, to attempt to re-open the African slave-trade while that State is one of the United States of America.8

83.Commercial Convention of 1859.The Convention of 1859 met at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 9–19, and the slave-trade party came ready for a fray. On the second day Spratt called up his resolutions, and the next day the Committee on Resolutions recommended that,"in the opinion of this Convention, all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting the African slave trade, ought to be repealed."Two minority reports accompanied this resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the futility of the attempt at that time; the other report recommended that, since repeal of the national laws was improbable, nullification by the States impracticable, and action by the Supreme Court unlikely, therefore the States should bring in the Africans as apprentices, a system the legality of which "is incontrovertible." "The only difficult question," it was said, "is the future status of the apprentices after the expiration of their term of servitude."9Debate on these propositions began in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the resumption of the importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, "was listened to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously. Those of us who rose in opposition were looked upon by the excited assemblage present astraitorsto the best interests of the South, and only worthy of expulsion from the body. The excitement at last grew so high that personal violence was menaced, and some dozen of the more conservative members of the convention withdrew from the hall in which it was holding its sittings."10"It was clear," adds De Bow, "that the people of Vicksburg looked upon it [i.e., the convention] with some distrust."11When at last a ballot was taken, the first resolution passed by a vote of 40 to 19.12Finally, the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington was again condemned; and it was also suggested, in the newspaper which was the official organ of the meeting, that "the Convention raise a fund to be dispensed in premiums for the best sermons in favor of reopening the African Slave Trade."13

84.Public Opinion in the South.This record of the Commercial Conventions probably gives a true reflection of the development of extreme opinion on the question of reopening the slave-trade. First, it is noticeable that on this point there was a distinct divergence of opinion and interest between the Gulf and the Border States, and it was this more than any moral repugnance that checked the radicals. The whole movement represented the economic revolt of the slave-consuming cotton-belt against their base of labor supply. This revolt was only prevented from gaining its ultimate end by the fact that the Gulf States could not get on without the active political co-operation of the Border States. Thus, although such hot-heads as Spratt were not able, even as late as 1859, to carry a substantial majority of the South with them in an attempt to reopen the trade at all hazards, yet the agitation did succeed in sweeping away nearly all theoretical opposition to the trade, and left the majority of Southern people in an attitude which regarded the reopening of the African slave-trade as merely a question of expediency.

This growth of Southern opinion is clearly to be followed in the newspapers and pamphlets of the day, in Congress, and in many significant movements. The CharlestonStandardin a series of articles strongly advocated the reopening of the trade; the RichmondExaminer, though opposing the scheme as a Virginia paper should, was brought to "acknowledge that the laws which condemn the Slave-trade imply an aspersion upon the character of the South.14In March, 1859, theNational Erasaid: "There can be no doubt that the idea of reviving the African Slave Trade is gaining ground in the South. Some two months ago we could quote strong articles from ultra Southern journals against the traffic; but of late we have been sorry to observe in the same journals an ominous silence upon the subject, while the advocates of 'free trade in negroes' are earnest and active."15The SavannahRepublican, which at first declared the movement to be of no serious intent, conceded, in 1859, that it was gaining favor, and that nine-tenths of the Democratic Congressional Convention favored it, and that even those who did not advocate a revival demanded the abolition of the laws.16A correspondent from South Carolina writes, December 18, 1859: "The nefarious project of opening it [i.e., the slave trade] has been started here in that prurient temper of the times which manifests itself in disunion schemes.... My State is strangely and terribly infected with all this sort of thing.... One feeling that gives a countenance to the opening of the slave trade is, that it will be a sort of spite to the North and defiance of their opinions."17The New OrleansDeltadeclared that those who voted for the slave-trade in Congress were men "whose names will be honored hereafter for the unflinching manner in which they stood up for principle, for truth, and consistency, as well as the vital interests of the South."18

85.The Question in Congress.Early in December, 1856, the subject reached Congress; and although the agitation was then new, fifty-seven Southern Congressmen refused to declare a re-opening of the slave-trade "shocking to the moral sentiment of the enlightened portion of mankind," and eight refused to call the reopening even "unwise" and "inexpedient."19Three years later, January 31, 1859, it was impossible,in a House of one hundred and ninety-nine members, to get a two-thirds vote in order even to consider Kilgore's resolutions, which declared "that no legislation can be too thorough in its measures, nor can any penalty known to the catalogue of modern punishment for crime be too severe against a traffic so inhuman and unchristian."20

Congressmen and other prominent men hastened with the rising tide.21Dowdell of Alabama declared the repressive acts "highly offensive;" J.B. Clay of Kentucky was "opposed to all these laws;"22Seward of Georgia declared them "wrong, and a violation of the Constitution;"23Barksdale of Mississippi agreed with this sentiment; Crawford of Georgia threatened a reopening of the trade; Miles of South Carolina was for "sweeping away" all restrictions;24Keitt of South Carolina wished to withdraw the African squadron, and to cease to brand slave-trading as piracy;25Brown of Mississippi "would repeal the law instantly;"26Alexander Stephens, in his farewell address to his constituents, said: "Slave states cannot be made without Africans.... [My object is] to bring clearly to your mind the great truth that without an increase of African slaves from abroad, you may not expect or look for many more slave States."27Jefferson Davis strongly denied "any coincidence of opinion with those who prate of the inhumanity and sinfulness of the trade. The interest of Mississippi," said he, "not of the African, dictates my conclusion." He opposed the immediate reopening of the trade in Mississippi for fear of a paralyzing influx of Negroes, but carefully added: "This conclusion, in relation to Mississippi, is based upon my view ofherpresentcondition,notupon anygeneral theory. It is not supposed to be applicable to Texas, to New Mexico, or to anyfuture acquisitionsto be made south of the Rio Grande."28John Forsyth, who for seven years conducted the slave-trade diplomacy of the nation, declared, about 1860: "But one stronghold of its [i.e., slavery's] enemies remains to be carried, tocomplete its triumphand assure its welfare,—that is the existing prohibition of the African Slave-trade."29Pollard, in hisBlack Diamonds, urged the importation of Africans as "laborers." "This I grant you," said he, "would be practically the re-opening of the African slave trade; but ... you will find that it very often becomes necessary to evade the letter of the law, in some of the greatest measures of social happiness and patriotism."30

86.Southern Policy in 1860.The matter did not rest with mere words. During the session of the Vicksburg Convention, an "African Labor Supply Association" was formed, under the presidency of J.D.B. De Bow, editor ofDe Bow's Review, and ex-superintendent of the seventh census. The object of the association was "to promote the supply of African labor."31In 1857 the committee of the South Carolina legislature to whom the Governor's slave-trade message was referred made an elaborate report, which declared in italics:"The South at large does need a re-opening of the African slave trade."Pettigrew, the only member who disagreed to this report, failed of re-election. The report contained an extensive argument to prove the kingship of cotton, the perfidy of English philanthropy, and the lack of slaves in the South, which, it was said, would show a deficit of six hundred thousand slaves by 1878.32In Georgia, about this time, an attempt to expunge the slave-trade prohibition in the State Constitution lacked but one vote of passing.33From these slower and more legal movements came others less justifiable. The long argumenton the "apprentice" system finally brought a request to the collector of the port at Charleston, South Carolina, from E. Lafitte & Co., for a clearance to Africa for the purpose of importing African "emigrants." The collector appealed to the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb of Georgia, who flatly refused to take the bait, and replied that if the "emigrants" were brought in as slaves, it would be contrary to United States law; if as freemen, it would be contrary to their own State law.34In Louisiana a still more radical movement was attempted, and a bill passed the House of Representatives authorizing a company to import two thousand five hundred Africans, "indentured" for fifteen years "at least." The bill lacked but two votes of passing the Senate.35It was said that theGeorgian, of Savannah, contained a notice of an agricultural society which "unanimously resolved to offer a premium of $25 for the best specimen of a live African imported into the United States within the last twelve months."36

It would not be true to say that there was in the South in 1860 substantial unanimity on the subject of reopening the slave-trade; nevertheless, there certainly was a large and influential minority, including perhaps a majority of citizens of the Gulf States, who favored the project, and, in defiance of law and morals, aided and abetted its actual realization. Various movements, it must be remembered, gained much of their strength from the fact that their success meant a partial nullification of the slave-trade laws. The admission of Texas added probably seventy-five thousand recently imported slaves to the Southern stock; the movement against Cuba, which culminated in the "Ostend Manifesto" of Buchanan, Mason, and Soulé, had its chief impetus in the thousands of slaves whom Americans had poured into the island. Finally, the series of filibustering expeditions against Cuba, Mexico, and Central America were but the wilder and more irresponsible attempts to secure both slave territory and slaves.

87.Increase of the Slave-Trade from 1850 to 1860.The long and open agitation for the reopening of the slave-trade, together with the fact that the South had been more or less familiar with violations of the laws since 1808, led to such a remarkable increase of illicit traffic and actual importations in the decade 1850–1860, that the movement may almost be termed a reopening of the slave-trade.

In the foreign slave-trade our own officers continue to report "how shamefully our flag has been used;"37and British officers write "that at least one half of the successful part of the slave trade is carried on under the American flag," and this because "the number of American cruisers on the station is so small, in proportion to the immense extent of the slave-dealing coast."38The fitting out of slavers became a flourishing business in the United States, and centred at New York City. "Few of our readers," writes a periodical of the day, "are aware of the extent to which this infernal traffic is carried on, by vessels clearing from New York, and in close alliance with our legitimate trade; and that down-town merchants of wealth and respectability are extensively engaged in buying and selling African Negroes, and have been, with comparatively little interruption, for an indefinite number of years."39Another periodical says: "The number of persons engaged in the slave-trade, and the amount of capital embarked in it, exceed our powers of calculation. The city of New York has been until of late [1862] the principal port of the world for this infamous commerce; although the cities of Portland and Boston are only second to her in that distinction. Slave dealers added largely to the wealth of our commercial metropolis; they contributed liberally to the treasuries of political organizations, and their bank accounts were largely depleted to carry elections in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut."40During eighteen months of the years 1859—1860 eighty-five slavers are reported to have been fitted out in New York harbor,41and these alone transported from 30,000 to 60,000 slaves annually.42The United States deputy marshal of that district declared in 1856 that the business of fitting out slavers "was never prosecuted with greater energy than at present. The occasional interposition of the legal authorities exercises no apparent influence for its suppression. It is seldom that one or more vessels cannot be designated at the wharves, respecting which there is evidence that she is either in or has been concerned in the Traffic."43On the coast of Africa "it is a well-known fact that most of the Slave ships which visit the river are sent from New York and New Orleans."44

The absence of United States war-ships at the Brazilian station enabled American smugglers to run in cargoes, in spite of the prohibitory law. One cargo of five hundred slaves was landed in 1852, and theCorreio Mercantilregrets "that it was the flag of the United States which covered this act of piracy, sustained by citizens of that great nation."45When the Brazil trade declined, the illicit Cuban trade greatly increased, and the British consul reported: "Almost all the slave expeditions for some time past have been fitted out in the United States, chiefly at New York."46

88.Notorious Infractions of the Laws.This decade is especially noteworthy for the great increase of illegal importations into the South. These became bold, frequent, and notorious. Systematic introduction on a considerable scale probably commenced in the forties, although with great secrecy. "To have boldly ventured into New Orleans, with negroes freshly imported from Africa, would not only have brought down upon the head of the importer the vengeanceof our very philanthropic Uncle Sam, but also the anathemas of the whole sect of philanthropists and negrophilists everywhere. To import them for years, however, into quiet places, evading with impunity the penalty of the law, and the ranting of the thin-skinned sympathizers with Africa, was gradually to popularize the traffic by creating a demand for laborers, and thus to pave the way for thegradual revival of the slave trade. To this end, a few men, bold and energetic, determined, ten or twelve years ago [1848 or 1850], to commence the business of importing negroes, slowly at first, but surely; and for this purpose they selected a few secluded places on the coast of Florida, Georgia and Texas, for the purpose of concealing their stock until it could be sold out. Without specifying other places, let me draw your attention to a deep and abrupt pocket or indentation in the coast of Texas, about thirty miles from Brazos Santiago. Into this pocket a slaver could run at any hour of the night, because there was no hindrance at the entrance, and here she could discharge her cargo of movables upon the projecting bluff, and again proceed to sea inside of three hours. The live stock thus landed could be marched a short distance across the main island, over a porous soil which refuses to retain the recent foot-prints, until they were again placed in boats, and were concealed upon some of the innumerable little islands which thicken on the waters of the Laguna in the rear. These islands, being covered with a thick growth of bushes and grass, offer an inscrutable hiding place for the 'black diamonds.'"47These methods became, however, toward 1860, too slow for the radicals, and the trade grew more defiant and open. The yacht "Wanderer," arrested on suspicion in New York and released, landed in Georgia six months later four hundred and twenty slaves, who were never recovered.48The AugustaDespatchsays: "Citizens of our city are probably interested in the enterprise. It is hinted that this is the third cargo landed by the same company, during the last six months."49Two parties of Africans were brought intoMobile with impunity. One bark, strongly suspected of having landed a cargo of slaves, was seized on the Florida coast; another vessel was reported to be landing slaves near Mobile; a letter from Jacksonville, Florida, stated that a bark had left there for Africa to ship a cargo for Florida and Georgia.50Stephen A. Douglas said "that there was not the shadow of doubt that the Slave-trade had been carried on quite extensively for a long time back, and that there had been more Slaves imported into the southern States, during the last year, than had ever been imported before in any one year, even when the Slave-trade was legal. It was his confident belief, that over fifteen thousand Slaves had been brought into this country during the past year [1859.] He had seen, with his own eyes, three hundred of those recently-imported, miserable beings, in a Slave-pen in Vicksburg, Miss., and also large numbers at Memphis, Tenn."51It was currently reported that depots for these slaves existed in over twenty large cities and towns in the South, and an interested person boasted to a senator, about 1860, that "twelve vessels would discharge their living freight upon our shores within ninety days from the 1st of June last," and that between sixty and seventy cargoes had been successfully introduced in the last eighteen months.52The New YorkTribunedoubted the statement; but John C. Underwood, formerly of Virginia, wrote to the paper saying that he was satisfied that the correspondent was correct. "I have," he said, "had ample evidences of the fact, that reopening the African Slave-trade is a thing already accomplished, and the traffic is brisk, and rapidly increasing. In fact, the most vital question of the day is not the opening of this trade, but its suppression. The arrival of cargoes of negroes, fresh from Africa, in our southern ports, is an event of frequent occurrence."53

Negroes, newly landed, were openly advertised for sale in the public press, and bids for additional importations made. In reply to one of these, the MobileMercuryfacetiously remarks: "Some negroes who never learned to talk English, went up the railroad the other day."54Congressmen declared on the floor of the House: "The slave trade may therefore be regarded as practically re-established;"55and petitions like that from the American Missionary Society recited the fact that "this piratical and illegal trade—this inhuman invasion of the rights of men,—this outrage on civilization and Christianity—this violation of the laws of God and man—is openly countenanced and encouraged by a portion of the citizens of some of the States of this Union."56

From such evidence it seems clear that the slave-trade laws, in spite of the efforts of the government, in spite even of much opposition to these extra-legal methods in the South itself, were grossly violated, if not nearly nullified, in the latter part of the decade 1850–1860.

89.Apathy of the Federal Government.During the decade there was some attempt at reactionary legislation, chiefly directed at the Treaty of Washington. June 13, 1854, Slidell, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, made an elaborate report to the Senate, advocating the abrogation of the 8th Article of that treaty, on the ground that it was costly, fatal to the health of the sailors, and useless, as the trade had actuallyincreased under its operation.57Both this and a similar attempt in the House failed,58as did also an attempt to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty.59Most of the actual legislation naturally took the form of appropriations. In 1853 there was an attempt to appropriate $20,000.60This failed, and the appropriation of $8,000 in 1856 was the first for ten years.61The following year brought a similar appropriation,62and in 185963and 186064$75,000 and $40,000 respectively were appropriated. Of attempted legislation to strengthen the laws there was plenty: e.g., propositions to regulate the issue of sea-letters and the use of our flag;65to prevent the "coolie" trade, or the bringing in of "apprentices" or "African laborers;"66to stop the coastwise trade;67to assent to a Right of Search;68and to amend the Constitution by forever prohibiting the slave-trade.69

The efforts of the executive during this period were criminally lax and negligent. "The General Government did notexert itself in good faith to carry out either its treaty stipulations or the legislation of Congress in regard to the matter. If a vessel was captured, her owners were permitted to bond her, and thus continue her in the trade; and if any man was convicted of this form of piracy, the executive always interposed between him and the penalty of his crime. The laws providing for the seizure of vessels engaged in the traffic were so constructed as to render the duty unremunerative; and marshals now find their fees for such services to be actually less than their necessary expenses. No one who bears this fact in mind will be surprised at the great indifference of these officers to the continuing of the slave-trade; in fact, he will be ready to learn that the laws of Congress upon the subject had become a dead letter, and that the suspicion was well grounded that certain officers of the Federal Government had actually connived at their violation."70From 1845 to 1854, in spite of the well-known activity of the trade, but five cases obtained cognizance in the New York district. Of these, Captains Mansfield and Driscoll forfeited their bonds of $5,000 each, and escaped; in the case of the notorious Canot, nothing had been done as late as 1856, although he was arrested in 1847; Captain Jefferson turned State's evidence, and, in the case of Captain Mathew, anolle prosequiwas entered.71Between 1854 and 1856 thirty-two persons were indicted in New York, of whom only thirteen had at the latter date been tried, and only one of these convicted.72These dismissals were seldom on account of insufficient evidence. In the notorious case of the "Wanderer," she was arrested on suspicion, released, and soon after she landed a cargo of slaves in Georgia; some who attempted to seize the Negroes were arrested for larceny, and in spite of the efforts of Congress the captain was never punished. The yacht was afterwards started on another voyage, and being brought back to Boston was sold to her former owner for about one third her value.73The bark "Emily" was seized on suspicion andreleased, and finally caught red-handed on the coast of Africa; she was sent to New York for trial, but "disappeared" under a certain slave captain, Townsend, who had, previous to this, in the face of the most convincing evidence, been acquitted at Key West.74

The squadron commanders of this time were by no means as efficient as their predecessors, and spent much of their time, apparently, in discussing the Right of Search. Instead of a number of small light vessels, which by the reports of experts were repeatedly shown to be the only efficient craft, the government, until 1859, persisted in sending out three or four great frigates. Even these did not attend faithfully to their duties. A letter from on board one of them shows that, out of a fifteen months' alleged service, only twenty-two days were spent on the usual cruising-ground for slavers, and thirteen of these at anchor; eleven months were spent at Madeira and Cape Verde Islands, 300 miles from the coast and 3,000 miles from the slave market.75British commanders report the apathy of American officers and the extreme caution of their instructions, which allowed many slavers to escape.76

The officials at Washington often remained in blissful, and perhaps willing, ignorance of the state of the trade. While Americans were smuggling slaves by the thousands into Brazil, and by the hundreds into the United States, Secretary Graham was recommending the abrogation of the 8th Article of the Treaty of Washington;77so, too, when the Cuban slave-trade was reaching unprecedented activity, and while slavers were being fitted out in every port on the Atlantic seaboard, Secretary Kennedy naïvely reports, "The time has come, perhaps, when it may be properly commended to the notice of Congress to inquire into the necessity of further continuing the regular employment of a squadron on this [i.e., the African] coast."78Again, in 1855, the government has"advices that the slave trade south of the equator is entirely broken up;"79in 1856, the reports are "favorable;"80in 1857 a British commander writes: "No vessel has been seen here for one year, certainly; I think for nearly three years there have been no American cruizers on these waters, where a valuable and extensive American commerce is carried on. I cannot, therefore, but think that this continued absence of foreign cruizers looks as if they were intentionally withdrawn, and as if the Government did not care to take measures to prevent the American flag being used to cover Slave Trade transactions;"81nevertheless, in this same year, according to Secretary Toucey, "the force on the coast of Africa has fully accomplished its main object."82Finally, in the same month in which the "Wanderer" and her mates were openly landing cargoes in the South, President Buchanan, who seems to have been utterly devoid of a sense of humor, was urging the annexation of Cuba to the United States as the only method of suppressing the slave-trade!83

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