Part 8 (2/2)

In defining the liht should be exercised, the coasts of America were included The Senate were of opinion that such a provision arded as an admission that the slave-trade was carried on between the coasts of Africa and the United States, contrary to the known fact, and to the reproach either of the will or power of the United States to enforce their laws, by which it was declared to be piracy It also placed the whole coast of the Union under the _surveillance_ of the cruisers of a foreign power The Senate, accordingly, ratified the treaty, with an a the coasts of the United States from the operation of the article They also introduced other amendments of less importance

On the return of the treaty to London thus a of dissatisfaction at the course pursued by the Senate, not so much on account of any decided objection to the amendment in itself considered, as to the claiotiated according to instructions Under the influence of this feeling, Mr Canning refused to ratify the treaty as amended, and no further atteotiation

It will probably be admitted on all hands, at the present day, that Mr

Canning's scruple ithout foundation The treaty had been negotiated by this accoe that the Constitution of the United States reserves this power to the Senate

That it should be exercised was, therefore, no more matter of complaint, than that the treaty should be referred at all to the ratification of the Senate The course pursued by Mr Canning was greatly to be regretted, as it postponed the ahteen years, not without risk of seriousin the interval

Atte the otiation with the United States, but without success Conventions between France and England, for a ht of search within certain limits, were concluded in 1831 and 1833, under thethe public sensibility in the former country As these treaties lish cruisers increased After the treaty with Portugal, in 1838, the vessels of that country, which, with those of Spain, were an to assu of the United States as a protection; and in o had, by collusive transfers on the African coast, becouese, the vessels had been built and fitted out in the United States, and too often, it may be feared, with American capital

Vessels of this description were provided with two sets of papers, to be used as occasionfurther been done by British cruisers than to board and search these vessels, whether before or after a transfer of this kind, no coovernment of the United States But, as ed in lawful commerce on the coast of Africa, it frequently happened that they were boarded by British cruisers, not always under the coes were broken up, officers and men occasionally ill-treated, and vessels sent to the United States or Sierra Leone for adjudication

In 1840 an agreement was made between the officers in command of the British and Aht of search on the coast of Africa It will be found a to this subject, in the sixth volume of this collection It was a well-meant, but unauthorized step, and was promptly disavowed by the administration of Mr Van Buren Its operation, while it lasted, was but to increase the existing difficulty Reports of the interruptions experienced by our coreatly tointerest on the part of those surreptitiously engaged in the traffic to give thean to be manifested in the country; and the correspondence between the American Minister in London and Lord Palmerston, in the last days of the Melbourne ministry, was such as to show that the controversy had reached a critical point

Such was the state of the question when Mr Webster entered the Department of State

The controversy was transmitted, as we have seen, to the new administrations on both sides of the water, but soon assumed a somewhat modified character The quintuple treaty, as it was called, was concluded at London, on the 20th of Deceland, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia; and inforiven by Lord Aberdeen to Mr Everett the sa desire was intimated that the United States would join this association of the great powers, but no formal invitation for that purpose was addressed to them But the recent occurrences on the coast of Africa, and the tone of the correspondence above alluded to, had increased the standing repugnance of the United States to the recognition of a right of search in time of peace

In the gerated, soroundless, had reached France froht of search was produced in that country The incidents connected with the adjustreatly irritated the French ministry and people, and the present was dee of the Chambers, an amendment was 's speech in the following ter its concurrence to the suppression of a criovernment will kno to preserve from every attack the interest of our co” This amendment was adopted by the unanimous vote of the Chambers

This ell understood to be a blow aimed at the quintuple treaty It was the most formidable parliamentary check ever encountered by M

Guizot's adhout Europe It compelled the French otiated agreeably to instructions, and not differing in principle from those of 1831 and 1833, which were consequently liable to be involved in its fate The ratification of the quintuple treaty was felt to be out of the question Although it soon appeared that the king was determined to sustain M Guizot, it was by no means apparent in what manner his administration was to be rescued fro in France was considerably heightened by various documents which appeared at this juncture, in connection with the controversy between the United States and Great Britain The President'spapers reached Europe about the period of the opening of the session A very sew days after the adoption of M

Lefebvre's amendment, a pamphlet, written by General Cass, was published in Paris, and, being soon after translated into French and widely circulated, contributed to strengthen the current of public feeling A more elaborate essay was, in the course of the season, published by Mr

Wheaton, the Minister of the United States at Berlin, in which the theory of a right of search in ti sketch of the history of the question will show the difficulty of the position in reference to this most important interest, at the time Lord Ashburton's ood sense and high statesmanshi+p the controversy was terminated is well known to the country It is unnecessary here to retrace the steps of the correspondence, to coton, or to analyze the parlia year it gave rise It is enough to say, that, under circumstances of some embarrassment to the Department of State, a course of procedure was happily devised by Mr Webster, and incorporated into the treaty, which, leaving untouched the metaphysics of the question, furnished a satisfactory practical solution of the difficulty Circu made a restatement expedient of the principles maintained by the United States on this most important subject, a letter was addressed by Mr Webster to Mr Everett, on the 28th of March, 1843, to be read to the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which the law of nations applicable to the subject was expounded by the American Secretary with a clearness and pohich will render any further discussion of the subject, under its present aspects, entirely superfluous Nor will it be thought out of place to acknowledge the fairness, good temper, and ability hich the doctrine and practice of the English government were sustained by the Earl of Aberdeen

The wisdohth article of the treaty was drawn up was soon seen in its consequences Its effect was decisive It put a stop to all discontent at home in reference to the interruption of our lawful commerce on the coast of Africa Abroad, it raised the jealousy already existing in France on this subject to the point of uncontrollable repugnance The ratification of the quintuple treaty had long been abandoned It was soon evident that the conventions of 1831 and 1833 iven up In the course of the year 1844, the Duc de Broglie, the honorable and accootiated, accepted a specialto soement by way of substitute, and a convention was soon concluded with the British government on precisely the saton

It estion of Mr Webster will be borne in mind, in any future discussions of this and other maritime questions, that the policy of the United States is not that of a feeble naval power interested in exaggerating the doctrine of neutral inviolability A respect for every independent flag is a common interest of all civilized states, powerful or weak; but the rank of the United States areat maritime power on the western coasts of the Atlantic and the eastern coasts of the Pacific,too far the views they have hitherto held, and moderate their anxiety to construe with extrehts which the law of nations concedes to public vessels

The three subjects on which we have dwelt, naitives, and the suppression of the slave-trade, were the only ones which required to be provided for by treaty stipulation Other subjects, scarcely less important and fully as difficult were happily disposed of in the correspondence of the plenipotentiaries These were the affair of the ”Caroline,” that of the ”Creole,” and the question of ith on these topics; but we shall be pardoned for one or two reflections

So urgent is the pressure on the public mind of the successive events which demand attention each as it presents itself, that the for out of the destruction of the ”Caroline” and the arrest of McLeod are already fading from recollection They formed, in reality, a crisis of a lance at the correspondence of the two governton and London sufficiently shows this to be the case The violation of the territory of the United States in the destruction of the ”Caroline,” however unwarrantable the conduct of the ”sympathizers” which provoked it, becaovernment assuravest character On the other hand, the inability of the government of the United States to extricate McLeod froh the governround that he was acting under the legal orders of his superior, presented a difficulty in the working of our system equally novel and important

Other cases had arisen in which important constitutional principles had failed to take effect, for want of the requisite legislative provisions

It is believed that this was the first time in which a difficulty of this kind had presented itself in our foreign relations A ined In addition to the embarrassment occasioned by the refusal of the executive and judiciary of New York to yield to the representations of the general government, the violent interference of the mob presented new difficulties of the most deplorable character If McLeod had been executed, it is not too much to say, that ould at once have ensued His acquittal averted this ier The conciliatory spirit cannot be too warmly commended hich, on the one hand, the proper reparation was made by Lord Ashburton for the violation of the Aress, by the passage of an appropriate law, provided an effectual legislative remedy for any future sireatest evils may be averted, and the overnments animated by a sincere desire to promote the welfare of those who have placed power in their hands, not for selfish, party purposes, but for the public good

There is, perhaps, no one of the papers written by Mr Webster as Secretary of State, in which so ument are displayed as in the letter on ”impressment” To incorporate a stipulation on this subject into a treaty was, regarding the antecedents of the question, impracticable But the reply of Lord Ashburton to Mr Webster's announcement of the American principle overnment It al practice will ever again be syste the advance made by public sentiment an all questions connected with personal liberty, ”a hot-press on the Thaation in Parliaht of i seamen from American vessels could never be practically asserted in a future ith any other effect than that of adding the United States to the parties in the contest No refineh their theoretical soundness ht equal their subtilty, would be of the least avail here To force sea a lawful commerce, and compel them to serve for an indefinite and hopeless period on board a foreign man-of-war, is an act of power and violence to which no nation will submit that is able to resist it

In the case of the United States and Great Britain, that coeneral appearance whichthe most deplorable results of the exercise of this power, in reality constitute the strongest reason for its abandoner that, with the best intentions, the boarding officer lishman; the certainty that a reckless lieutenant, un his shi+p on a ren station, will pretend to believe that he is seizing the subjects of his own government, whatever may be the evidence to the contrary, are reasons of theht exposed to such inevitable and intolerable abuse

These and other views of the subject are presented in Mr Webster's letter to Lord Ashburton of the 8th of August, 1842, with a strength of reasoning and force of illustration not often equalled in a state paper

That letter was spoken of, in the hearing of the writer of this memoir, by one whose naive the highest authority to the re in the language The principles laid down in it may be considered as incorporated into the public law of the United States, and will have their influence beyond our own territorial limits and beyond our own time

Some disappointton was published, that a settle its provisions It need not be said that a subject of such otiators It was, however, speedily inferred by Mr Webster, from the purport of his informal conferences with Lord Ashburton on this point, that an arrangement of this question was not then practicable, and that to attereat risk of failure On the other hand, it was not less certain that, by closing up the other matters in controversy, the best preparation was on dispute to an amicable issue, whenever circu Considerable firmness was no doubt required to act upon this policy, and to forego the atte into the nitude

It is unnecessary to say how completely the course adopted has been justified by the event