nization was early avowed to be one of the objects of the American Society for Colonizing the Free People of Colour of the United States; and has been, at all times since, steadily prosecuted, by its friends in the councils of the Union: Be it therefore resolved, That a Committee be appointed to prepare, and to cause to be translated into the several languages of most current use, in Europe and America, a memorial to the Sovereign authority of every maritime nation on both Continents, earnestly soliciting the denunciation of the Slave Trade as piracy. And be it further resolved, That the memorials having been approved and attested, by the signature of the President of the Society, shall be forwarded, by his advice, to their respective destinations. In introducing his resolution, Mr. Mercer said that, admonished by the lateness of the hour to which the present meeting had been protracted, he should consume but a few minutes in recommending to the Society the resolution which he had the honour to submit. What he should say, would be prompted rather by the desire to vindicate from seeming presumption, the means which the resolution devised for the attainment of its object, than the end itself, which had already received the countenance of the National Legislature, in an act which denounced the African slave trade to be piracy. An example which had been promptly followed in Europe, by the nation most distinguish ed in that quarter of the globe, for her zealous and persevering, though hi therto unavailing efforts to abolish this criminal traffic. It was known that at the time when he had the honour of first calling the attention of the House of Representatives to the remedy which the resolution proposes for an evil, so obstinate and inveterate as to have baffled all others, the entire adjudications of those complex courts of mixed commission established at so much international labour, by Great Britain, amounted to but nine in number: and at the seat of that tribunal which overlooked the greatest mart for slaves in the West Indies, the Havana, there had not then been a single condemnation. The subsequent progress of these tribunals, said he, had not the means of tracing, but it was notorious that since the period to which he had referred, the trade in question had been extended with circumstances of aggravated cruelty and atrocity. Of both its extent and horror, the African Institution afforded conclusive and mournful evidence. It presented a detailed list of the names of two hundred and eighteen vessels believed to be engaged in its prosecution in the year 1824, of which sixty-eight were Spanish, sixty-three Brazilian, thirty-nine French, twenty Portuguese, two Dutch, one Swedish, and one, to the dishonour of our own flag, American. Twenty-four others have their names enrolled in this dark catalogue, without a designation of their origin. How many others escaped in that year the vigilance of en. quiry and pursuit, must be the subject of conjecture, from the number known and designated. But of each of those whose existence, employment, and names are ascertained and reported, diligently prosecuted its gainful commerce, not fewer than one hundred and twenty thousand victims swelled the profits of their cupidity. Of these victims, probably not fewer than twenty thousand found a watery grave in the middle passage, or perished under the diseases incident to its loathsome imprisonment after their arrival at their destined market. More than twenty thousand reached, in that year, the single port of Rio Janeiro, in the dominions of his Imperial Majesty of Brazil, whose minister, on his recognition in this capital, as the representative of an independent nation, was instructed to inform our own Government, that his master concurred in the views of the United States, respecting the slave trade, and would adopt the earliest practicable means for its abolition! It is, therefore, more manifest than ever, that the mere exchange of the right of search, sustaining a system of mixed tribunals, inefficient at all times, and subject to the derangements of war between their common sovereigns, are incompetent, separately, or taken together, to the end of greatly diminishing, much less of totally abolishing this execrable commerce. It is only by making it the object of universal detection and punishment wherever its perpetrators can be arrested, by stamping upon it the seal of indelible infamy, and assuring its certain and heavy chastisement, by making it pi. racy by the consent of all nations, and investing it with all the consequences which the established law and usage of nations attach to this crime, that it can be hunted off the globe as other piracies are. Both wit and argument indeed, have been pointed against this denomination of an offence, which was not only tolerated, but encouraged, at one period of modern Europe, by all maritime nations. But, at no very remote period, was every where construed to confer the right to reduce its prisoners and their posterity to perpetual slavery, without distinction of colour. This barbarous rigour brought the Helot to Sparta, as well as the Ethiopian to Rome. If the mild spirit of Christianity, of that religion which teaches man to "do unto others as he would have them to do unto him," has loosened the hold of successful valour upon its European captives, does not the same law loosen the bands which force has put upon the African? If robbery on the high seas, and on its desolate and barbarous shores, be piracy, without the accompaniment of murder, shall not that robbery which fastens on the person of the proprietor, and all that he holds dear in life, which so often extinguishes life itself, by pestilence and slow consuming disease, be also piracy? Such, in the early age of Greece, from whose language we derive this word, was the chief occupation of the sea-robber, who, like the modern Turk, infested the shores of the Mediterranean, to make captive and consign to slavery the peaceful labourers of its coasts and islands. The Mahometan corsair long practised, and still keeps up this warfare even in Europe; and thus still makes as formerly, occasional reprisals on her Southern border, for those cruel injuries which the European Christian trader inflicts on Western Africa. If the one deserve to be regarded as a pirate, does not the other equally so. If there be any inequality in their guilt, it is that the one does not trespass against the religion which his prophet taught him to propagate, not by love, but by the sword. Not so the Christian, whose gospel is peace, gentleness, and mercy. But the concurrent statutes of Great Britain and America, have fixed upon this crime against humanity, its true denomination. It is now piracy, as regards the operation of the laws of each nation, upon its own subjects or citizens. In the English tongue, it is every where piracy. The object of the resolution is to extend this denomination of this offence, to the statutes and languages of all civilized maritime powers; that, incorporated in the common law of nations, it may meet with the punishment which it now escapes, under cover of the dishonoured flags of so many States, who either connive at its practice, or withhold the only means of its detection and punishment. The resolution of the House of Representatives, from which the late aborttive negotiation between the United States and Great Britain on this subject, sprung, from the desire of the popular branch of the National Legislature, to establish, by international agreement, that denomination of this offence, which the cotemporary legislation of Congress had so justly affixed to it. The abortive issue of that negotiation, and the subsequent rejection of a similar treaty with the Republic of Colombia, arising from an unfortunate disagreement between the Senate and the Executive, leave no hope for success for the object of the proposed resolution, through the direct agency of that branch of our Government charged with our foreign relations. It is, therefore, only by a direct appeal to the humanity of other States, through the only channels open to the American Colonization Society, that the resolution which I have just read, said Mr. M. proposes to renew the suspended efforts of the United States to extend the principle of their criminal code to other nations, until, by universal acquiescence, they shall become the foundation of that universal law which the tribunals of the civilized world are authorized to enforce. The security of the American Colony, the interesting report proves to be in some degree dependent on the success of these efforts; and not its security only, but the fruition of any rational hope that can be indulged, of promoting African civilization, which obviously depends on the security of African labour. While, from these considerations, the resolution submitted to the Society, it is hoped, will derive an apology for its mover, it becomes his duty to shew that its adoption may promote the end which it proposes. And here, it might seem to argue some presumption to hope for success from the appeal of a private Society to that humanity which has been invoked, in vain, by the zealous efforts of the most powerful maritime State of the world, if, indeed, since the Congress of Vienna denounced this traffic, without universally concurring in any measure for its immediate abolition, there had not been a favourable change in the circumstances of two of those States, who influenced the deliberations of that Congress, and the very absence of any political power on the American Society, to enforce its requests, did not remove one obstacle at least to their success, on the pride of those to whom they are addressed. Portugal, separated from Brazil and Spain, severed from her Colonies on the American Continent, have scarcely a remaining interest opposed to the ob ject of the resolution, and all the independent States of America, with the solitary exception of Brazil, have, by laws of greater or less severity, denounced and prohibited the African Slave Trade. The singular inconsistency of France, in denouncing, and at the same time permitting this traffic to pass unpunished before her eyes, is in part to be explained by her jealousy of her ancient rival, whose motives for a stipulated ex change of the right of search, she suspects, and who having so recently witnessed a British army in her capital, revolts at every seeming concession to British power. Even in France, whose abused flag covers so large a share of this iniquitous traffic, a public sentiment against it has arisen, and is rapidly spreading, which must, ere long, reach the heart of her legislative councils, and of her Sovereign. A gallant nation cannot see its standard used to protect the vilest criminals from merited punishment, and will more readily listen to the testimony of this revolting abuse of its honour, through the memorial of a humane Society, than the diplomatic correspondence of her powerful and ancient rival. Mr. Mercer concluded, by an apology for having so far exceeded the compass to which, when he rose, he had designed to limit his remarks. The following Committee was then appointed to carry its object into effect, viz. Gen. MERCER, Gen. JONES, and Dr. LAURIE. On motion of Mr. SAMUEL BAYARD, Esq. of New-Jersey, Resolved, That this Society, deeply impressed with the loss its cause has sustained by the deaths of the Rev. HORACE SESSIONS, the Rev. CALVIN HOLTON, and Mr. CHARLES L. FORCE, will cherish, with gratitude and affection, the memory of these devoted friends to Africa. On motion of the Rev. J. N. CAMPBELL, Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to RICHARD SMITH, Esq. Treasurer, for the very important services which he has long and gratuitously rendered to this Institution. On motion of Doctor LAURIE, it was Resolved, That the thanks of the meeting be given to the Hon. RICHARD RUSH, for the very able manner in which he has presided during the present meeting. A Committee was then appointed consisting of F. S. KEY, Esq. and Gen. W. Jones, who nominated the following gentlemen as officers of the Society, for the ensuing year: OFFICERS. Hon. Bushrod Washington, President. Vice-Presidents. Hon. William H. Crawford, of Georgia, Hon. John Marshall, of Virginia, Hon. Richard Rush, Washington City. Managers. Francis S. Key, Esq. Walter Jones, Esqa Rev. Dr. James Laurie, Rev. Dr. S. B. Balch, Rev. O. B. Brown, Dr. William Thornton, Rev. William Hawley, Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary, * Chosen in the room of the Rev. Dr. Wilmer, who has removed from the District of Columbia. |