The act of Congress of the 22d of March, 1794, contains provisions that no citizen or citizens of the United States, or foreigner, or any other person coming into, or residing within the same, shali, for himself or any other person whatsoever, either as master, factor, or owner, build, fit, equip, load, or otherwise prepare, any ship or vessel, within any port or place of the United States, nor shall cause any ship or vessel to sail from any port or place within the same, for the purpose of carrying on any trade or traffic in slaves to any foreign country, or for the purpose of procuring from any foreign kingdom, place, or country, the inhabitants of such kingdom, place, or country, to be transported to any foreign country, port, or place, whatever, to be sold or disposed of as slaves, under the penalty of the forfeiture of any such vessel, and of the payment of large sums of money, by the persons offending against the directions of the act.

By an act of the 3d of April, 1798, in relation to the Mississippi territory, to which the constitutional provision did not extend, the introduction of slaves, under severe penalties, was forbidden, and every slave imported contrary to the act was to be entitled to freedom. By an act of the 10th of May, 1800, the citizens or residents of this country were prohibited from holding any right or property in vessels employed in transporting slaves from one foreign country to another, on pain of forfeiting their right of property, and also double the value of that right in money, and double the value of their interest in the slaves; nor were they allowed to serve on board of vessels of the United States employed in the transportation of slaves from one country to another, under the punishment of fines and imprisonment; nor were they permitted to serve on board of foreign ships employed in the slave trade. By this act, also, the commissioned vessels of the United States were authorized to seize vessels and crews employed contrary to the act.

By an act of the 28th of February, 1803, masters of vessels were not allowed to bring into any port (where the laws of the state prohibited the importation) any negro, mulatto, or other person of color, not being a native, a citizen, or registered seaman of the United States, under the pain of heavy penalties; and no vessel, having on board persons of the above description, was to be admitted to an entry; and, if any such person should be landed from on board of any vessel, the same was to be forfeited:

By an act of the 2d March, 1807, the importation of slaves into any port of the United States was to be prohibited after the first of January, 1808, the time prescribed by the constitutional provision. This act contains many severe provisions against any interference or participation in the slave trade, such as heavy fines, long imprisonments, and the forfeitures of vessels: the President was also authorize ed to employ armed vessels to cruize on any part of the coast where he might judge attempts would be made to violate the act, and to instruct the commanders of armed vessels to seize and bring in vessels found on the high seas contravening the provisions of the law.

By an act of the 20th of April, 1818, the laws, in prohibition of the slave trade, were further improved; this act is characterized with a peculiarity of legislative precaution, especially in the eighth section, which throws the labor of proof upon the defendant, that the colored persons brought into the United States by him, had not been brought in contrary to the laws.

By an act of the 3d of March, 1819, the power is continued in the President to employ the armed ships of the United States, to seize, and bring into port any vessel engaged in the slave trade by citizens or residents of the United States, and such vessels, together with the goods and effects on board, are to be forfeited and sold, and the proceeds to be distributed, in like manner as is provided by law for the distribution of prizes taken from an enemy; and the officers and crew are to undergo the punishments inflicted by previous acts. The President, by this act, is authorized to make such regulations and arrangements as he may deem expedient, for the safe keeping, support, and removal beyond the limits of the United States, of all such negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, as may have been brought within its jurisdiction, and to appoint a proper person or persons residing on the coast of Africa, as agent or agents, for receiving the negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, delivered from on board of vessels seized in the prosecution of the slave trade.

And in addition to all the aforesaid laws, the present Congress, on the 15th of May, 1820, believing that the then existing provisions would not be sufficiently available, 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 the 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 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 shall suffer death.

The immoral and pernicious practice of the slave trade has attracted much public attention in Europe, within the last few years; and in a Congress at Vienna, on the 8th of February, 1815, five of the principal powers made a solemn engagement, in the face of mankind, that this traffic should be made to cease; in pursuance of which these powers have enacted municipal laws to suppress the trade. Spain, although not a party to the original engagement, did soon after, in her treaty with England, stipulate for the immediate abolition of the Spanish slave trade to the north of the equator, and for its final and universal abolition on the 30th of May, 1820.

Portugal likewise, in her treaty in 1817, stipulated, that the Portuguese slave trade on the coast of Africa should entirely cease to the

northward of the equator, and engaged that it should be unlawful for her subjects to purchase or trade in slaves except to the south ward of the line; the precise period at which the entire abolition is to take place in Portugal does not appear to be finally fixed; but the Portuguese ambassador, in the presence of the Congress at Vienna, declared, that Portugal, faithful to her principles, would not refuse to adopt the term of eight years, which term will expire in the year

1823.

At this time, among the European states, there is not a flag which can legally cover this inhuman traffic to the north of the line: nevertheless, experience has proved the inefficacy of the various and rigorous laws which have been made in Europe, and in this country; it being a lamentable fact, that the disgraceful practice is even now carried on to a surprising extent. During the last year, Captain Trenchard, the commander of the United States' sloop of war the Cyane, found that part of the coast of Africa which he visited lined with vessels, engaged, as it is presumed, in this forbidden traffic; of these he examined many; and five, which appeared to be fitted out on American account, he sent into the jurisdiction of the United States, for adjudication; each of them, it is believed, has been condemned, and the commanders of two of them have been sentenced to the punishment prescribed by the laws of the United States.

The testimony recently published, with the opinion of the presiding judge of the United States' court of the southern district in the state of New York, in the case of the schooner Plattsburgh, lays open a scene of the grossest fraud that could be practised to deceive the officers of government, and conceal the unlawful transaction.

The extension of the trade for the last 25 or 30 years must, in a degree, be conjectural, but the best information that can be obtained on the subject, furnishes good foundation to believe, that, during that period, the number of slaves withdrawn from western Africa, amounts to upwards of a million and a half; the annual average would be a mean somewhere between fifty and eighty thousand.

The trade appears to be lucrative in proportion to its heinousness; and, as it is generally inhibited, the unfeeling slave dealers, in order to elude the laws, increase its horrors; the innocent Africans, who are mercilessly forced from their native homes in irons, are crowded in vessels and situations which are not adapted for the transportation of human beings; and this cruelty is frequently succeeded, during the voyage of their destination, with dreadful mortality. Further information on this subject will appear in a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, enclosing two other letters marked 1 and 2, and also by the extract of a letter from an officer of the Cyane, dated April 10, 1820, which are annexed to this report. While the slave trade exists, there can be no prospect of civilization in Africa.

However well disposed the European powers may be to effect a practical abolition of the trade, it seems generally acknowledged, that, for the attainment of this object, it is necessary to agree upon some concerted plan of co-operation, but, unhappily, no arrangement has as yet obtained universal consent.

England has recently engaged in treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, in which the mutual right of visitation and search is exchanged; this right is of a special and limited character, as well in relation to the number and description of vessels, as to space; and, to avoid possible inconveniences, no suspicious circumstances are to warrant the detention of a vessel; this right is restricted to the simple fact of slaves being on board.

These treaties contemplate the establishment of mixed courts, formed of an equal number of individuals of the two contracting nations, the one to reside in a possession belonging to his Britannic Majesty, the other within the territory of the other respective power; when a vessel is visited and detained, it is to be taken to the nearest court; and if condemned, the vessel is to be declared a lawful prize, as well as the cargo, and are to be sold for the profit of the two nations; the slaves are to receive a certificate of emancipation, and to be delivered over to the government on whose territory the court is which passes sentence, to be employed as servants or free laborers: each of the governments binds itself to guaranty the liberty of such portion of these individuals as may be respectively assigned to it. Particular provisions are made for remuneration, in case vessels are not condemned after trial, and special instructions are stipulated to be furnished to commanders of vessels possessing the qualified right of visitation and search.

These powers entertain the opinion, that nothing short of the concession of a qualified right of visitation and search can practically suppress the slave trade; an association of armed ships is contemplated, to form a species of naval police, to be stationed principally in the African seas, where the commanders of the ships will be enabled to co-operate in harmony and concert.

The United States have been earnestly invited by the principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, of the British government, to join in the same, or similar arrangements; and this invitation has been sanctioned and enforced, by an unanimous vote of the House of Lords and Commons, in a manner that precludes all doubts as to the sincerity and benevolence of their designs.

In answer to this invitation, the President of the United States has expressed his regret that the stipulations in the treaties communicated are of a character to which the peculiar situation and institutions of the United States do not permit them to accede.

The objections made are contained in an extract of a letter from the Secretary of State, under date of the 2d November, 1818; in which it is observed, that, "in examining the provisions of the trea"ties communicated by lord Castlereagh, all the essential articles "appear to be of a character not adaptable to the institutions, or to "the circumstances of the United States. The powers agreed to be *" reciprocally given to the officers of the ships of war of either party, "to enter, search, capture, and carry into port for adjudication, the "merchant vessels of the other, however qualified and restricted, is "most essentially connected with the institution, by each treaty, of "two mixed courts, one of which to reside in the external or colo"nial possessions of each of the two parties respectively. This part "of the system is indispensable to give it that character of recipro"city, without which the right granted to the armed ships of one "nation, to search the merchant vessels of another, would be rather " a mark of vassalage than of independence. But to this part of the "system, the United States, having no colonies either on the coast "of Africa, or in the West Indies, cannot give effect. That, by the *"constitution of the United States, it is provided, that the judicial "power of the United States shall be vested in a supreme court, and " in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, "ordain and establish. It provides that the judges of these courts "shall hold their offices during good behavior; and that they shall be "removable by impeachment, on conviction of crimes and misde"meanors. There may be doubts whether the power of the govern"ment of the U. States is competent to institute a court for carrying "into execution their penal statutes beyond the territories of the "United States-a court consisting partly of foreign judges, not "amenable to impeachment for corruption, and deciding upon sta"tutes of the United States without appeal.

"That the disposal of the negroes found on board of the slave "trading vessels, which might be condemned by the sentence of "these mixed courts, cannot be carried into effect by the United "States; for, if the slaves of vessels condemned by the mixed courts, "should be delivered over to the government of the United States as "free men, they could not, but by their own consent, be employed as "servants or free laborers. The condition of the blacks being, in "this Union, regulated by the municipal laws of the separate states, "the government of the United States can neither guaranty their "liberty in the states where they could only be received as slaves, nor "control them in the states where they would be recognized as free. "That the admission of a right in the officers of foreign ships of war, " to enter and search the vessels of the United States in time of peace, "under any circumstances whatever, would meet with universal re"pugnance in the public opinion of this country; that there would " be no prospect of a ratification, by advice and consent of the Senate, " to any stipulation of that nature; that the search by foreign offi"cers, even in time of war, is so obnoxious to the feelings and recol"lections of this country, that nothing could reconcile them to the "extension of it, however qualified or restricted, to a time of peace; "and that it would be viewed in a still more aggravated light, if, "as in the treaty with the Netherlands, connected with a formal "admission that even vessels under convoy of ships of war of their "own nation, should be liable to search by the ships of war of ano"ther."

The Committee will observe, in the first instance, that a mutual right of search appears to be indispensable to the great object of abolition; for, while flags remain as a cover for this traffic, against the right of search by any vessels except of the same nation, the chance