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which have recently passed the legislature for carrying the same into execution.

I have also the satisfaction to transmit to you copies of a treaty which has been recently concluded with the king of the Netherlands for the like purpose, though at too late a period in the session to admit of its provisions receiving the sanction of Parliament. I am induced to call your attention more particularly to this convention, as it contains certain provisions which were calculated to limit, in some respects, the powers mutually conceded by the former treaties, in a manner which, without essentially weakening their force, may render them more acceptable to the contracting parties.

The intimate knowledge which you possess of this whole subject renders it unnecessary for me, in requesting you to bring these documents to the observation of your government, to accompany them with any more detailed explanation. What I have earnestly to beg of you is, to bring them under the serious consideration of the President, intimating to him the earnest wish of the British government, that the exertions of the two states may be combined upon a somewhat similar principle to put down this great moral disobedience, wherever it may be committed, to the laws of both countries. I am confident this cannot effectually be done, except by mutually conceding to each other's ships of war a qualified right of search, with a power of detaining the vessels of either state with slaves actually on board. You will perceive in these conventions a studious, and I trust a successful attempt, to narrow and limit this power within due Bunds, and to guard it against perversion.

If the American government is disposed to enter into a similar concert, and can suggest any farther regulations the better to obviate abuse, this government will be most ready to listen to any suggestion of this nature; their only object being to contribute, by every effort in their power, to put an end to this disgraceful traffic.

I am, &c.

TO RICHARD RUSH, Esq. &c. &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

No. 7.

Letter from Richard Rush, Esq. to Viscount Castlereagh, dated

LONDON, 23d June, 1818.

MY LORD: I have been honored with your lordship's note of the 20th of this month, enclosing copies of treaties recently concluded between this government and the governments of Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, respectively, in relation to the slave trade; and designed to draw the attention of the government of the United States to this subject, with a view to its co-operation, upon princi

ples similar to those held out in these treaties, in measures that may tend to the more complete and universal abolition of the traffic.

The United States, from an early day of their history, have regarded, with deep and uniform abhorrence, the existence of a traffic attended by such complications of misery and guilt. Its transcendent evils roused throughout all ranks a corresponding zeal for their extirpation; one step followed another, until humanity triumphed; and against its continuance, under any shape, by their own citizens, the most absolute prohibitions of their code have, for a period of more then ten years, been rigorously, and, it is hoped, beneficially levelled. Your lordship will pardon me this allusion to the earnest efforts of the United States to put down the trade within their own limits; falling in, as it merely does, with the tribute which you have been pleased to pay to their early exertions in helping to dry up this prolific source of human woe.

Whether any causes may throw obstacles in the way of their uniting in that concert of external measures, in which Europe generally, and this nation in particular, are now so happily engaged, the more effectually to banish from the world this great enormity, I dare not, in the total absence of all instructions, presume to intimate, much less have I any opinion of my own to offer upon a subject so full of delicacy and interest; but it is still left for me to say, that I shall perform a duty peculiarly gratifying, in transmitting, by the earliest opportunities, copies of your lordship's note, with the documents which accompanied it, to my government; and I sufficiently know the permanent sensibility which pervades all its councils upon this subject to promise, that the overture which the former embraces, will receive from the President the full and anxious consideration due to its importance; and, above all, to the enlarged philanthropy, on the part of this government, by which it has been dictated.

I have, &c.

TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, K. G. &c. &c.

RICHARD RUSH

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No. 8.

Note from Richard Rush, Esq. to Viscount Castlereagh, dated
LONDON, 21st of December, 1818.

The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary from the United States, has the honor to present his compliments to lord Castlereagh.

In the note of the 23d of June, which the undersigned had the honor to address to his lordship, in answer to his lordship's communication of the 20th of the same month, relative to the slave trade, the undersigned had great pleasure in giving the assurance that he would transmit a copy of that communication to his government, together

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with the documents which accompanied it, being copies of treaties entered into on the part of Great Britain with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, for the more complete abolition of the odious traffic in slaves. He accordingly lost no time in fulfilling that duty, and has now the honor to inform his lordship of the instructions with which he has been furnished by his government in reply.

He has been distinctly commanded, in the first place, to make known the sensibility of the President to the friendly spirit of confidence in which these treaties, and the legislative measures of Parliament founded upon them, have been communicated to the United States; and to the invitation which has been given, that they would join in the same or similar arrangements, the more effectually to accomplish the beneficial objects to which they look. He is further commanded to give the strongest assurances, that the solicitude of the United States for the universal extirpation of this traffic, continues with all the earnestness which has so long and steadily distinguished the course of their policy in relation to it.

Of their general prohibitory law of 1807, it is unnecessary that the undersigned should speak, his lordship being already apprized of its provisions; amongst which the authority to employ the national force, as auxiliary to its execution, will not have escaped attention. But, he has it in charge to make known, as a new pledge of their unremitting and active desire in the cause of abolition, that, so lately as the month of April last, another act of Congress was passed, by which not only are the citizens and vessels of the United States interdicted from carrying on, or being in any way engaged in the trade, but in which also the best precautions that legislative enactments can devise, or their penalties enforce, are raised up against the introduction into their territories of slaves from abroad, under whatever pretext attempted, and especially from dominions which lie more immediately in their neighborhood. A copy of this act is herewith enclosed for the more particular information of his lordship.

That peculiarity in the eighth section, which throws upon a defendant the labor of proof as the condition of acquittal, the undersigned persuades himself will be regarded as signally manifesting an anxiety to suppress the hateful offence, departing as it does from the analogy of criminal jurisprudence, which so generally requires the independent and positive establishment of guilt as the first step in every public prosecution. To measures of such a character, thus early adopted and sedulously pursued, the undersigned is further commanded to say, that the government of the United States, acting within the pale of its constitutional powers, will always be ready to superadd any others that experience may prove to be necessary for attaining the desirable end in view.

But, on examining the provisions of the treaties, which your lordship honored the undersigned by communicating, it has appeared to the President, that their essential articles are of a character not adapted to the circumstances, or to the institutions, of the United States.

The powers agreed to be given to the ships of war of either party, to search, capture, and carry into port for adjudication, the merchant vessels of the other, however qualified, is connected with the establishment, by each treaty, of two mixed courts, one of which is to have its seat in the colonial possessions of the parties respectively. The institution of such tribunals is necessarily regarded as fundamental to the whole arrangement, whilst their peculiar structure is doubtless intended, and would seem to be indispensable toward imparting to it a just reciprocity. But, to this part of the system, the United States, having no colonies upon the coast of Africa, in the West Indies, or elsewhere, cannot give effect.

Moreover, the powers of government in the United States, whilst they can only be exercised within the grants, are also subject to the restrictions of the federal constitution. By the latter instrument, all judicial power is to be vested in a supreme court, and in such other inferior courts as Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. It further provides, that the judges of these courts shall hold their offices during good behaviour, and be removeable on impeachment and conviction of crimes and misdemeanors. There are serious doubts whether, obeying the spirit of these injunctions, the government of the United States would be competent to appear as party to the institution of a court for carrying into execution their penal statutes in places out of their own territory; a court consisting partly of foreign judges, not liable to impeachment under the authority of the United States, and deciding upon their statutes without appeal.

Again: Obstacles would exist towards giving validity to the disposal of the negroes found on board the slave trading vessels condemned by the sentence of the mixed courts. If they 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 negroes, and other people of colour, in the United States, being regulated by the municipal laws of the separate states, the government of the former could 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. The provisions of the fifth section of the act of Congress, which the undersigned has the honor to enclose, will be seen to point to this obstacle, and may be taken as still further explanatory of its nature.

These are some of the principal reasons which arrest the assent of the President to the very frank and friendly overture contained in your lordship's communication. Having their foundation in constitutional impediments, the government of his Britannic majesty will know how to appreciate their force. It will be seen how compatible they are with the most earnest wishes on the part of the United States, that the measures concerted by these treaties may bring about the total downfall of the traffic in human blood; and with their determination to co-operate, to the utmost extent of their constitutional power, towards this great consummation, so imperiously due

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at the hands of all nations, to the past wrongs and sufferings of Africa.

The undersigned prays lord Castlereagh to accept the assurances of his distinguished consideration.

RICHARD RUSH.

TO VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH, K. G. &c. &c. &c.

CONFERENCES AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

No. 9.

Despatch from Viscount Castlereagh to Earl Bathurst, dated Aix-laChapelle, 2d November, 1818.

MY LORD: In the conference of the 24th October, I opened to the plenipotentiaries the existing state of the trade in slaves, and the progress made by the plenipotentiaries in London in proposing further measures for accomplishing its final abolition.

As the further examination of this question required that the ministers should have time to peruse the voluminous documents connected with it, I gave notice that I should, on a future day, submit to them two propositions:

The first, for addressing a direct appeal, on the part of the five courts, to the King of Portugal, founded upon the declaration made in his Majesty's name by his plenipotentiary at Vienna, and urging his Majesty to give effect to that declaration at the period fixed by Spain for final abolition, viz. on the 20th May, 1820.

The second would be, that the powers there represented should accept the principle of a qualified right of mutual visit, as adopted by the courts of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and should apply the same to the case of their respective flags, as circumstances should point out.

It was impossible not to perceive, in the short discussion which ensued, that there was considerable hesitation, especially in the French plenipotentiary, with regard to the principle of the latter measure. Under these circumstances I thought it better to avoid a prolongation of the conversation. I had an interview with the Duke de Richelieu on the following day, for the purpose of urging his Excellency to a more favorable view of this important question. This led to a very full examination of the measure in all its bearings; and, though I cannot say that I succeeded in shaking his Grace's opinion, I flatter myself I reduced the weight and number of his objections, and that I brought his mind to feel the extreme inconvenience, as well as moral objection, to leaving the question where it is.

It is due to the Duke de Richelieu that I should state that I have found his excellency uniformly anxious to render the measures of his

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