The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America Part 30

[69] Four or five such attempts were made: Dec. 12, 1860, _House Journal_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 61-2; Jan. 7, 1861, _Congressional Globe_, 36 Cong. 2 sess. p. 279; Jan. 23, 1861, _Ibid._, p. 527; Feb. 1, 1861, _Ibid._, p. 690; Feb. 27, 1861, _Ibid._, pp. 1243, 1259.

[70] "The Slave-Trade in New York," in the _Continental Monthly_, January, 1862, p. 87.

[71] New York _Herald_, July 14, 1856.

[72] _Ibid._ Cf. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. V. No.

53.

[73] _27th Report of the Amer. Anti-slav. Soc._, pp. 25-6. Cf.

_26th Report_, _Ibid._, pp. 45-9.

[74] _27th Report_, _Ibid._, pp. 26-7.

[75] _26th Report_, _Ibid._, p. 54.

[76] _British and Foreign State Papers_, 1859-60, pp. 899, 973.

[77] Nov. 29, 1851: _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 1 sess. II.

pt. 2, No. 2, p. 4.

[78] Dec. 4, 1852: _House Exec. Doc._, 32 Cong. 2 sess. I. pt.

2, No. 1, p. 293.

[79] _Ibid._, 34 Cong. 1 sess. I. pt. 3, No. 1, p. 5.

[80] _Ibid._, 34 Cong. 3 sess. I. pt. 2, No. 1, p. 407.

[81] Commander Burgess to Commodore Wise, Whydah, Aug. 12, 1857: _Parliamentary Papers_, 1857-8, vol. LXI. _Slave Trade_, Cla.s.s A, p. 136.

[82] _House Exec. Doc._, 35 Cong. 1 sess. II. pt. 3, No. 2, p.

576.

[83] _Ibid._, 35 Cong. 2 sess. II. pt. 1, No. 2, pp. 14-15, 31-33.

[84] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 24.

The Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1859, contains this ambiguous pa.s.sage: "What the effect of breaking up the trade will be upon the United States or Cuba it is not necessary to inquire; certainly, under the laws of Congress and our treaty obligations, it is the duty of the executive government to see that our citizens shall not be engaged in it": _Ibid._, 36 Cong. 1 sess. III. No. 2, pp. 1138-9.

[85] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 36 Cong. 2 sess. III. pt. 1, No. 1, pp. 8-9.

[86] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 40.

[87] _Confederate States of America Statutes at Large_, 1861, p. 15, Const.i.tution, Art. 1, sect. 9, ---- 1, 2.

[88] From an intercepted circular despatch from J.P. Benjamin, "Secretary of State," addressed in this particular instance to Hon. L.Q.C. Lamar, "Commissioner, etc., St. Petersburg, Russia," and dated Richmond, Jan. 15, 1863; published in the _National Intelligencer_, March 31, 1863; cf. also the issues of Feb. 19, 1861, April 2, 3, 25, 1863; also published in the pamphlet, _The African Slave-Trade: The Secret Purpose_, etc.

The editors vouch for its authenticity, and state it to be in Benjamin's own handwriting.

[89] L.W. Spratt of South Carolina, in the _Southern Literary Messenger_, June, 1861, x.x.xII. 414, 420. Cf. also the Charleston _Mercury_, Feb. 13, 1861, and the _National Intelligencer_, Feb. 19, 1861.

[90] Captain Gordon of the slaver "Erie;" condemned in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York in 1862. Cf. _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, p. 13.

[91] _Ibid._, pp. 453-4.

[92] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 132, 219, 639; XIII. 424; XIV.

226, 415; XV. 58, 321. The sum of $250,000 was also appropriated to return the slaves on the "Wildfire": _Ibid._, XII. 40-41.

[93] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 368-9.

[94] _Senate Exec. Doc._, 37 Cong. 2 sess. I. No. 1, pp.

453-4.

[95] _Statutes at Large_, XII. 531.

[96] For a time not exceeding five years: _Ibid._, pp. 592-3.

[97] By section 9 of an appropriation act for civil expenses, July 2, 1864: _Ibid._, XIII. 353.

[98] British officers attested this: _Diplomatic Correspondence_, 1862, p. 285.

[99] _Report of the Secretary of the Navy_, 1866; _House Exec.

Doc._, 39 Cong. 2 sess. IV. p. 12.

[100] There were some later attempts to legislate. Sumner tried to repeal the Act of 1803: _Congressional Globe_, 41 Cong. 2 sess. pp. 2894, 2932, 4953, 5594. Banks introduced a bill to prohibit Americans owning or dealing in slaves abroad: _House Journal_, 42 Cong. 2 sess. p. 48. For the legislation of the Confederate States, cf. Mason, _Veto Power_, 2d ed., Appendix C, No. 1.

_Chapter XII_

THE ESSENTIALS IN THE STRUGGLE.

92. How the Question Arose.

93. The Moral Movement.

94. The Political Movement.

95. The Economic Movement.

96. The Lesson for Americans.

92. ~How the Question Arose.~ We have followed a chapter of history which is of peculiar interest to the sociologist. Here was a rich new land, the wealth of which was to be had in return for ordinary manual labor. Had the country been conceived of as existing primarily for the benefit of its actual inhabitants, it might have waited for natural increase or immigration to supply the needed hands; but both Europe and the earlier colonists themselves regarded this land as existing chiefly for the benefit of Europe, and as designed to be exploited, as rapidly and ruthlessly as possible, of the boundless wealth of its resources.

This was the primary excuse for the rise of the African slave-trade to America.

Every experiment of such a kind, however, where the moral standard of a people is lowered for the sake of a material advantage, is dangerous in just such proportion as that advantage is great. In this case it was great. For at least a century, in the West Indies and the southern United States, agriculture flourished, trade increased, and English manufactures were nourished, in just such proportion as Americans stole Negroes and worked them to death. This advantage, to be sure, became much smaller in later times, and at one critical period was, at least in the Southern States, almost _nil_; but energetic efforts were wanting, and, before the nation was aware, slavery had seized a new and well-nigh immovable footing in the Cotton Kingdom.

The colonists averred with perfect truth that they did not commence this fatal traffic, but that it was imposed upon them from without.

Nevertheless, all too soon did they lay aside scruples against it and hasten to share its material benefits. Even those who braved the rough Atlantic for the highest moral motives fell early victims to the allurements of this system. Thus, throughout colonial history, in spite of many honest attempts to stop the further pursuit of the slave-trade, we notice back of nearly all such attempts a certain moral apathy, an indisposition to attack the evil with the sharp weapons which its nature demanded. Consequently, there developed steadily, irresistibly, a vast social problem, which required two centuries and a half for a nation of trained European stock and boasted moral fibre to solve.