18th CONGRESS,} Message of the President, at the DOCUMENTS Accompanying the preceding Message. Message from the President of the United States, transmitting a Convention between the United States and Great Britain, for the Suppression of the Slave Trade. IN SENATE, Friday, April 30, 1824. The following written message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Everett, his Secretary: To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional ad. vice, with regard to its ratification, a convention for the Suppression of the African Slave Trade, signed at London, on the 13th ult. by the Minister of the United States residing there, on their part, with the Plenipotenitaries of the British Government, on the part of that nation; together with the correspondence relating thereto, part of which is included in a communication made to the House of Representatives on the 19th ultimo, a printed copy of which is among the documents here with sent. Motives of accommodation to the wishes of the Brit On their preservation, and in their utmost purity, every thing will depend. Extending, as our interests do, to every part of the inhabited globe, and to every sea, to which our citizens are carried by their industry and enterprise, to which they are invited by the wants of others, and have a right to go, we must either protect them in the enjoyment of their rights, or abandon them, in certain events, to waste and desolation. Our attitude is highly interesting as relates to other powers, and particularly to our southern neighbors. We have duties to perform with respect to all, to which we must be faithful. To every kind of danger we should pay the most vigilant and unceasing attention; remove the cause when practicable: and be prepared to meet it when inevitable. Against foreign danger, the policy of the Government seems to be already settled. The events of the late war admonished us to make our maritime frontier impregnable, by a well digested chain of fortifications, and to give efficient protection to our commerce, by augmenting our Navy to a certain extent; which has been steadily pursued, and which it is incumbent upon us to complete, as soon as circumstances will permit. In the event of war, it is on the maritime frontier that we shall be assailed. It is in that quarter, therefore, that we should be prepared to meet the attack. It is there that our whole force will be called into action, to pre-ish Government, render it desirable that the Senate vent the destruction of our towns, and the desolation and pillage of the interior. To give full effect to this should act definitively upon this convention, as speedily policy, great improvements will be indispensable. Ac- as may be found convenient. cess to those works, by every practicable communication, should be made easy, and in every direction. The intercourse, also, between every part of our Union, should also be promoted, and facilitated by the exercise of those powers, which may comport with a faithful regard to the great principles of our Constitution. LONDON, January 23, 1824. With respect to internal causes, those great principles Sin: I received, on the evening of the 20th instant, a point out, with equal certainty, the policy to be pursued. note from Mr. Secretary Canning, requesting me to call, Resting on the people, as our Governments do, State on the following day, at the Foreign Office, for the purand National, with well defined powers, it is of the high-pose of meeting there Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Stratford est importance, that they, severally, keep within the limits prescribed to them. Fulfilling that sacred duty, it is of equal importance, the movement between them be harmonious; and in case of any disagreement, should such occur, that a calm appeal be made to the people; and that their voice be heard, and promptly obeyed. Both Governments being instituted for the common good, they cannot fail to prosper, while those who made them are attentive to the conduct of their representatives, and control their measures. In the pursuit of these great objects, let a generous spirit, and national views and feelings be indulged; and let every part recollect, that, by cherishing that spirit, and improving the condition of the others, in what relates to their welfare, the general interest will not only be promoted, but the local advantage reciprocated, by all. Washington, April 30, 1824. (No. 1.) JAMES MONROE. Mr. Rush to Mr. Adams. Canning, by which I at once understood that the negotiation which the President has confided to me, was now abou to have its regular commencement I went at the time appointed, when, meeting these gentlemen, I was informed by them that their instructions, as well as full powers, as the Plenipotentiaries of this Government, were made out, and that all things were ready, on their side, for opening the negotiation. I replied, that I too was ready on the part of the United States, upon which the 23d was fixed upon for our first meeting. The negotiation has accordingly been opened this day, in due form, at the office of the Board of Trade. At the wish of Mr. Secretary Canning, specially expressed at the Foreign Office the day before yesterday, the subject of the slave trade is that upon which we have first entered. Our introductory conferences upon it, occupied a couple of hours, when an adjournment took place until Thursday next, the 29th instant. It was agreed that the same subject should then be resumed, and, without discussing others, proceeded with until it should be finished. In making my reports to you of this negotiation, for the information of the President, my intention is not to make them from meeting to meeting, a course that might often prove unsatisfactory and unavailing, but to wait the issue of the whole, or, at any rate, the completion of some one object, before I proceed to write about it. This was the plan pursued at the joint I cannot conclude this communication, the last of the kind which I shall have to make, without recollecting, with great sensibility and heartfelt gratitude, the many instances of the public confidence, and the generous support which I have received from my fellow-citizens in the various trusts with which I have been honored. Having commenced my service in early youth, and continued it since with few and short intervals, I have witnessed the great difficulties to which our Union has been exposed, and admired the virtue and courage with which they were surmounted. From the present prosperous and happy state, 1 derive a gratification which I cannot ex-negotiation with this court in 1818, in which I bore a press. That these blessings may be preserved and perpetuated, will be the object of my fervent and unceas20g prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. JAMES MONROE. Washington, December 7, 1824. share, and I hope will be approved. I will take care to deviate from it whenever circumstances may seem to render a deviation necessary and proper; as, moreover, I must, simultaneously with this negotiation, attend to the business of the legation, it has occurred to me that, as often as I may find it necessary to write to you respect ing the latter, whilst the negotiation is in progress, I will go on with the regular series in numbering my despatch 18th CONGRESS, 2 SESSION. Documents accompanying the President's Message. [Sen. and H. of R. es, treating those that I shall write on the negotiation, as | garded the latter intimation, I replied, that the United distinct, and so numbering them. I cannot flatter my- States stood upon at least equal ground with Great Briself with the expectation that the work of the negotia- tain, their existing laws against the slave trade being tion will be very soon done. The subjects are many and marked by even a higher tone of severit, and the consecomplicated; the session of Parliament is at hand, and quent exclusion of their citizens from all participation in will, when it arrives, make heavy calls upon the time of the trade, being, as was believed, so far as the virtue of one of the British Plenipotentiaries; added to which, the municipal laws could avail, not less effectual. As to the daily interruptions to which my own time is liable, al-preference of Great Britain for a different plan, I contentways the lot of the permanent incumbent of this mission, ed myself with alluding, with more of retrospect, to the will be too liable to increase the unavoidable obstacles uniform objections that had been made to it by the leadto frequent and rapid conferences. I can only repeat, ing powers of Europe, especially by France and Russia, ag that my best endeavors shall not be spared, and I pre-well as by the United States; and with remarking, that sume to hope, that my past conduct in this trust will be my Government had charged me with the duty of preaccepted as the pledge of my future diligence. senting the projet in question, under the twofold view of bringing forward, according to the wish of Great Britain, a substitute for the plan that had been rejected, and to carry into effect a resolution which had passed the House of Representatives of the United States upon this subject, at the close of the last session of Congress. added, that it was the sincere belief of my Government, rendering, at the same time, full justice to all the past efforts of Great Britain, in the cause of abolition, that if she could see her way to the acceptance of the plan now offered, combining, as it did, the great princi. ple of denouncing the slave trade as piracy, with a system of international co-operation for its suppression, the evil would be more effectually extirpated, and at a day not distant, than by any other modes that had beretofore been devised. Although there have been delays in bringing on the negotiation, all my preliminary correspondence in rela tion to it, will, I trust, have sufficiently shewn that they have not arisen through my instrumentality. The standing of one of the British Plenipotentiaries is so well known to us that I need not speak of it. The other, Mr. Huskisson, (first named in the commission,) is of the Cabinet, a distinguished member of the House of Commons, the President of the Board of Trade, and Treasurer of the Navy. Besides his reputation for talents, which is high, he seems to be no less generally regarded as a man of liberal principles and conciliating temper. I have the honor to remain, With very great respect, Your obedient servant, RICHARD RUSH. (No. 2.) Mr. Rush to Mr. Adams. The British Plenipotentiaries replied, that they would give it a candid examination, esteeming themselves fortunate, considering the great moral interests at stake, and which both nations had alike at heart, if they could reconcile its acceptance with the opinions and convictions LONDON, March 15, 1824. which had hitherto guided the conduct of their governSIR: I have the honor to inform you, that I concluded ment on this subject. They gave their unhesitating asand signed on behalf of the United States, the day before sent to the principle of denouncing the traffic as piracy yesterday, a convention with this Government, for the suppression of the slave trade, which instrument I hereby the laws of Great Britain, provided we could arrive at with transmit to your hands, to be laid before the Presi-a dent. In my despatch, No. 335, written previously to the commencement of the negotiation, I mentioned that Mir Secretary Canning had expressed a wish that the subject of the slave trade should be treated separately from all others on which I had received the instructions of my Government, and that I had not thought it necessary to object to this course. In pursuance of it, this subject was accordingly taken up separately, and was the first upon which we entered, as you have already been informed, in my despatch which announced the formal opening of the negotiation. The only deviation from the course indicated in my latter despatch, has been, that other subjects have since been gone into, though none, as yet, finished, a mode of proceeding that was found eligible. With the convention I also transmit the protocols of the several conferences at which its provisions were discussed and settled, and for the better understanding of the whole subject, I proceed to give you a more full account of the nature and progress of the discussions than can be afforded by the protocols. common mind on all other parts of the plan proposed. After they had had the plan a proper time under consideration, they expressed their fears that part of it would prove ineffectual, unless with modifications and additions which they would proceed to enumerate. These were principally as follow: They said, that, as soon as the two powers, by their mutual laws, had rendered all participation of the slave trade piracy, and, by a formal convention, agreed to unite their naval efforts for its suppression, it might be expected that the subjects and citizens of each who meditated a commission of the offence, would no longer venture to assume the proper flag of either country, but seek to shroud their guilt under that of some third power, not yet a party to the convention. British subjects, or American citizens, might, for example, readily charter a Danish, a Swedish, or a Russian vessel, and under cover of either of these flags, with simulated papers, and other fraudulent contrivances, pursue the traffic, whilst the true owner of the vessel remained in ignorance of the real and guilty transaction. Were such transgressors, the British Plenipotentiaries asked, to be screened from all detection and punishment, I offered, in the first instance, to the British Plenipo- though the vessel should be afterwards restored? I antentiaries, and without any alteration, the projet that came swered, that I presumed not; and that the words of the seinclosed to me in your despatch, No. 65, of the 24th of cond article of the projet, or for account of their subjects or June, explaining and recommending its provisions by citizens, were, as I supposed, intended to meet such a case, such considerations as were to be drawn from your des. or other similar attempts to get rid, by evasive pretexts, patch, and others that seemed apposite. They remarked, of the penalties created by the convention. They agreed that they hoped it would be borne in mind, that the plan in ascribing to them this meaning, but thought that some offered was not of the choice of Great Britain, her prefer- more distinctive provision would be necessary to prevent ence having been distinctly made known to Europe, as such evasions. They further asked, suppose a British well as the United States, for a different plan; nor was it, subject, or an American citizen, to be taken whilst enthey said, necessary towards the more effectual abolition gaged in the slave trade, on board of a vessel not belongof the traffic by her own subjects, her home statutes and ing to either power, or navigated on account of the subprohibitions being already adequate to that end. As re-jects or citizens of either, and brought into Great Britain 2 B 18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION. Documents accompanying the President's Message. or her dominions, or into the United States, ought he not to be tried indiscriminately, in either country, since the laws of each would, alike, brand him as a pirate? This inquiry, if answered in the affirmative, involving a conflict with one of the primary provisions of the plan, the British Plenipotentiaries did not press, but, on the contrary, willingly withdrew it. They proposed, in lieu of it, that the subjects or citizens of either party, taken under such circumstances, should be sent home for trial, before the tribunals of their own country; and, to the proposition, as altered in this essential particular, I said that there would, probably, be no exception taken, for it might happen, that British subjects, thus offending, would be found within the jurisdiction of the United States, and, if their own citizens were ever justly captured whilst so offending, as a law of Congress already subjected them, when in this predicament, to the doom of pirates, I did not anticipate from my government, any objection to their being sent home for trial, in our own courts, under whatever circumstances, or by whatever country, they might be lawfully seized. Would not serious or fatal embarrassments, they also asked, arise in regard to evidence, under the criminal prosecution against the crew of the slave-trading vessel, for the act of piracy, as provided by the eighth article of the projet? If the libel against the vessel took place first, as was supposed to be the case, how could the captain or crew be examined on interrogatories, since the fact of the condemnation of the vessel would draw after it their own guilt? Their answers, consequently, might bring them into jeopardy. I replied, that the commander or boarding officer, and other persons beloging to the capturing vessel, being sent in as witnesses against the accused vessel, might, perhaps, under a convention of a character like the present, supercede, in some degree, the necessity of examining the crew, as was usual in admiralty causes; but that, if this would not be proper as a general rule, it might hold good, to some extent, in cases where the interior arrangements and structure of the vessel, and, above all, the actual presence of slaves, combined to establish more unequivocally, to the very eye, the iniquity of the voyage. At all events, the objection, if valid, which was not admitted, could go no further than to except, from the criminal prosecution, those of the crew, supposed to be few in number, who might be selected as witnesses on the part of the state or crown, leaving the rest open to all the penal inflictions of the convention. The British Plenipotentiaries ultimately agreed that the objection was unfounded, on learning, from their law officers, that the right of a witness not to answer, where a confession of guilt might be involved, was merely a general shield thrown over him, to be used or not, according to circumstances, and the opinion of the court, without otherwise affecting the action at law, or public prose cution, in the course of which the right might be claimed. It was an independent right, that stood upon its own basis, the existence and knowledge of which was not previously to foreclose the institution of this or any other prosecution, any more than it would the institution of a suit in a court of chancery, or before any other judicial tribunal. [Sen. and H. of R. plied, that I did not, for myself, understand the word person as applicable, in this sense, to the slaves, but to the crew of the vessel. Nor did I regard the term cargo, against which a prohibition of removal, alike indispensable, existed, as descriptive, under this convention, of the slaves. Hence, when the removal of the latter, or any portion of them, should be found obviously necessary, from imperious motives of humanity, I saw no sufficient reason for questioning the propriety of allowing, under suitable regulations, such removal to take place. As no person belonging to the crew was to be taken out, the British Plenipotentiaries, continuing their remarks upon the fifth article, next said, that a power on the part of the capturing ship, to confine the crew below, or otherwise restrain them, would be absolutely necessary, in contingencies to be fairly imagined, to give full effect to the principles which the projet intended to secure. The delinquent vessel, as often happened, might be powerfully manned. These men, rendered fierce, not to add desperate, by their vocation and the perils to which, by capture, they would become exposed, could not want the desire, and would naturally watch the opportunity, of overcoming the captors, in whose custody they were placed. Ought not, therefore, the captors to be furnished with adequate means of keeping the mastery over them, until the captured vessel was safely con veyed to her destination. Such were the principal amendments or suggestions which the British Plenipotentiaries, at an early stage, put forward, and they were discussed between us in a temper frank and amicable. They declared that they did not offer them in the spirit of objection, but under sincere wishes to secure for the plan, at all points, the recommendations and potency, which it must be supposed each nation equally aimed at imparting to it. It was designed to act upon a stubborn as well as malig nant class of offenders, whose cunning was not behind their depravity, and who had hitherto put to scorn the efforts of good men, in all countries, to check the stupendous enormity of their deeds. They concluded with saying, that they would present to my consideration a counter projet, on the part of Great Britain, embracing what they deemed to be the necessary provisions upon the whole subject. I replied, that the articles of the plan which I had submitted had not been drawn up to the exclusion of others, that Great Britain might, in turn, have to propose; nor were they all to be insisted upon in the shape in which they first stood. There were, indeed, cardinal principles in them, that could, on no account, be departed from: but there were others, as well as much of detail, open to whatever alterations or additions both parties might be able to agree in thinking proper or useful. This was the spirit in which I knew it to be the desire of my Government that the negotiation should be conducted. The essential principles of our plan, as gathered from my best attention to it, in connexion with your instruc tions, I considered to be, 1st, That this nation was to declare the slave trade piracy by act of Parliament. 2d, That the captured vessel was to be sent to her own They next drew my attention to the fifth article, which provides that no person shall be taken out of the cap-country, for trial, before its own tribunals, and never tured vessel, a point that, I had declared, would be con- before those of the capturing power. 3d, That no insidered by my government as indispensable. What, then, dividual belonging to the crew was ever to be taken out they asked, might sometimes be the lot of the slaves? of the accused vessel. 4th, That the capturing officer Suppose an hundred of them, or even more, on board the should be laid under the most effective responsibility for captured vessel, and that vessel, perhaps, a small one; his conduct, in all respects. 5th, That no merchant vessuppose them all crowded together, under such circum-sel under the protection, or in the presence, of a ship of stances of cruelty,that disease was among them, and death daily thinning their numbers; a supposition not exaggerated, under all the recollections of this afflicting traffic, but too likely to be often realized, as long as it was continued. What, in such a case, was to be done? I re war of her own nation, was ever to be visited by a ship of war of the other nation. I informed the British plenipotentiaries, unreservedly, that I could consent to nothing, that did not give full security to each and all of the above principles. I knew 18th CONGRESS, Documents accompanying the President's Message. that some of them bespoke a great change in pre-existing principles and usages, under the maritime code of the world; but the change was not for light, but high objects, and was believed, by my government, to be the only means by which they could be adequately and permanently secured. [Sen. and H. of R. they agreed to allow mine to stand, and to abandon theirs in the parts from which I did not feel authorized to withdraw my opposition. The last member of the sentence upon this point, in the article as it now stands in the Convention, viz. nor be taken to affect, in any other way, the existing rights of either of the high contracting parties, is that with which, in the end, they became satisfied. It will be seen how essentially it varies from the parallel passage, as first submitted in their counter projet. To the sending home of our citizens for trial, if taken in the act of piracy, under the flag of a third power, as provided in their seventh article, I objected, on more consideration, as not likely to bring with it due practical reciprocity, when the convention went into operation. Great Britian had the right, under existing treaties, to seize the slave-trading vessels of Portugal, of Spain, and of the Netherlands: whereas, the United States, as yet, had no such correlative right. But the British Plenipotentiaries earnestly pressed its adoption, with a view to the more full attainment of all the objects of the Convention, now and hereafter. At the fourth conference, their counter project was brought forward. I was happy to find that it acceded to all the principles that are above recapitulated, adopt ing, too, and largely, the language in which our own articles had been framed. To its first article, however, or rather to that passage in it which relates to convoy, I took strong exception, owing to the manner in which it was worded, and the import that it might bear. I also objected as strongly to the phraseology of so much of its tenth article as purported to save to both parties all their existing rights. Upon both the passages; upon their second article, bringing under the cognizance of the convention, the subjects or citizens of either power, surreptitiously chartering the flag of a third power; upon that part of their seventh article, also bringing within the pale of the convention the subjects or citiIn the face of our act of Congress, of the 15th of May, zens of either power, found on board the slave trading vessel of a third power, through not chartered or owned 1820, which already subjects to death, as a pirate, any by them; and upon those parts of their fourth article citizen of the United States, convicted of being of the which make provision for restraining the crew of the in the slave trade; in the face, too, of the general rule crew, or ship's company, of any foreign vessel engaged captured vessel, and removing the slaves, full discus- of public law, which has heretofore authorized the punsions followed at the fourth, the filth, and the sixth con-ishment of pirates by the courts of whatever nation they ferences. More than once, I was not without appre-may be brought before, I did not feel called upon to perhensions that the whole work would fall through. sist in my opposition. More than once it rested upon a difficult balance, I could scarcely continue to urge, as very objectiona awakening solicitudes for its fate. To their passage on 4 convoy I objected, on full consideration, absolutely, and ble, the being furnished with the means (should the ocurged the reinsertion of our own article on the subject, casions arise,) of executing our own laws upon our own in its very words, as being simple, intelligible, and appro-secured, whilst in the act of violating them. citizens, by whomsoever they might be detected and The Bripriate. They as strenuously resisted its reinsertion, not, as they repeatedly and unequivocally declared, from tish Plenipotentiaries, moreover, remarked, that the any desire ever to exercise the power which it interdict-whole Convention exhibited a preponderance of coned, and which would, therefore, render the reinsertion cession on the side of Great Britain, in accommodation superfluous, but because they objected to the word to the principles and views of the United States. convoy, and to the whole formality of our article, which At our instance she was about, by a new statute of her would be embarrassing, in its comparison with the ar-realm, to make the slave trade piracy; at our instance rangement settled on this point in the treaty between she agreed that the captured vessel and crew should be Great Britain and the Netherlands, of May, 1818. Final-sent to their own country for trial-a course also new to ly, as I could not give up the principle, but was not ten- all her past maritime doctrines and experience; and, as acious of the word, I agreed to drop it, on having other regarded all the incidental consequences flowing from words, however few, that would carry the principle, but these two fundamental concessions, she still, at our innot more than the principle. Their own words, viz: except stance, gave up, or modified, many of her former nationwhen in the presence of a ship of war of its own nation,al and jurisprudential practices and predilections. They would, I said, satisfy me, provided all that followed were said, too, that the preponderance of burden, under the expunged; and to this they assented. To the part ex- Convention, would lie with Great Britain, both in the punged I had many objections, and, amongst others, greater number of public ships that she would employ that it approximated closely to the article in their treaty in the suppression of the traffic, and in the fact of the with the Netherlands, if, indeed, constructively, it United States not having colonial dependencies, as Brimight not have become identical with it, though the tain had, to serve as ready depots for those detected British plenipotentiaries protested against intending to in it. give it any such character or meaning. It implied, also, I was far from lending my concurrence to these sentiI thought, the indecorum of pre-supposing that the na-ments, which were to be taken with their just qualificaval officers of either power could be lax in the execution of their own duty. The words of their tenth article, designed to save existing rights, I also struck out, declaring that those which formed the concluding passage of our own ninth article, must be received as the substitute for them. Why, I asked, mention existing rights at all? By the universal rule of interpretation, applicable to treaties, they would remain unchanged. The treaty, or convention, that we were forming, was special in its objects; special in its powers; special in its concessions. All other rights, whatever they might be, on either side, that did not range within the peculiar orbit of this Convention,-as novel as beneficent in its grand intention, were necessarily left just as they were before. But they continued to insist upon the exclusion of my words, and the retention of their own, until the close of the sixth conference, when tions. The occasion, I remarked, was one where, instead of each nation pushing adverse rights, or striving for superior advantages, it ought rather to be considered, that each was equally and spontaneously surrendering up a portion of its anterior system, each moving under one and the same impulse, towards one and the same object; each proposing to itself no other interests than those of benevolence and justice; no other gain, (yet how great the gain!) than that of protecting the innocent and laying prostrate the guilty. It was a negotiation, with this distinguishing feature, that it looked exclusively to the benefit of a third party, assuming reciprocal duties and burdens for its sake, and flinging aside, as alien to the benign spirit in which it was conceived and undertaker, every selfish end or feeling. To the obligations, no less elevated than interesting, that sprung from such a nego B D 18th CONGRESS, 2d SESSION. Documents accompanying the President's Message. tiation, it was beheved that neither party was insensible, and that both stood alike anxious to hail its favorable results. In mentioning the sentim nts which the British Plenipotentiaries expressed, it must not be understood that I report them as having been uttered in complaint; and it would be an omission inexcusable in me, were I not to add, that they cordially and zealously responded to the enlarged and animating objects of the international compact which we were endeavoring to adjust. To their second article, bringing under the penalties of the compact the subjects or citizens of either power, chartering the vessel of a third power, for the purpose of carrying on the trade, I assented, believing that it did no more than effectuate the intention of our own second article under words more full. To the provision in their fourth article, giving a power for laying the crew of the captured vessel under such restraints as might become indispensable for their detention and safe delivery, I also consented; varying its language to such as it will now be seen in the conven tion. I considered, in fact, such a power as only analogous, under one view, to that which is familiar to all jurisprudence, of securing an accused party between the time of arrest and of trial; and as doubly called for, in this instance, in that it went to the necessary safeguard and protection of those who were constituted, by the convention, its incipient ministers of justice. With a like variation in the language, I consented to the passage, in the same article, which gives power for removing the slaves. The preservation of their lives, or other urgent motives of humanity, is made the condition of their removal, and a stipulation is superadded, that they are to be accounted for to the government of the country to which the captured vessel belongs, and be disposed of according to its laws. [Sen. and H. of R CO venth protocols. I have ventured to omit sending a RICHARD RUSH. THE CONVENTION The United States of America and his Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, being desirous to co-operate for the complete suppression of the African slave trade, by making the law of piracy, as applied to that traffic, under the statutes of their respective legislatures, immediately and reciprocally operative on the vessels and subjects, or citizens, of each other, have respectively appointed their Plenipotentiaries to negotiate and conclude a convention for that purpose, that is to say: On the part of the United States of America, Richard Rush, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from those States to the Court of his Majesty; and on the part of his Britannic Majesty, the Right Honorable William Huskisson, a member of his Majesty's most honorable Privy Council, President of the Committee of Privy Council, for affairs of trade and foreign plantations, Treasurer of his Majesty's Navy, and a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; and the Right Honorable Stratford Canning, a member of his said Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council, and his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America; which Plenipotentiaries, after duly communicating to each A few other deviations, verbal or in arrangement, will other their respective full powers, found to be in proper be perceived, but have not struck me as sufficiently ma-form, have agreed upon, and concluded, the following terial to call for particular notice or elucidation. The articles: less so, as I write under the pressure of other duties,aris- ARTICLE I. The commanders and commissioned offiing out of the general negotiation, and with a desire to cers of each of the two high contracting parties, duly secure for the convention as early an arrival at Wash- authorized, under the regulations and instructions of ington as possible; considerations which, I trust, will their respective governments, to cruize on the coasts of account for and excuse my omitting to trace, by minute Africa, of America, and of the West Indies, for the sup marginal parallels, the whole of the alterations superin- pression of the slave trade, shall be empowered, under duced upon the counter-projet, before the work was the conditions, limitations, and restrictions, hereinafter terminated. It is only left for me to hope that this des-specified, to detain, examine, capture, and deliver over, patch, with its enclosures, will render the progress of for trial and adjudication, by some competent tribunal, the negotiation intelligible. It may be needless in me of whichever of the two countries it shall be found, on to say, that I have done all in my power to make the re-examination, to belong to, any ship or vessel concerned sult satisfactory. The motive for using all practicable expedition in making up my despatch is, that, should the convention be approved by the President, the option may not be lost of submitting it to the consideration of the Senate before the present session of Congress reaches its close. I have thus indicated all the changes appearing to me to be important between the projet which you committed to me, and the convention as it has been signed. Should it be looked at as a whole, meet acceptance in the eyes of my government, and become, happily, the era of a new and saving spirit introduced into the laws of nations for the relief of Africa, her redeemed and grateful children will have cause to pour out the fervent thanksgivings of their hearts towards those Christian powers that have at length been enabled-and rejoice that they have been enabled-to arrest the portentous desolation that for long ages has swept over their land, filling it with the concentration of every human wo.Then, at last, may we all hope, and not in vain, to see their tears dried up, their sufferings turned to joy, their groans to songs of benediction. in the illicit traffic of slaves, and carrying the flag of the other, or owned by any subjects or citizens of either of the two contracting parties, except when in the presence of a ship of war of its own nation; and it is fur ther agreed, that any such ship or vessel, so captured, shall be either carried, or sent, by the capturing officer, to some port of the country to which it belongs, and there given up to the competent authorities, or be deli vered up, for the same purpose, to any duly commis. sioned officer of the other party, it being the intention of the high contracting powers, that any ship or vessel, within the purview of this convent on, and seized on that account, shall be tried and adjudged by the tribunals of the captured party, and not by those of the captor. ARTICLE II. In the case of any ship or vessel detained under this convention, by the cruizers of either of the two contracting parties, on suspicion of carrying on the slave trade, being found, on due examination by the boarding officer, to be chartered on account of any of The enclosures of this despatch are, 1st, the conven- the subjects or citizens of the other party, although not tion. 2d, the British counter-projet, marked C. 3d, actually bearing the flag of that party, nor owned by the copies of the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth, and se-individuals on whose account she is chartered, or by B |