est assurances that the solicitude of the United States for the universal extirpation of this traffic continues with all the earnestness which 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; among 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, towards 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 instru

ment, 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 removable 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 freemen, they could not, but by their own consent, be employed as servants or free laborers. The condition of negroes and other people of color 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 recognised 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 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.

Mr. Rush to the Secretary of State-Extract. LONDON, March 5, 1819. "Lord Castlereagh sent me, a few days ago, the enclosed printed parliamentary document. It will be found to comprise a variety of interesting papers relating to the slave trade, exhibiting all that has lately been done by the Powers of Europe upon the subject, and the actual and precise footing upon which it now stands. Its receipt was

the first notice that I had in any shape of the fact of the publication, or of there being any intention to publish my notes to this Government of the 23d of June and 21st of December. It will be seen, from one of the papers, how unequivocal and animated has been the refusal of France to allow her vessels to be boarded and searched at sea for slaves. Now, there is nothing more evident, as may be collected from my despatch of the 15th of last April, than that this is a result which, at that period, Lord Castlereagh did not anticipate. Nevertheless, it would seem, from a passage in his Lordship's letter to Lord Bathurst, from Paris, dated the 10th of December, the last paper in the collection, and written subsequently to all the conferences and declarations at Aix la Chapelle, that he still indulges a sanguine expectation that the French Government may be brought, at no distant period, to unite their naval exertions with those of the other allied Powers, for the suppression of the trade.' Some of the evidence furnished by the African Society, in London, and from Sierra Leone, as to the extent in which the trade continues to be unlawfully carried on, may probably command attention in the United States. "What communications may, at any former periods, have been made to the Government of the United States, by the Government of France, Russia, or Prussia, through any channel, either in Europe or at Washington, of their intentions in regard to this naval combination for putting down the traffic, I am not informed. It is impossible to refrain from remarking, that, to me, they remained utterly unknown, until I saw them recorded in these pages of a document given to the world by England."

Extract of a letter from Mr. Rush to the Secretary of State, dated London, November 10, 1819.

"On the 7th of this month I received a note from Lord Castlereagh, requesting that I would call upon him at his house on the 9th. I waited upon him at the time appointed.

"His object, he stated, was to say to me, that the Government of Great Britain had lost none of its anxiety to see produced among nations, more universal and effective co-operation than had yet been witnessed, for the total abolition of the slave trade. It was still carried on, he observed, to an extent that was afflicting. In some respects, as the evidence collected by the African Institution and from other sources would show, the voyages were marked by more than all their original outrages upon humanity. It was the intention of the Prince Regent again to invite the United States to negotiate upon the subject, in the hope, notwithstanding what had heretofore passed, that some practicable mode might still be adopted by which they could consent to become party to the association for finally extirpating the traffic. That I was aware of the addresses which had been presented to his Royal Highness by both Houses of Parliament, at the close of the last session, for the renewal of negotiations with the Governments both of the United States and France, to effectuate this

most desirable end. That it was his Lordship's design to enclose to me, at an early day, copies of these addresses, as a foundation upon which to build in the new endeavor which this Government was now prepared to make. In doing so, his object, however, merely would be, that of bespeaking my interposition towards making known to the President the measures contemplated; since it was intended that all further negotiation should be carried on at Washington. This he thought indispensable after the past failure, as it could not be supposed that I was prepared with any new authority or instructions to resume it upon this side of the water. That the new Minister, Mr. Canning, who, his Lordship now informed me, was to sail as early in the Spring as practicable, would accordingly have the whole subject in charge, and be prepared to enter upon it on his arrival, under ardent hopes for an auspicious termination of his labors. I replied that I would, in the same spirit as before, make known the communication to my Government. I adverted again to the obstacles which the Constitution of the United States interposed to the project; and also to the peculiar and extreme caution with which the momentous question of search mingled with it would be looked at throughout every part of the country. I said that these reasons superadded themselves to that derived from the failure of the attempt already made here to give great propriety, as it struck me, to a change of the scene of negotiation. That if any thing could be done, it could be done only, or at all events be done best, at Washington. That the President, I was sure, continued to possess all his original sensibility to the importance of the subject, and would entertain any proposals, differently modified, that were submitted, with the same anxious dispositions as ever, for a favorable result to their objects.

"The conversation went off by reference on my part to the Holy League. I remarked that, as the Government of Great Britain had declared, that the principles of that league had its entire approbation, although it had not formally become a party to it, so the United States, acting within their Constitutional limits, had long and earnestly striven, and would, it might be confidently affirmed, though restrained from going hand in hand with Europe, always continue their efforts in the same beneficent spirit, for putting down totally the slave trade. It is well known that the Earl of Liverpool, not longer ago than last February, described, in the House of Peers, the character of this league, as well as the insurmountable impediment which held back this country from signing it. He distinctly declared that, as the signatures were all in the autograph of the respective sovereigns, England, in point of form, could never accede to it; for it was not consistent with her constitution that the Prince Regent should himself sign such an instrument, without the intervention of a responsible Minister. Upon my reminding Lord Castlereagh of this declaration, which I was the more ready to do so since it was your wish that the illustration should be brought into view, he candidly admitted that we too doubtless had

our Constitutional embarrassments; but he nevertheless hoped that such, and all others, might, by proper modifications of the plan, be overcome."

Mr. Canning to the Secretary of State.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 1819.

The undersigned, His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, took an early opportunity, after his arrival in the City of Washington, to inform Mr. Adams that, in pursuance of Lord Castlereagh's note, dated the 11th November, 1819, communicating to Mr. Rush an address of both Houses of Parliament, relating to the African slave trade, he was instructed to bring that important question again under the consideration of the American Government, in the hope of being found practicable so to combine the preventive measures of the two countries as materially to accelerate the total extinction of an evil, which both have long united in condemning and opposing.

Mr. Adams will find no difficuity in recollecting the several conversations which have passed between him and the undersigned on this subject; he will remember that the last of those conversations, which took place towards the close of October, was terminated with an assurance on his part, that the proposals of the English Government would be taken into full deliberation as soon after the meeting of Congress as the state of public business would allow, with a sincere disposition to remove any impediments which appeared at first sight to stand in the way of their accep

tance.

An interval of considerable length having elapsed since that period, the undersigned is persuaded that Mr. Adams will shortly be at liberty to communicate the definitive sentiments of his Government on a subject which is of too deep and too general an importance not to engage the attention and benevolent feelings of the United States.

In this persuasion, the undersigned conceives it unnecessary, on the present occasion, to go over the various grounds which formed the matter of his late conversations with Mr. Adams.

Notwithstanding all that has been done on both sides of the Atlantic for the suppression of the African slave trade, it is notorious that an illicit commerce, attended with aggravated sufferings to its unhappy victims, is still carried on; and it is generally acknowledged that a combined system of maritime police can alone afford the means of putting it down with effect.

That concurrence of principle in the condemnation and prohibition of the slave trade, which has so honorably distinguished the Parliament of Great Britain and the Congress of the United States, seems naturally and unavoidably to lead to a concert of measures between the two Governments, the moment that such co-operation is recognised as necessary for the accomplishment of their mutual purpose. It cannot be anticipated that either of the parties, discouraged by such difficulties as are inseparable from all human

transactions of any magnitude, will be contented to acquiesce in the continuance of a practice so flagrantly immoral; especially at the present favorable period, when the slave trade is completely abolished to the north of the equator, and countenanced by Portugal alone to the south of that line.

Mr. Adams is fully acquainted with the particular measures recommended by His Majesty's Ministers as best calculated, in their opinion, to attain the object which both parties have in view; but he need not be reminded that the English Government is too sincere in the pursuit of that common object, to press the adoption of its own proposals, however satisfactory in themselves, to the exclusion of any suggestions equally conducive to the same end, and more agreeable to the institutions or prevailing opinion of other nations.

The undersigned embraces this opportunity to offer Mr. Adams the assurance of his high consideration. STRATFORD CANNING.

The Secretary of State to Mr. Canning.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, Dec. 30, 1820. SIR: I have had the honor of receiving your note of the 20th instant, in reply to which, I am directed by the President of the United States to inform you that, conformably to the assurances given you in the conversation to which you refer, the proposals made by your Government to the United States, inviting their accession to the arrangements contained in certain treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, to which Great Britain is the reciprocal contracting party, have again been taken into the most serious deliberation of the President, with an anxious desire of contributing, to the utmost extent of the powers within the competency of this Government, and by means compatible with its duties to the rights of its own citizens, and with the principles of its national independence, to the effectual and final suppression of the African slave trade.

At an earlier period of the communications between the two Governments upon this subject, the President, in manifesting his sensibility to the amicable spirit of confidence with which the measures, concerted between Great Britain and some of her European allies, had been made known to the United States, and to the free and candid offer of admitting the United States to a participation in these measures, had instructed the Minister of the United States residing near your Government to represent the difficulties, resulting as well from certain principles of international law, of the deepest and most painful interest to these United States, as from limitations of authority prescribed by the people of the United States to the legislative and executive depositaries of the national power, which placed him under the necessity of declining the proposal. It had been stated that a compact, giving the power to the naval officers of one nation to search the merchant vessels of another for offenders and offences against the laws of the latter,

the duties required by the sixth article of the Treaty of Ghent.

By their resolution of the 21st of November last, the House requested the President of the United States to lay before them information respecting the progress made by the commissioners in establishing the boundary above mentioned, and the expenses already incurred. With his message of the 14th December last, the President transmitted a report of the Secretary of State, containing all the information in the possession of that Department requested by that resolution.

So far as relates to the boundary from the head of the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence, it seems that no information had been afforded to the Government at the date of the President's Message. Mr. Van Ness, in his letter of the 25th of November last, observes, "with respect to the progress which has been made by the commission, I understand the agent has already given to the Government all the information which it would be in my power to communicate." He also mentions that commissioners under the fifth article of the treaty have held two sessions the present year;" but there is no disclosure of past exertions or future prospects in the discharge of the duties assigned to him.

the

Since that time, the committee have been furnished with a communication from Mr. Van Ness, (marked No. 18 in the manuscript documents at tending this report,) dated January 6, 1821, in which he observes that the next meeting is to be held on the 14th May, and that the commissioners intend at that meeting to continue in session until they have decided upon all questions submitted to them by the treaty. To this letter the committee would call the attention of the House, as containing much information of the progress which the commissioners under the fifth article have made. No satisfactory reason, however, is assigned why earlier information has not been given to the Government. The committee have not seen any occasion for secrecy on the part of the commissioners. They were appointed to ascertain certain facts which were supposed to exist. A disclosure of their proceedings would neither change the position of the northwest corner of Nova Scotia, nor alter the forty-fifth degree of north latitude.

The information of the progress of the commissioners under the sixth article of the Treaty of Ghent is found in the letters of Mr. Delafield, dated October 13th and November 1st, and in one from Mr. Porter, of December 2d, 1820, which are among the printed documents. These gentlemen express a belief that the surveys under the last mentioned article will be completed during the next season. But it appears that no part of the boundary is finally settled. Whether it will be done next season, must depend on the termination of the surveys and the agreement of the commissioners. Any event which should prevent the agent or commissioner on either side from attending to his duties would probably delay a decision for another year; and should the calculations of the American commissioner and agent prove correct, they will

have devoted about six years to the performance of this part of their duty.

After this they will be ready to turn their attention to the boundary from the water communication between Huron and Superior to the northwest corner of the Lake of the Woods, according to the seventh article of the treaty.

It is observed in the letter of Mr. Porter, above referred to, that "the seventh article of the treaty relates to a country which is comparatively of little importance, and a system of operations is proposed to be adopted for designating the boundary, which will greatly reduce both the time and expense of its execution." What this system of operations may be is not disclosed. It is presumed, however, to be such a system as will not endanger the rights of the nation, while it is a subject of regret that it had not been sooner applied. it appears that the sum of $194,137 63 has been drawn from the Treasury on account of the two commissions under the treaty which have been Mr. Van Ness, as commissioner under mentioned. the fifth article, has received Mr. Bradley, as agent

From an examination of the printed documents,

- $82,444 00 16,655 10 $99,099 10

Of this sum, $35,676 13 has been expended by the agent, and the accounts adjusted by the American and British commissioners; but the statements afforded are in such general terms that explanation is required to determine how far they could be approved by this Government. The remainder of the sum drawn under the fifth article remains without evidence of its disbursement, except what may be retained for the commissioner's salary.

Mr. Porter, the commissioner under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty, has drawn from the Treasury $65,315 95. No part has been accounted for. He has transmitted statements of expenditures to the amount of $47,263 09, exclusive of his salary. He informs the Secretary of State that "the vouchers will be transmitted to Washington on the closing of the sixth article." Mr. Hawkins, the late agent under the sixth and seventh articles, has drawn from the Treasury Received from Mr. Parker

Amounting to the sum of Statements of expenditures, which yet are not adjusted, are furnished, including salary while employed, amounting to

$28,891 80 1,815 95

30,707 75

18,548 97

Balance against Mr. Hawkins $12,158 78

It has not been explained to the committee why the persons employed under the treaty have not accounted for the moneys which have been drawn from the Treasury. The nation is as deeply interested in the proper application of its funds expended under a treaty as under any other law. It is important, also, that the Government should