Page:The African Slave Trade (Clark).djvu/79



1831, a convention was concluded between the governments of England and France, for the more effectual suppression of the slave trade; in furtherance of which object, the two contracting parties agreed to the mutual right of search within certain geographical limits. They moreover covemanted to use their best endeavors, and mutually to aid each other, to induce all the maritime powers to agree to the terms of their convention. The fact that such overtures had been made to some nations has occasionally been hinted at, but the results we have now for the first time learned."

After noticing the reception of the proposition by the other European powers, the Journal of Commerce adds:

"We come now to our own country, the United States. And what shall we say? What must we say? What does the truth compel us to say? Why, that of all the countries appealed to by Great Britain and France on this momentous subject, the United States is the only one which has returned a decided negative. We neither do anything ourselves to put down the accursed traffic, nor afford any facilities to enable others to put it down. Nay, rather, stand between the slave and his deliverer. We are a drawback, a dead weight on the cause of bleeding humanity. How long shall this shameful apathy continue? How long shall we, who call ourselves the champions of freedom, close our ears to the groans, and our eyes to the tears and blood, and our hearts to the untold anguish of thousands and tens of thousands who are every year torn from home and friends, and bosom companions, and sold into hopeless bondage, or perish amid the horrors of the middle passage?' From the shores of bleeding Africa, and from the channels of the deep, from Brazil and from Cuba, echo answers, 'How long?