Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/529

 with a resolution of the 8th, the president transmitted to the house the correspondence between the secretary of state and Mr. Gallatin, our minister at London, and Mr. Barbour, his successor. The following is an extract from the instructions of Mr. Clay to Mr. Gallatin:

"If it be urged that Great Britain would make, in agreeing to the proposed stipulation, a concession without an equivalent, there being no corresponding class of persons in her North American continental dominions, you will reply:

"1st. That there is a similar class in the British West Indies, and, although the instances are not numerous, some have occurred of their escape, or being brought, contrary to law, into the United States.

"2dly. That Great Britain would probably obtain an advantage over us in the reciprocal restoration of military and maritime deserters, which would compensate any that we might secure over her in the practical operation of an article for the mutual delivery of fugitives from labor.

"3dly. At all events, the disposition to cultivate good neighborhood, which such an article would imply, could not fail to find a compensation in that, or in some other way, in the already immense and still increasing intercourse between the two countries. The states of Virginia and Kentucky are particularly anxious on this subject. The general assembly of the latter has repeatedly invoked the interposition of the government of the United States with Great Britain. You will, therefore, press the matter whilst there exists any prospect of your obtaining a satisfactory arrangement of it. Perhaps the British government, whilst they refuse to come under any obligation by treaty, might be willing to give directions to the colonial authorities to afford facilities for the recovery of fugitives from labor; or, if they should not be disposed to disturb such as have heretofore taken refuge in Upper Canada, they might be willing to interdict the entry of any others in future."

These considerations were not deemed sufficiently weighty to induce the English government to make the desired concession.

A petition from the citizens of the District of Columbia was presented to congress at the session of 1821-28, praying for the prospective abolition of slavery in the district, and for the repeal of those laws which authorize the selling of supposed runaways for their prison fees or maintenance. The petitioners declare slavery among them to be "an evil of serious magnitude, which greatly impairs the prosperity and happiness of the district, and to cast the reproach of inconsistency upon the free institutions established among us." They represent the domestic slave-trade at the seat of the national government as "scarcely less disgraceful iu its character, and even more demoralizing in its influence," than the foreign slave-trade, which is declared piracy, and punishable with death. "Husbands and wives are separated; children are taken from their parents without regard to the ties of nature, and the most endearing bonds of affection are broken for ever."

It was mentioned also as a special grievance, that "some who were entitled to freedom had been sold into unconditional slavery." And they gave the case of a colored man who had been taken up as a runaway slave, imprisoned, and