Enquiry Into the Validity of the British Claim to a Right of Visitation and Search of American Vessels Suspected to be Engaged in the African Slave-trade |
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abolished abolition abuse Adams adjudication African Institution African slave-trade American Government asserted authority belligerent right belong bound in embossed Britain British Government captured carried character citizens claim coast of Africa colonies common compact condemned Congress Congress of Verona Congress of Vienna consent constitutional Cooper's cruisers declared Deerslayer Duke edition effect embossed cloth engaged ENGRAVED BY YEAGER Europe executed exercise farther flag France French Government handsome HENRY COCKTON high seas human ILLUSTRATIONS instructions interest judgment jurisdiction law of nations Lord Aberdeen Lord Castlereagh Lord Stowell lordships measures ment merchant-vessels mixed commissions municipal laws navigation negotiation neutral object offence officers opinion Parliament parties peace piracy Portugal Portuguese principles prohibited proposed public law punishment recognised respect right of search right of visitation seizure ships sion slave-trade slaves Spain Spanish stipulation suppression tion trade traffic treaties of Utrecht treaty trial tribunals United vessels visitation and search volumes whilst
Popular passages
Page 71 - No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged than the. perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another. Each legislates for itself, but its legislation can operate on itself alone.
Page 83 - Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to enter upon and prosecute from time to time such negotiations with the several maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its ultimate denunciation as piracy under the law of nations, by the consent of the civilized world.
Page 12 - Deeply impressed with these sentiments, we most humbly beseech your majesty to remove all those restraints on your majesty's governors of this colony which inhibit their assenting to such laws as might check so very pernicious a commerce.
Page 72 - If it be neither repugnant to the law of nations nor piracy, it is almost superfluous to say in this Court that the right of bringing in for adjudication in time of peace, even where the vessel belongs to a nation which has prohibited the trade, cannot exist.
Page 148 - ... government to afford any plea for foreign interference. If the end of the last and the beginning of the present century saw all Europe combined against France, it was not on account of the internal changes which France thought necessary for her own political and civil reformation ; but because she attempted to propagate, first her principles, and afterwards her dominion, by the sword.
Page 71 - Africa has not yet adopted them. Throughout the whole extent of that immense continent, so far as we know its history, it is still the law of nations that prisoners are slaves.
Page 62 - ... restitution in a prize court, of human beings carried as his slaves. He must show some right that has been violated by the capture, some property of which he has been dispossessed, and to which he ought to be restored. In this case the laws of the claimant's country allow of no right of property of such as he claims. There can, therefore, be no right to restitution. The consequence is, that the judgment must be affirmed.
Page 125 - American that such vessels are ever visited ; but it has been the invariable practice of the British navy, and, as the undersigned believes, of all navies in the world, to ascertain, by visit, the real nationality of merchant vessels met with on the high seas, if there be good reason to apprehend their illegal character.
Page 12 - Britain may reap emoluments from this sort of traffic; but when we consider that it greatly retards the settlement of the Colonies with more useful inhabitants, and may in time have the most destructive influence, we presume to hope that the interest of a few will be disregarded, when placed in competition with the security and happiness of such numbers of your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects.
Page 72 - If it is consistent with the law of nations, it cannot in itself be piracy. It can be made so only by statute ; and the obligation of the statute cannot transcend the legislative power of the state which may enact it. If it be neither repugnant to the law of nations, nor piracy, it is almost superfluous to say in this Court, that the right of bringing in for adjudication in time of peace, even where the vessel...