In 1831 Congress sought to inquire into the final
disposition of the slaves. The information given was never printed; but
as late as 1836 a certain Calvin Mickle petitions Congress for
reimbursement for the slaves sold, for their hire, for their natural
increase, for expenses incurred, and for damages.[107]
64. ~The Supplementary Acts, 1818-1820.~ To remedy the obvious defects
of the Act of 1807 two courses were possible: one, to minimize the crime
of transportation, and, by encouraging informers, to concentrate efforts
against the buying of smuggled slaves; the other, to make the crime of
transportation so great that no slaves would be imported. The Act of
1818 tried the first method; that of 1819, the second.[108] The latter
was obviously the more upright and logical, and the only method
deserving thought even in 1807; but the Act of 1818 was the natural
descendant of that series of compromises which began in the
Constitutional Convention, and which, instead of postponing the
settlement of critical questions to more favorable times, rather
aggravated and complicated them.
The immediate cause of the Act of 1818 was the Amelia Island
scandal.[109] Committees in both Houses reported bills, but that of the
Senate finally passed. There does not appear to have been very much
debate.[110] The sale of Africans for the benefit of the informer and of
the United States was strongly urged "as the only means of executing the
laws against the slave trade as experience had fully demonstrated since
the origin of the prohibition.
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