These proposals were not accepted. Austria would agree to the first two
only; France refused to denounce the trade as piracy; and Prussia was
non-committal. The utmost that could be gained was another denunciation
of the trade couched in general terms.[33]
70. ~Negotiations of 1823-1825.~ England did not, however, lose hope of
gaining some concession from the United States. Another House committee
had, in 1822, reported that the only method of suppressing the trade was
by granting a Right of Search.[34] The House agreed, February 28, 1823,
to request the President to enter into negotiations with the maritime
powers of Europe to denounce the slave-trade as piracy; an amendment
"that we agree to a qualified right of search" was, however, lost.[35]
Meantime, the English minister was continually pressing the matter upon
Adams, who proposed in turn to denounce the trade as piracy. Canning
agreed to this, but only on condition that it be piracy under the Law of
Nations and not merely by statute law. Such an agreement, he said, would
involve a Right of Search for its enforcement; he proposed strictly to
limit and define this right, to allow captured ships to be tried in
their own courts, and not to commit the United States in any way to the
question of the belligerent Right of Search. Adams finally sent a draft
of a proposed treaty to England, and agreed to recognize the
slave-traffic "as piracy under the law of nations, namely: that,
although seizable by the officers and authorities of every nation, they
should be triable only by the tribunals of the country of the slave
trading vessel.
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