"[36]
Rush presented this _project_ to the government in January, 1824.
England agreed to all the points insisted on by the United States; viz.,
that she herself should denounce the trade as piracy; that slavers
should be tried in their own country; that the captor should be laid
under the most effective responsibility for his conduct; and that
vessels under convoy of a ship of war of their own country should be
exempt from search. In addition, England demanded that citizens of
either country captured under the flag of a third power should be sent
home for trial, and that citizens of either country chartering vessels
of a third country should come under these stipulations.[37]
This convention was laid before the Senate April 30, 1824, but was not
acted upon until May 21, when it was so amended as to make it terminable
at six months' notice. The same day, President Monroe, "apprehending,
from the delay in the decision, that some difficulty exists," sent a
special message to the Senate, giving at length the reasons for signing
the treaty, and saying that "should this Convention be adopted, there is
every reason to believe, that it will be the commencement of a system
destined to accomplish the entire Abolition of the Slave Trade." It was,
however, a time of great political pot-boiling, and consequently an
unfortunate occasion to ask senators to settle any great question.
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