[44] Such measures put the trade more and more in
the hands of Americans, and it began greatly to increase. Mercer sought
repeatedly in the House to have negotiations reopened with England, but
without success.[45] Indeed, the chances of success were now for many
years imperilled by the recurrence of deliberate search of American
vessels by the British.[46] In the majority of cases the vessels proved
to be slavers, and some of them fraudulently flew the American flag;
nevertheless, their molestation by British cruisers created much
feeling, and hindered all steps toward an understanding: the United
States was loath to have her criminal negligence in enforcing her own
laws thus exposed by foreigners. Other international questions connected
with the trade also strained the relations of the two countries: three
different vessels engaged in the domestic slave-trade, driven by stress
of weather, or, in the "Creole" case, captured by Negroes on board,
landed slaves in British possessions; England freed them, and refused to
pay for such as were landed after emancipation had been proclaimed in
the West Indies.[47] The case of the slaver "L'Amistad" also raised
difficulties with Spain. This Spanish vessel, after the Negroes on board
had mutinied and killed their owners, was seized by a United States
vessel and brought into port for adjudication.
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