Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress Page: 381
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881
OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
0m
Jan. 31, 1825.j
Suppression of Piracy.
("Senate.
Spain, you have the right to mitigate the evils of war, by
the adoption of any milder course you may think proper
to pursue.
It is true, if you blockade a single port of the Island of
Cuba, Spain may be authorized to declare \v:ir, and per-
liapsbe joined by her allies, if she and they choose it;
and this would undoubtedly be attended with great in-
jury to us. Peace is the polar star of the interest of our
country; but, if it is only to be preserved at the expense
of the continued murder of our citizens, and the plunder
of our property with impunity, then, for one, he was
ready for war; and how much soever of injury it might
entail, it would be accompanied with one consolation,
derived from the experience of the last war; which was,
that, whatever natiou chose to go to war with the United
States, it would carry them forward in their progress to
maturity,per saltern, half a century at a jump.
But we are told, other nations will take umbrage at
this ; that although blockade is a belligerant right, and
we impose it, we are still not at war.
What have other nations to do with this question? It
belongs exclusively to us and to Spain. When two na-
tions go to war, who constitutes, without their consent, a
third party to determine who is right, or who is in the
wrong? All other nations have a right to demand, is,
that, in the prosecution of the quarrel, the rights of hu-
manity shall not be outraged, and that the usages of war
shall be observed as regards them. What have they then
a right to require, as it regards a blockade ? simply, that
you shall not entrap them—that you shall give them due
notice, a sufficient warning, and that you shall keep ap
a close, rigorous, unremitting investment, by a sufficient
force ; if you do this, you perform all your duties as re-
gards them—all the rest lies between the party blockad-
ing and the party blockaded.
But, we are asked, suppose we find these unoffending
neutrals in the den of robbers, in the lair of these wild
beasts, at the time we invest it, what will you do with
them ? It is answered, give them the right of egress
precisely in the state they were at the time the blockade
was imposed; after this, strictly keep, them in, and
rv? t'lern out' is all they have a right to expect.
If they are in bad company, they must feel the effect of it.
Is a formal parchment declaration of war at all times
necessary or usual among nations? If it is, what was
the state of our quasi war with France, in 1798 ? Where
was the proclamation of France, when she blockaded
Cadiz, and kept out, not only merchant vessels, but our
messenger of peace, in a national vessel ? Where was
the proclamation, when the British pounced upon the
Spanish frigates and captured them, with their treasure,
during the late wars between France and England ?—
Where the proclamation, when she sent her fleet up the
Kattegat, blockaded and bombarded Copenhagen, and
destroyed the Danish fleet? These cases are adduced
as showing that, between third parties, a declaration of
war, if you choose it, is not considered indispensable, as
to usage, not as approving them.
Have >ou abundant cause of war against the inhabit-
ants ot Cuba ? Look at the accounts of your official
agent; you find from them, that these murderers and
robbers are well known, are connected with the inhabit-
ants, and suffered, if not protected, by the local authori-
ties; and even the Governor General, whose ffood dis-
positions are so much spoken of, tells you frankly, when
applied to for the aid of government, that, so deeply im-
plicated are all the inhabitants of Regla, where a quanti-
ty ot plunder was known to be secreted,'that he dare
not make the investigation—it might create a rebellion.
Sir, with something more than delicacy, withan! p-
proach to fastidiousness, we have kept out of sitrht the
enormities we are suffering, it must be useful, however,
°=°.as'onal and sparing reference to them. He
fhat ir.l £nefly onty three instances: The first was
I the Alert, commanded by a very respectable citi-
zen of Portsmouth, m New Hampshire—Captain Blunt.
I his vessel, bound from New Orleans, was becalmed off
the Moro Castle; a boat approached, when the first
wretch that crossed the gun-wale,ran the captain through
the body, who was afterwards cut to pieces, and the only
vestige that remained of him in the morning was his slip-
pers, overflowing- with blood; the crew were abused,
and the cook, asleep in the steerage, waslacerated in the
most cruel and wanton manner, and his mangled corpse
thrown to the hogs, who were seen the next day fatten-
ing on his entrails.
The next case is that of the Laura Ann, already be-
fore the Senate; this was a vessel belonging to New
York, boarded by pirates, at a short distance from Ma-
tanzas, when bound to the Havana, who, after beating
and inhumanly hanging the captain, butchered the crew;
but probably discovering, from a critical comparison of
the shipping paper, with the number of the dead and
dying on the deck, that there was one still wanting, they
descended into the hold, exclaiming, in their barbarous
language uno wits—one rat left; pricked, with their
knives and swords, to find out the deficient sailor, and,
lest he should not have escaped torture by drowning, on
not finding him, set fire to the vessel, in order that, if on
board, he might be consumed with it; on the flames
reaching him,-he crawled on deck, and finding the pi-
rates were off, dropped over board, and happily reached
the shore.
The last case he should cite, was one that has not be-
fore been distinctly presented to the Senate; it is of re-
cent date, and was now on his table in-manuscript,-duly'
sworn to. It furnishes some new facts, and gives an ex-
position of the neutral rights of the innocent, unoffending
inhabitants of Cuba.
"j3 'of of the bri£ Henry> of Hartford, captured
on the 24th ot September last, off the Bay of Honda,
when bound with a load of sixty-eight mules, from St
Jago, in Mexico, to Charleston, in South Carolina: the
vessel, as soon as captured, was run into a small creek,
alongside ten other hulks of vessels, having the appear-
ance of being recently burned, and which must have
negated by 130 or 150 men, not one of whom wass
visible, but the crew of the Henry was significantly giv-
en to understand, that their fate, as soon as the mules-
were landed, was to be a similar one, and that dead men
told no tales- The Henry was then dismasted, to pre-
vent her being seen^her equipment and stores taken out.,
put on board a Spanish drogher, belonging to Havana^
and preparations made for landing the mulesthe cap-
tain having been twice hung up by the neck to the yard
arm, until he was senseless, and became subsequently
deranged, the arm of the mate broken by the stroke of
a cutlass, and the crew outraged and abused. Happily,
however, before the mules could be landed, the vessel
was discovered by the boats of the English sloop of war
Icarus, who humanely came to their assistance ; and on
their approach, the pirates quitted their prey, and aban-
doned it. Not so easily, however, did the neutral inha-
bitants of Cuba quit their hold; after a time they camc
oft—plead their neutral rights—claimed the mules as
their property they had bought them of the pirates—
they had paid a valuable consideration—they had an
equitable interest in them, and demanded their delive-
ry I! The British commander indignantly took the best
possible course he could have adopted, with a single ex-
ception ; he instantly ordered all the mules to be shot
upon the deck; the exception referred to is, that he
should have shot, in preference, those who demanded
them. Mr. L. stated, he would not pursue this disgust-
ing detail, but would leave it, after observing, that if,
for a length of time, we permitted atrocities of this kind
to continue and go unpunished, the multitudinous waves
of the ocean would not speedily efface the crimson it
would attach to our escutcheon.
He had said, that, with the exception of the third sec;
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress, book, 1825; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30752/m1/195/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.