Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Eighteenth Congress Page: 317
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317
OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
318
Jan. 21, 1825.]
Suppression of Piracy.
[Senate.
them aid or countenance. That he is willing to give
ships and money, and then to hold the Executive re-
sponsible for their proper application. But this very
Executive tells you that a blockade is necessary. At
whose door will the responsibility rest, if you give not
the power ? But my colleague is willing to give what is
necessary; but qualified with the condition that it must
be proper in his estimation. Why talk of doing what is
necessary, when you refuse that, without which, every
thing will be ineffectual. External means will not an-
swer. The people of the Islands must be made to feel.
A blockade of their ports is indispensable—yet this you
refuse. The lives of your people exposed to continued
massacre—and yet this calamity is to be disregarded
while we are fastidiously inquiring into the difficulty of
a prize case. 'Tis the case of a physician, weeping over
his dying patient, with the means of recovery in his
hand; but who,.from some fastidious delicacy, refuses
the application, and to that delicacy offers him as a sa-
crifice. But this measure is to operate exclusively on
foreigners, in the language of my friend. Directly the
reverse. It acts only on the guilty. How are foreigners
to be affected ? Surely their interest is directly to be
subserved. The extirpation of these demons is the
common concern of mankind. The temporary exclusion
of foreign ships from their den, surely can form no just
cause of complaint. But the gentleman foretells disas-
trous consequences. From what source he draws his
prophetic inspirations, 1 know not. I will content myself
with a different prophecy: that such a measure in such a
cause, will obtain tiie applause of mankind. Who can
complain.' Spain ? VVe are doing her a favor. England ?
She is engaged at this moment in the common cause of
extirpating the pirates. France, independently of her
equal concern in their destruction, will scarcely, after
her act of blockade at Cadiz, have the confidence to
complain. If she should, let her be told, that, while she
contends for the right of blockading a city, for the de-
struction of patriots, fighting for all that is dear to man,
their altars, their fire-sides, their liberty, that surely they
will not complain of an American blockade, directed
against a horde of the most prostituted and ferocious of
mankind, whose extirpation is the united wish of all
anankind-
My colleague permits himself to find a parallel between
this case and our own, during the war of revolutionary
France, and urges that this assumption of ours may
become a precedent which would shelter, in its retroac-
tion, the enormous pretensions of those powers, when
blockading our ports. But where are the circumstances
of resemblance ? On what ground did my colleague in-
dulge the comparison ? America—an independent Go-
vernment, in a neutral position, performing her relative
duties with good faith to the contending parties, surely
has no trait of resemblance with desperate brigands, at
war with all mankind—audaciously trampling under feet
all laws, human and divine.
I heard, with equal surprise and regret, that, however
he acquitted us of improper motives, that foreigners
would suspect their purity. That we would blockade
the Havana till the suffering of the inhabitants should
carry flour to fifty dollars per barrel, when our blockade
. would be immediately lifted, and Boston or Norfolk
would supply the demand. This is, indeed, a humiliat-
ing picture. Who could be wicked enough to indulge
such a:i insinuation ? After years of patient endurance
and long-suffering ; after our ships have been plundered
and our citizens given up to torture and death; when,
instead of rushing to vengeance, we have calmly ad-
dressed ourselves to the Spanish Government for re-
cress, and have waited for her reply in vain; after our
intelligent agent on the spot tells us this measure is in-
dispensable ; after the President of the United States
lias recommended its adoption, and the united wisdom
of both branches of Congress shall have sanctioned it—
to suppose it possible that any foreign nation will have
the audacity to carry our measures to a counting-house
motive, I repeat again is a suggestion which I heard with
.surprise and regret. But the power is given in a way to
render it futile. After these beasts of prev have been
traced to their den, they are not instantly to'be blockad-
ed, but the President is to be advised of the circum-
stances before the blockade takes place, and when the
fugitives will have escaped. Why does not my colleague
employ the powers of his mind in amending ? The truth
is, that the check complained of was inserted in defer-
ence to the opinions of those who permit themselves to
believe that they see danger in any measure of energy.
It was to relieve ourselves from the fear suggested by
my colleague, and which may be entertained by others,
that our commanders are not trust-worthy. This, bear
it in mind, is not our opinion. We have confidence in
the prudence of our officers, or, if they violate their
dutv, we have authority here to punish and atone for
their injuries- If, therefore, the clause is not sufficient-
ly energetic, I will go as far as any one in amending it.
But, in its present shape, is it inoperative ? Is there no-
thing in the knowledge of these people, that, though
justice is, for the time, suspended, it will assuredly,,
overtake them ? On what other ground is the wicked-
ness of individuals or nations prevented ? The law ex-
ercises its silent influence to the utmost extremity of the
nation. Not that the sword and the executioner are
always present, but the conviction that they will finally
smite the offender. So, also, will these people calcu-
late ; so, also, all nations must calculate. Believe me,
then, the very existence of this power, lodged in the
hands of the Executive, will have great influence, and
may possibly supersede the necessity of its exercise. I
have thus, without, as you know, a moment's prepara-
tion, endeavored to answer the objections of my col-
league against the third section of the bill; and, as at.
present advised, I shall not trouble you again on this
subject. The further discussion will be left to others.
Believing, sir, that an awful responsibility hangs over
us; that the lives of many of our fellow-citizens are
involved in the result of our decision, I call for a record
of my vote. In the day of urgency let every mar*
stand on his own ground; if the measure be adopted,
and ill consequences ensue, 1 am willing to meet the
responsibility. If rejected, and thereby the blood of
our people be spilled, let that blood be not laid at my
door.
When the debate had progressed thus far, on motion,
the further consideration of the bill was postponed to
Monday next.
Mr. SMITH laid on the table the following, which he
stated to the Senate he should propose as additional
sections to the bill:
"And be it further enacted, That the collectors of the
several ports of the United States be, and they are here-
by, authorized to pay to the owner or owners of any
merchant vessel of the United States, which shall clear
out for, and bona fide be bound to, any Island in the
West Indies, North andWest of the Island of St. Thomas,
or any port in the Gulf of Mexico, North of the state of
Colombia, the sum of dollars, for every gun of a
calibre not less than four pounds, which may be mount-
ed on board such vessel; provided, that the owner or
owners shall have furnished, for each gun, at least tliirty
rounds of ammunition, ten boarding-pikes, and ten
muskets, with at least thirty-six cartridges for each
musket, and shall have furnished three men at least
for each gun so mounted ; and provided, further, that
such payment shall only be made on the report of the
Surveyor of the port being produced to the said Col-
lector, that such armament is actually on board such
vessel, and such number of men had been engaged for
the voyage.
" Jlntl be U further enacted, That the President be,
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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/m1/163/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.