the attorney-general, Mr. Grundy, and after, moreover, the officers themselves had renounced their claim to salvage, as Lieutenant Gedney, the commander of the Washington, himself declared to the undersigned? The Secretary of State also says, 'that it was found by the courts that the negroes were not the lawful property of any one.' One violation of necessity brought on another, not less unjust; for the judges of the United States, in order to ascertain whether or not the Africans were the lawful property of Spanish subjects, thought proper to examine the papers found on board of the vessel, which had been given by the authorities of her Catholic majesty in the Island of Cuba. This was a recognition of the right of search, which, besides its not being authorized by any nation, has been combated by writers on public law, and most particularly, in the case in question, by the distinguished jurist, Mr. Grundy, attorney-general of the Union, at the time when the schooner Amistad arrived on the Anglo-American coasts. (See his opinion on the case.)"

6

The undersigned will make one more attempt to state the general occurrences of this transaction so plainly that he can not be misunderstood, with a hope of convincing M. d'Argaiz that nothing has been done by the authorities of the United States, or any of them, not in strict accordance with the prin ciples of public law and the practice of nations; nothing which can be complained of with justice as an encroachment upon Spanish territories, or visiting and searching Spanish vessels. The succinct history of the case is the most complete justification which can be made of all that has been, done in regard to it in the United States.

Lieutenant Gedney, of the United States brig Washington, on the 27th of June, 1839, discovered the Spanish schooner "Amistad," then at anchor within half a mile of the shore of the United States. The vessel was then in possession of certain blacks, who had risen upon and killed the captain. Lieutenant Gedney took possession of and brought in the vessel to the United States, and for this service claimed salvage upon the common principles of maritime law. The possession of the vessel had become already lost to her owners; and to save her from entire destruction, and to restore her to those owners, was esteemed a meritorious service. The Chevalier d'Argaïz must certainly understand, that when merchant vessels are met with at sea so shattered by storms and tempests, or other disasters, or so deprived of their crew as to be unable to prosecute their voyages, in all such cases other vessels falling in with them and saving them are entitled to reasonable compensation; and, to ascertain the amount of this compensation, the vessel is to be brought in, subjected to judicial proceedings, and justice,

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rendered the claimants and salvors, according to well-established rules and principles.

Spain herself, in the early ages of commerce, was among the first to establish the principles, and lead in the administration, of this part of the maritime law, and these principles now prevail over the whole commercial world; and the highest judicial authority in the United States, acting under the influence of the same rules which must have controlled the decisions of an English tribunal, a French tribunal, or a Spanish tribunal, has decided that the case was a case for salvage, and has decreed to the salvors a just compensation. The undersigned is, therefore, quite at a loss to conceive how this transaction can be deemed an encroachment upon the jurisdiction of Spain, or an unlawful visitation and search of Spanish vessels. At the institution of proceedings in the court, claims were interposed on behalf of Spanish subjects for the vessel and cargo, which were allowed, subject to salvage.

Claims were also interposed for the negroes found on board, which were claimed as slaves, and the property of Spanish subjects. On the other hand, the negroes denied that they were slaves, and the property of Spanish subjects or any other persons. It was impossible for the courts to avoid the decis ions of the questions thus brought before them; and, in deciding them, it was bound to regard the law of nations, the laws of Spain, the treaty between Spáin and the United States, the laws of the United States, and the evidence produced in the

case.

Proceeding upon these grounds, after a very patient investigation, and the hearing of elaborate arguments, the court decided that the negroes found on board the Amistad, with one exception, were not slaves, nor the property of any body, but were free persons, and therefore decreed that they should be set at liberty. All this appears to the undersigned to be in the common course of such affairs. The questions in which Spanish' subjects were interested have been heard and tried before competent tribunals, and one of them has been decided against the Spanish subjects; but this can give no possible ground of complaint on the part of Spain, unless Spain can show that the tribunal has acted corruptly, or has decided wrong in a case in no degree doubtful. Nations are bound to maintain respectable tribunals, to which the subjects of states at peace may have recourse for the redress of injuries and the maintenance of their rights: If the character of these tribunals be respectable, impartial, and independent, their decisions are to be regarded as conclusive.

The United States have carried the principle of acquiescence, in such cases, as far as any nation upon earth, and, in respect

to the decisions of Spanish tribunals, quite as frequently, perhaps, as in respect to the tribunals of any other nation.

In almost innumerable cases of reclamations sought by citizens of the United States against Spain for alleged captures, seizures, and other wrongs committed by Spanish subjects, the answer has been that the question has been fairly tried before an impartial Spanish tribunal, having competent jurisdiction, and decided against the claimant; and in the sufficiency of this answer the government of the United States has acquiesced.

If the tribunal be competent, if it be free from unjust influence, if it be impartial and independent, and if it has heard the case fully and fairly, its judgment is to stand as decisive of the matter before it. This principle governs in regard to the decisions of courts of common law, courts of equity, and especially courts of admiralty, where proceedings so often affect the rights and interests of citizens of foreign states and governments.

M. d'Argaïz complains that the vessel and cargo were sold, and that loss thereby happened to the owners. But all this was inevitable, and no blame attaches on account of it to the tribunal. In cases of an allowance for salvage, if the owner be not present and ready to pay the amount, the property must necessarily be sold, that the proceeds be properly apportioned between owner and salvor. This is a daily occurrence in every court of admiralty in the world. Sufficient notice of the intended sale was given in legal form, in order that the claimants might be present, or might, if they pleased, prevent it, by paying the amount awarded for salvage, and receive their property. The Chevalier d'Argaïz complains that Messrs. Montes and Ruiz suffered an unjust imprisonment in the United States. The undersigned can not but think that such an allegation of injury, put forth in behalf of Messrs. Montes and Ruiz, is not a little extraordinary. These persons themselves had held in unjust and cruel confinement certain negroes who, it appeared on trial, were as free as themselves, and these negroes, finding themselves within the protection of equal laws, sought redress, by a regular appeal to those laws, for the injuries which they had suffered. The pursuit of this redress by the injured parties, it appears, subjected Messrs. Ruiz and Montes to a temporary imprisonment. In the judgment of enlightened men, they will probably be thought to have been very fortunate in escaping severer consequences. M. d'Argaïz's note contains a paragraph of the following tenor:

"The undersigned can not in any way admit the supposition advanced by the Secretary of State, that, even had the negroes been at any time slaves, they would not have become, by their killing and escape from lawful bondage, assassins and pirates, whose delivery to the government of Spain, not having

been provided for in any stipulations of the treaty of 1795, would have been a matter of comity only, not to be demanded as a right. The treaty of 1795, unquestionably, does not provide for the delivery of pirates or assassins, but only because the contracting parties could never have imagined that a case like the present could have occasioned doubts of any kind, and because the point was so clear that they did not think it necessary to take it into consideration. Who can foresee the horrible consequences which may result, as well in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico as in the Southern States of the Union, should the slaves come to learn-and there will be no want of persons to inform them-that, on murdering, killing, and flying from lawful captivity whensoever they may be in transportation from one point of the islands to another, and coming to the United States, the delivery of them, on account of their having murdered, killed, or fled, can not be demanded as a right? The undersigned leaves to the characteristic penetration of the Secretary of State [the task of imagining] the severe incalculable evils which may be occasioned by realizing this supposition."

The undersigned must beg leave to differ entirely from M. d'Argaïz in regard to the rule of law for delivering up criminals and fugitives from justice. Although such extradition is sometimes made, yet, in the absence of treaty stipulations, it is always matter of comity or courtesy. No government is understood to be bound by the positive law of nations to deliver up criminals, fugitives from justice, who have sought an asylum within its limits. The government of the United States has had occasion to hold intercourse on this question with England, France, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden; and it understands it to be the sentiment of all these governments, as well as the judgment of standard writers on public law, that, in the absence of provisions by treaty, the extradition of fugitive offenders is a matter resting in the option and discretion of every government.

The undersigned has thus once more gone over the circumstances of this case, and stated the view which the government of the United States has of it. He sincerely and confidently hopes that the Chevalier d'Argaïz will perceive that this gov ernment has violated none of its obligations to Spain, or done injustice, in any manner whatever, to any Spanish subject. The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to the Chevalier d'Argaïz assurances of his high consideration. DANIEL WEBSTER.

The Chevalier d'ARGAïz, &c.

CHINA AND THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Message from the President of the United States, respecting the Trade and Commerce of the United States with the Sandwich Islands, and of Diplomatic Intercourse with their Government; also, in relation to the new Position of Affairs in China, growing out of the late War between Great Britain and China, and recommending Provision for a Diplomatic Agent, December 31, 1842.

To the House of Representatives of the United States :

I COMMUNICATE herewith to Congress copies of a correspondence which has recently taken place between certain agents of the government of the Hawaiian, or Sandwich Islands, and the Secretary of State.

The condition of those islands has excited a good deal of interést, which is increasing by every successive proof that their inhabitants are making progress in civilization, and becoming more and more competent to maintain regular and orderly civil government. They lie in the Pacific Ocean, much nearer to this Continent than the other, and have become an important place for the refitment and provisioning of American and European vessels..

Owing to their locality, and to the course of the winds which prevail in this quarter of the world, the Sandwich Islands are the stopping-place for almost all vessels passing from continent to continent across the Pacific Ocean. They are especially resorted to by the great numbers of vessels of the United States which are engaged in the whale fishery in those seas. number of vessels of all sorts, and the amount of property owned by citizens of the United States which are found in those islands in the course of a year, are stated, probably with sufficient accuracy, in the letter of the agents.

The

Just emerging from a state of barbarism, the government of the islands is as yet feeble; but its dispositions appear to be just and pacific, and it seems anxious to improve the condition of its people by the introduction of knowledge, of religious and moral institutions, means of education, and the arts of civilized life.

It can not but be in conformity with the interest and the wishes of the government and the people of the United States, that this community, thus existing in the midst of a vast expanse of ocean, should be respected, and all its rights, strictly and conscientiously regarded. And this must also be the true