A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 1: James Monroe
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 1: James Monroe
Monroe, James, 1758-1831; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
Other considerations of high importance urge the adoption of this
convention. We have at this moment pending with Great Britain sundry
other negotiations intimately connected with the welfare and even the
peace of our Union. In one of them nearly a third part of the territory
of the State of Maine is in contestation. In another the navigation of
the St. Lawrence, the admission of consuls into the British islands, and
a system of commercial intercourse between the United States and all the
British possessions in this hemisphere are subjects of discussion. In a
third our territorial and other rights upon the northwest coast are to
be adjusted, while a negotiation on the same interest is opened with
Russia. In a fourth all the most important controvertible points of
maritime law in time of war are brought under consideration, and in
the fifth the whole system of South American concerns, connected with
a general recognition of South American independence, may again from
hour to hour become, as it has already been, an object of concerted
operations of the highest interest to both nations and to the peace
of the world.
It can not be disguised that the rejection of this convention can not
fail to have a very injurious influence on the good understanding
between the two Governments on all these points. That it would place
the Executive Administration under embarrassment, and subject it, the
Congress, and the nation to the charge of insincerity respecting the
great result of the final suppression of the slave trade, and that
its first and indispensable consequence will be to constrain the
Executive to suspend all further negotiation with every European and
American power to which overtures have been made in compliance with the
resolution of the House of Representatives of 28th February, 1823, must
be obvious. To invite all nations, with the statute of piracy in our
hands, to adopt its principles as the law of nations and yet to deny
to all the common right of search for the pirate, whom it would be
impossible to detect without entering and searching the vessel, would
expose us not simply to the charge of inconsistency.
It must be obvious that the restriction of search for pirates to the
African coast is incompatible with the idea of such a crime. It is
not doubted also if the convention is adopted that no example of the
commission of that crime by the citizens or subjects of either power
will ever occur again. It is believed, therefore, that this right as
applicable to piracy would not only extirpate the trade, but prove
altogether innocent in its operation.
In further illustration of the views of Congress on this subject, I
transmit to the Senate extracts from two resolutions of the House of
Representatives, one of the 9th February, 1821, the other of 12th April,
1822. I transmit also a letter from the chargé d'affaires of the British
Government, which shows the deep interest which that Government takes
in the ratification of the treaty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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