I have no disposition now to discuss the great question involved in the speech of the Senator from Wisconsin; but the Senator will pardon me, if I venture to suggest that he has misapprehended the meaning of the statute on which he relies. Certainly he has misapprehended it or I have. He has misapprehended it or the Administration has. I do not conceive that the question which he has presented can arise under the statute. The language on which he relies is as follows:-- “If any person shall within the limits of the United States fit out and arm, or attempt to fit out and arm, or procure to be fitted out and armed, or shall knowingly be concerned in the furnishing, fitting out, or arming of any ship or vessel, with intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people, to cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens, or property of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people, with whom the United States are at peace,” &c.[188] The operative words on which the Senator relies being “any colony, district, or people,” I understand the Senator to insist that under these words Spain cannot purchase ships in the United States to cruise against her Cuban subjects now in revolt. That is the position of the Senator. He states it frankly. To that I specifically reply, that the language of the statute is entirely inapplicable. Those words, if the Senator will consult their history, were introduced for a specific purpose. It was to meet the case of the revolted Spanish colonies already for eight years in arms against the parent Government, having ships in every sea, largely possessing the territories on the Spanish main, and with independence nearly achieved. There was no question of belligerence. It was admitted by all the civilized world. Nation after nation practically recognized it. Our Government, our courts, every department of the Government, recognized the belligerence of those Spanish colonies. Their independence was recognized more tardily, after ample discussion in these two Chambers as late as 1820; but their belligerence was a fact perfectly established and recognized by every branch of the Government. To meet their case, and for no other object, as I understand it, Mr. Miller, a Representative of South Carolina, on the 30th day of December, 1817, introduced the following resolution:-- “_Resolved_, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of so amending the fourth section of the Act passed on the 3d of March, 1817, entitled ‘An Act more effectually to preserve the neutral relations of the United States,’ as to embrace within the provisions thereof the armed vessels of a Government at peace with the United States and at war with any colony, district, or people with whom the United States are or may be at peace.”[189]