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Show 172 RETURN TO AMERICA. mark ed by cn· curnst ances of a most i. nteresting character. As I l t or keys of Flonda, were gradually deve-t 1e O\V green coas , '. . . Io pe d 1·1 1 our VI· ew , it was Impossible not to moum .o.v er the Seminole war, undertaken against the unhappy abongmes of the soil, in the support, as we fear, of slavmy, conducted at an immense expense of blood and treasure, and now earned on (strange recurrence to ancient barbarism!) by the intervention of blood-hounds. The subJect, so affiiClmg lll Jts own particular features, was of course connected in our minds with a general view of that melancholy topic, the maltreatment of the native Indians of North Amenca-w1tness the cruel bamshment of the Cherokees, of Georgia, and the projected expatriation of the Senecas of New-York, under the color of fraudulent treaties, and at the expense of every principle of justice and mercy. I am confident that thy sentiments, on these subjects, are in perfect agreement with our own. Our view of the Bahamas was a very distant one; but it was enough to remind us of the excellent accounts which we had received, through Sir William Colebrooke, of the favorable working of freedom in those islands. Sir ·william was their Governor, before he undertook the more important charge of the Leeward Islands ; and while we were with him in Antigua, he received, from a friend whom he had left behind him, the accounts to which we allude. It appears that a large number of recaptured Africans are now settled, as free laborers, on the Island of New Providence, and are conducting themselves welL The same may be said of the former slaves or apprentices, who are located chiefly on the outer islands of the group. Friendly societies, and other benevolent institutions, are prospering ; and free g1·own cotton is now produced, in the Bahamas, under the care of the descendants of American loyallsls, who settled in that colony, at the time of the revolution. I am reminded by this mention of the Bahamas, of our friend J. C. Calhoun's argument, in the Senate, on the subject of the Comet, the Encomium, and the Enterprise, one of which vessels was, if I mistake not, driven by stress of weather, into ~ RETURN TO AMERICA. 173 port of the Bermudas d 1 . . ' an t Ie other two wrecked on the B I mas- each conttuning A . . a 1aw men can slaves, on their passa f. one of yotJr slave stales to anotl . gc JOm of which he kind! o-av ler. As I have not Ius speech . y o' e me a copy, now before me I may not be acc. urnte 111 rny rccollectiol! of tl le part.i culars· b'u t I think that, m all the cases the slaves II ' . . ' were a owed, by the British authol'ltie' of the islands ' to av·'t il tl Jcmsc l ves of the law of the land, and to go free-that after a 1 . . . . 1 .. ong ncgoc~ahon, compensa~ liOn was made by om Govcrnmc n t IrO I. t1 1 ose w. hi.C h were on board th.e Comet and Jo.ncoi>Jium ' an d I.e f d . U&c for those m the Enterpnse-and I hat this distinction Was rrroun de d on the . Cir- CUmstance that the two form. e. r c·'l se s h ad occurre d before, and the Ja st , case, after, the Bnllsh '' let of emanci·p atw· n. J. c. Calhounsa.rgument on the subiect is both 1-ntc t' d. • J ' res mg an mge-lll~ us. . In the first place he plainly shows it to be a settled pom. t, Ill the la.w of natioris ' that when vessel s be I ong.m g to any natwn, are dnven by stress of weather into the ports or on to the coasts, of a fnendly power the ao-eilts of th t ' o a power are bound to protect the property which they contain, and to deliver It up or make compensation, for it, lo its rightful owners. He then . a.r gtws that.' the. la. w. of nati·o ns cannot eha nge W1. th th e mumcipal laws of Individual states i and therefore, that if Great Bntamwas bound by the above mentioned principle of mternalwnal ]Umprudence, to make compensation for wrecked Amencan slaves, before her own act of Emancipation, she was equally bound to do so, after that act. All this is very clear ; but there is the previous question to be ,"elllcd, whether the law of nations does in any case regard hvmo- I '- · ' ' b Ulman ucmgs, as the properly of other persons. If it does, why is not Engl:md bound to restore to America, the runuw11y slaves who find their way into Canada· and to France lh e "n gi.t.iv es who come over on aloe-rafts from' Guadaloupe to' Dominica; nnd to Denmark, the happy beings who paddle across the water, at night, from St. Thomas or St. John's, to free Torlola 1 For my own part, I conceive that the law of nations regards these persons as a thi•·d party, possessing distinct rights 15° |