Officers of the Navy of the other, except Vessels engaged, or suspected of being engaged, in the African Slave Trade; or for any other purpose, whatever, than that of seizing and delivering up the Persons and Vessels concerned in that Traffic, for Trial and adjudication, by the Tribunals and Laws of their own Country; nor be taken to affect, in any other way, the existing rights of either of the High Contracting Parties. And they do, also, hereby agree and engage to use their influence, respectively, with other Maritime and Civilized Powers, to the end that the African Slave Trade may be declared to be Piracy under the Law of Nations. XI. The present Convention, consisting of Eleven Articles, shall be ratified, and the Ratifications exchanged at London, within the term of twelve months, or as much sooner as possible. In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed the same, and have affixed thereunto the Seals of their Arms. Done at London, the 13th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1824. RICHARD RUSH. W. HUSKISSON. STRATFORD CANNING. Enclosures in No. 2. PROTOCOL OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, January 23, 1824. Present-Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. It was agreed, after the communication and exchange of the respective Full Powers, that the Negociation should be carried on by Conference and Protocol, with the right on both sides, of annexing to the Protocol, any written Statement which either Party might consider necessary, as matter either of record or of explanation. It was further agreed, that the Slave Trade should be made the first subject of discussion; and that any Articles on that head, which the Parties might agree in drawing up, should be formed into a separate Convention, to be submitted for ratification to the respective Governments, immediately on its conclusion, and without reference to the state of the Negociation on other matters. The British Plenipotentiaries intimated their expectation to receive from Mr. Rush, in the first instance, a full communication of the proposals intended to be brought forward successively by his Government, under the heads of the several questions for the adjustment of which the Negociation had been opened, in conformity with the annexed Memorandum, previously communicated by him, [marked A.] In pursuance of this intimation, Mr. Rush, after some introductory remarks, explanatory of the views of his Government upon this subject, communicated, in extenso, the Projet of a Convention for effecting a system of co-operation between The United States and Great Britain, with a view to the complete suppression of the Slave Trade. The British Plenipotentiaries, in receiving this Projet, observed, that they could not be expected to express any opinion as to its admissibility, either in whole or in part, on a first perusal; to which observation the American Plenipotentiary assented, and it was agreed that the next Conference should take place on Monday, the 2d of February. RICHARD RUSH. W. HUSKISSON. (A.)-Memorandum referred to in the first Conference. 1. Commercial intercourse between The United States and the Colonial Possessions of Great Britain in America and the West Indies; and the Claim of The United States to the navigation of the River St. Lawrence. Suppression of the Slave Trade. 3. Boundary Line under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent. 4. Admission of Consuls of The United States in the Colonial Ports of Great Britain. 5. Newfoundland Fishery. 6. Ukase of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, of September, 1821, with a view to an adjustment of the Boundaries between The United States and Great Britain, on the Northwest Coast of America. 7. Questions of Maritime Law heretofore in discussion between the Two Nations; and, also, that of abolishing Privateering as between them. PROTOCOL OF THE SECOND CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, February 2, 1824. Present-Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. The Protocol of the preceding Conference was read over and signed. The British Plenipotentiaries stated that, after mature consideration of the Projet given in by Mr. Rush, at the former Conference, they were disposed to consent to the general principle on which it rested, but that there were serious difficulties in the mode of carrying that principle into effect, which they wished to point out and discuss with Mr. Rush, in the hope of arriving, with his assistance, at some solution, satisfactory to both Parties. The discussion which ensued, with a view to the removal or modification of such provisions in the Projet as were thought likely to ren www der the proposed Convention more or less ineffectual, terminated in an agreement, on the part of the American Plenipotentiary, after he had stated his first impressions on the subject, to reconsider, more at leisure, the points of his Projet which appeared objectionable to the British Plenipotentiaries, and, on their part, to ascertain, by reference to the proper Law Officers, how far it might be practicable to obviate the legal difficulties on their side. It was agreed to meet again on the 5th instant, and, in case of any further causes of delay arising in the consideration of the Slave Trade Projet, to proceed at once with the next subject of Negociation, until these causes should be removed. RICHARD RUSH. W. HUSKISSON. PROTOCOL OF THE FOURTH CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, February 16, 1824. Present-Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. The Protocol of the preceding Conference was read over and signed. Several points connected with the propositions brought forward by the American Plenipotentiary in the previous Conferences, were informally discussed, with a view to explanation, and, if possible, to the removal of difficulties on both sides. The British Plenipotentiaries communicated a Counter Projet, comprising the principal alterations which they proposed to introduce into the Articles on the Slave Trade, presented by Mr. Rush, and annexed to the Protocol of the first Conference. After discussing these alterations in a general way, it was agreed that a formal consideration of the Articles on this subject, as produced on both sides, should take place at the next Conference, to be fixed at as early a period as possible, with a view to the conclusion of a Convention satisfactory to each of the Contracting Parties. W. HUSKISSON. STRATFORD CANNING. RICHARD RUSH. PROTOCOL OF THE FIFTH CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, March 9, 1824. Present-Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. The Protocol of the preceding Conference was read over and signed. The discussion which had taken place at the last Conference, upon the subject of the Slave Trade, was renewed, principally with reference to the first and tenth Articles of the counter Projet of the British Plenipotentiaries. No satisfactory adjustment of the points at issue being arrived at, it was agreed to meet again on the 11th instant, for their further consideration. RICHARD RUSH. W. HUSKISSON. STRATFORD CANNING. PROTOCOL OF THE SIXTH CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, March 11, 1824. Present Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. The Protocol of the preceding Conference was read over and signed. The points on the subject of the Slave Trade, which had been left undetermined at the last Conference, were again brought under discussion, and, being at length satisfactorily adjusted, it was determined that, at the next meeting, to be held on the 13th instant, the business should be completed by the signature of the Convention as agreed on. W. HUSKISSON. STRATFORD CANNING. RICHARD RUSH. PROTOCOL OF THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE. Board of Trade, March 13, 1824. Present Mr. Rush, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Stratford Canning. The Protocol of the preceding Conference was read over and signed. In pursuance of the agreement entered into at the last Conference, the Convention on the subject of the Slave Trade was produced, and being found, on perusal, to be, in all respects, satisfactory to the Plenipotentiaries, on both sides, received their respective signatures. The Protocol of the present Conference was also read over and signed. RICHARD RUSH. W. HUSKISSON. MESSAGE of the President to the Senate, on the same subject.-21st May, 1824. TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: APPREHENDING, from the delay in the decision, that some difficulty exists with the Senate, respecting the Ratification of the Convention lately concluded with the British Government for the suppression of the Slave Trade, by making it piratical, I deem it proper to communicate, for your consideration, such views as appear to me to merit attention. Charged, as the Executive is, and as I have long been, with maintaining the political relations between The United States and other Nations, I consider it my duty, in submitting for your advice and consent, as to the Ratification, any Treaty or Convention which has been agreed on with another Power, to explain, when the occasion requires it, all the reasons which induced the measure. It is by such full and frank explanation, only, that the Senate can be enabled to discharge the high trust reposed in them with advantage to their Country. Having the instrument before them, with the views which guided the Executive in forming it, the Senate will possess all the light necessary to a sound decision. By an Act of Congress, of 15th May, 1820, the Slave Trade, as described by that Act, was made piratical, and all such of our Citizens as might be found engaged in that Trade, were subjected, on conviction thereof, by the Circuit Courts of The United States, to capital punishment. To communicate more distinctly the import of that Act, I refer to its fourth and fifth Sections, which are in the following words: "Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That, if any Citizen of The United States, being of the Crew or Ship's Company of any Foreign Ship or Vessel, engaged in the Slave Trade, or any Person whatever, being of the Crew or Ship's Company of any Ship or Vessel, owned in the whole or part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any Citizen or Citizens of The United States, shall land from any such Ship or Vessel, and on any Foreign shore seize, any Negro or Mulatto, not held to service or labour by the Laws of either of the States or Territories of The United States, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a Slave, or shall decoy or forcibly bring or carry, or shall receive such Negro or Mulatto on board any such Ship or Vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such Citizen or Person shall be adjudged a Pirate, and, on conviction thereof before the Circuit Court of The United States, for the district wherein he may be brought or found, shall suffer death." "Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That, if any Citizen of The United States, being of the Crew or Ship's Company of any Foreign Ship or Vessel engaged in the Slave Trade, or any Person whatever, being of the Crew or Ship's Company of any Ship or Vessel, owned wholly or in part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any Citizen or Citizens of The United States, shall forcibly confine or detain, or aid or abet in forcibly confining or detaining, on board such Ship or Vessel, any Negro or Mulatto not held to service by the Laws of either of the States or Territories of The United States, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a Slave, or shall, on board any such Ship or Vessel, offer or attempt to sell, as a Slave, any Negro or Mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, or shall, on the high seas, or any where on tide water, transfer or deliver over, to any other Ship or Vessel, any Negro or Mulatto, not held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a Slave, or shall land, or deliver on shore, from on board any such Ship or Vessel, any such Negro or Mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or having previously sold such Negro or Mu |