Abuse of the American Flag.

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ter at the court of Brazil in 1844 wrote to the Secretary of State:

"I regret to say this, but it is a fact not to be disguised nor denied that the slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag in Americanbuilt vessels, sold to slavers here, chartered for the coast of Africa, and there sold, or sold here-delivered on the coast. And, indeed, the scandalous traffic could not be carried on to any great extent were it not for the use made of our flag, and the facilities given for the chartering of American vessels to carry to the coast of Africa the outfit for the trade and the material for purchasing slaves."

The question as to the deplorable effects arising from the abuse of the American flag was brought into discussion in 1842 between England and America, and the treaty before referred to was established; but the question was still left unsettled-How is a vessel to be ascertained to be American? The plea that any vessel hoisting any flag is thereby secured against all interference in all circumstances never could be seriously maintained as a principle of international law. Neither the United States nor any other power has ever acted on a dogma of this breadth. The United States government, while asserting the inviolability of its flag (this very question being the origin of the War of 1812), did not claim that its flag should give immunity to those who were not American; for such a claim would render it a cover to piracy, and to acts of the greatest atrocity. "But any vessel which hoists the American flag claims to be American, and therefore, while she may be boarded and examined by an American cruiser, this right is not conceded to a foreign cruiser; for the flag is prima facie evidence, although not conclusive proof of nationality; and if such vessel be really American, the boarding officer will be regarded in the light of a trespasser, and the vessel will have all the protection which that flag supplies. If, on the other hand, the vessel prove not to be American, the flag illegally worn will afford her no protection. Therefore a for

eign officer boarding a vessel under the flag of the United States, does it on his own responsibility for all consequences."*

Thus complicated and unsatisfactory was the condition of things; and although after the treaty the United States government sent an organized naval force to the coast of Africa, which was the means of capturing many slavers and of releasing hundreds of wretched negroes, yet the evil was not checked; and at the time the Perry came on the coast the trade was at its height, and perhaps was never more brisk. A kind of immunity was given to British cruisers to search American vessels by this implied permission to do so on the responsibility of the searching party. Blundering mistakes and arrogant assumptions on the part of British war - vessels not unfrequently occurred; while the greater evil still remained, that the slavers themselves continued to escape in great numbers even from British vigilance and determination to root out the infamous traffic carried on under the protection of the banner of the United States.

*Africa and the American Flag," p. 233.

CHAPTER VII.

CRUISE OF THE "PERRY". CONTINUED.

it

THERE is reason to think that Lieutenant Foote, after so much hard sea-service, did not greatly desire to go to this harassing post of duty on the African coast, but he was always ready for honest work; and where there was a disagreeable piece of work to do, or a difficult post to fill, it was quite the custom of the Navy Department, instead of sending a reluctant officer, or of running the risk of an absolute refusal, to "Why, send Foote; he will go." When Foote did say, go, was to do good work, putting heart and soul into it. Thus it fell out that a great deal of the hard service of the Navy in his day came upon this energetic officer; and perhaps, in the end, though full of labor and care, no work that he ever did gave him more satisfaction than the effective part he performed in the suppression of the African slave-trade, for it was directly in the line of his own character and convictions as a fighter against every form of evil. The following letter, dated October 15, 1849, was written to him before sailing, by his old commodore, Joseph Smith:

"I have your two letters of the 12th instant. I have done my best with the Secretary for your brig and for your own convenience, but I can't make a dent upon him. He says he will order a purser this day; but no person whatever, and nothing not on the allowance-book, will be granted to you. I wished to have Kelly-you remember him in the Cumberland as quartermaster-ordered to you as acting-boatswain. He was in the Perry when she was stranded, and never let go the helm for twenty-nine hours. He has been through the Gulf war as acting-boatswain of a small craft. I am a little selfish in your orders to the Perry, for I wished to hold you back on shore duty till I went to sea; but the

Secretary jumped at you the moment he discovered you were well enough to command. We want such persons as yourself to represent us abroad (and at home, too), and your aid to Gregory will be peculiarly opportune. You are a better man and a better Christian than I am, therefore it would be useless for me to tender you advice. Before you take your crew from the receiving ship, beat up for volunteers to commute the spirit-ration; if you can, get them entirely to relinquish it. Leave the poison behind you; if not, get as many as you can to start fair with, if you must lay in the devil's fuel. Keep up your regular Sunday service, and oftener if convenient; Saturday for mending day, and Sunday for meditation and reading. Each officer and man to have his place and duty. Impose as much responsibility upon the petty officers as they will bear. Your command will be happy, healthy, and efficient in proportion as those under you engage with all their mind in their duties, and are made to feel that reliance is placed in them. Do not spare the lash when the exigency demands it, but throw as many guards around it as will make its use a matter of absolute necessity. As to etiquette, you are as au fait in it as I am. Should you meet a flag-ship at sea, haul up courses, down jib, and salute. When you arrive in port, send a boat to our consul, and offer him a conveyance on board; and salute him when he arrives with seven guns-the consul-general with nine. When a foreign ship sends a boat and offers services, etc., send a boat to acknowledge the compliment, and afterward pay your respects to him in person. The last arrived salutes first (except our own flag-officers) and calls first. Salute the place first, and afterward the flag-officer, if any is in port."

How much good advice in a short space (excepting the "lash," which belonged to the older and more barbarous days of the Navy) is contained in this letter! It is a kind of marine pastoral epistle-rough, indeed, but sound, honest, apostolic. A letter written at this time by his friend Dahlgren is also interesting:

"WASHINGTON, October 30, 1849. "MY DEAR FRIEND,-Your very acceptable letter of the 17th reached me to-day, for which I am much indebted to you.

"The impression remained on my mind that the last letter between us was by myself, and that the condition of your sight forbade your writing. "In two instances I was on the point of visiting you at New Haven (the last time in May of this year), when, being in Boston on duty, Dr.

Letter from 7. A. Dahlgren.

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Wheeler and myself had arranged to make the trip together, for you were often the subject of our conversation, and we felt sorrowful for the state of your health. By the way, there is no one in whose love and regard your remembrance is more fixed than in that of the doctor.

"I regret to see the desponding tone of your letter. Five or six years passed with me in mental torture that no one can understand save a fellow-sufferer; and yet my eyes now are so unexpectedly changed that last summer I dispensed with glasses for the first time in ten years. They are still weak, and unequal to much exertion; but think how much better. Homœopathy has been the agent of this beyond doubt, and I regret truly that you had not been induced to try this at an early period.

"If the master is inefficient, you had better get him out of the vessel as soon as you can without trouble to yourself. And now let me advise you-whether the master is good or bad—to procure a ship's book of suitable size, and cause the master there to record and work every observation. I do not mean the clean copy of either, but the original figures just as made and corrected-not in pencil, but ink. This, with any memoranda showing the ship's position from other sources, should be presented daily. As the case now stands, a commander takes a result without knowing the data. First the master is to mention the chronometer with the observation rates. Before leaving them he verifies these rates by other observations with the sextant. These are to be recorded; at sea, the time and latitude, the rate and error, and so on. In almost every department of a ship save this the record has been systematized.

"I have little doubt of the action of Congress in respect to flogging, and I am utterly at a loss to imagine a substitute. Last session it would have been brought about, but that a few doubtless, like the Dutch governor, felt alarmed. On one occasion the chairman of the Senate Naval Committee spoke to me about it. I told him that there seemed to be an impression that naval officers were partial to the system for its own sake. This was not so-it was a most unpleasant duty; and the fact that they submitted to the painful necessity of inflicting it proved how strong the necessity was. I told him that demagogues argued as if the Navy were created for the special benefit of officers-not as if it were an institution for the common good. For great as might be the personal interest of any officer, it was slight in comparison to that which the planter, the farmer, and the merchant had in the existence of a force afloat competent to protect national and individual rights.

"I wish I could say something in favor of the force of a vessel like the