XIX. That dread of and antipathy to free negroes which CHAPTER had been evinced in the debate on the slave trade prohibition act had not been without its influence upon the 1807. legislation of the states. Indeed, it had led to some serious infractions of these alleged rights of property, but a very distant approach to which by the general government had thrown Randolph into such excitement. In 1796 North Carolina had re-enforced and re-enacted her law prohibiting emancipations except for meritorious services and by allowance of the county courts. South Carolina, in 1800, had prohibited emancipations except by consent of a justice of the peace and of five indifferent freeholders. Another South Carolina act of the same year had declared it unlawful for any number of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes to assemble together, even though in the presence of white persons, "for mental instruction or religious worship." The same influences were felt in Virginia, aggravated, perhaps, by two successive alarms of insurrection, one in 1799, the other in 1801. The freedom of emancipation allowed. by the act of 1782 was substantially taken away in 1805, by a provision that thenceforward emancipated slaves remaining in the state for twelve months after obtaining their freedom should be apprehended and sold for the benefit of the poor of the county-a forfeiture given afterward to the literary fund. Overseers of the poor, binding out black or mulatto orphans as apprentices, were forbidden to require their masters to teach them reading, writing, or arithmetic. Free blacks coming into the state were to be sent back to the places whence they came. The Legislature of Kentucky presently (1808) went so far as to provide that free negroes coming into that state should give security to depart within twenty days, and on failure to do so should be sold for a year CHAPTER the same process to be repeated if, twenty days after the XIX. end of the year, they were still found within the state. 1807. "Such is the fate," exclaims Marshall, the historian of Kentucky, indignant at this barbarous piece of legisla tion, "of men not represented, at the hands of law-makers, often regardless of the rights of others, and even of the first principles of humanity." Yet this barbarous and disgraceful statute remains in force to the present day, and many like ones, in other states, have been added to it. Whether the excessive dread of the increase of free negroes, which still prevails, and which seems every day to grow more and more rabid throughout the Southern States, has any better foundation than mere suspicion and fear, is not so certain. In Delaware and Maryland the free colored population is far greater in proportion than elsewhere; yet life and property are more secure in those than in many other slaveholding states, nor are they inferior in wealth and industry. Next to the prohibition of the slave trade, the act of the session of the greatest permanent importance was that for a survey of the coasts of the United States-a great enterprise, continued from that time to this, and not yet entirely completed. This very important measure was introduced on the suggestion of Dana, who might be considered, since Griswold's retirement, as the leader of the Federalists. The first appropriation was $50,000; but the bill would hardly have passed had the administration or its supporters entertained the least idea of the expense which the survey would ultimately involve. He Dana also called attention to the recent prosecutions for libels commenced under Pierrepont Edwards's auspices in the Federal Circuit Court of Connecticut. wished that some provision might be made securing to the defendants the right to give the truth in evidence. XIX. Nothing, however, came of this motion; nor, taking it CHAPTER for granted, as the Republican party had always maintained, that the Federal courts had no common law crim- 1807. inal jurisdiction, did there seem any occasion for Congress to interfere. The death of Patterson having caused a vacancy on the bench of the Supreme Court, Brock holst Livingston had been appointed to fill it—an appointment not a little mortifying to the Clintonians, who, in denouncing the Livingston or Lewisite party as little better than Federalists, had professed a very special zeal on behalf of the administration. An act of this session added a seventh judge to the Supreme bench of the United States, and created a seventh circuit, composed of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. This appointment was given to Thomas Todd, of Kentucky, one of the secretaries of the Democratic Society at Lexington at the time Breckenridge had been president. The place of attorney general, vacant by the death of Breckenridge, was given to Cæsar A. Rodney, who had acted for the government in the case of Bollman and Swartwout. It was not, however, by domestic affairs, interesting and exciting as they were at this moment, that the public attention was entirely engrossed. On the representation of the president that the pending negotiation with Great Britain seemed likely to result in a treaty, an act had passed very soon after Congress came together (Dec. 19), suspending till the following July the operation of the act prohibiting the import of certain descriptions of British merchandise, remitting all penalties hitherto incurred, and authorizing the president to continue the suspension, should he think proper, till the meeting of the next Congress. CHAPTER XIX. Of the progress of the negotiation with Spain the president was not able to furnish any satisfactory account. 1807. Though the project of buying the Floridas had not succeeded, yet the administration had gone so far as to consent, on the urgent recommendation of Bonaparte, again to receive as embassador from Spain that same Yrujo by whom they had been so publicly insulted a few months before. Turreau, the French embassador, treated the American government much in the same way, urging with a rude pertinacity the payment of the claim of the heirs of Beaumarchais for the million livres which, on the settlement of his accounts, had been deducted as having been put into his hands by Vergennes for the use of the United States and as a gift to them. The French government, which had taken up the patronage, and probably had obtained an assignment of this claim, strenuously insisted that the million of livres given to Beaumarchais had been employed by him in certain secret services, quite distinct from the furnishing of military supplies, for which his claim-so Turreau insisted, and Rodney seemed to concur in it was good to the extent of the supplies furnished. This, however, was but a trifle compared with certain new steps taken by France, February. information of which arrived during the session. The battle of Trafalgar, by striking a death-blow at the French and Spanish navies, had given the dominion of the ocean and the control of the trade of the world to Great Britain. It was evident, from the recent decis ions of the English Courts of Admiralty, restricting the rights of neutrals, that she meant to exercise that power to her own advantage, and to derive from the supply of the Continent with produce from abroad new pecuniary means wherewith to prosecute the war. So long as the French Revolutionary government, and Bonaparte as its XIX. successor, had been able to contend with Great Britain CHAPTER for maritime ascendency, they had put themselves forward as the great champions and vindicators of the rights 1807. of neutrals and the freedom of trade. But seeing now no other way to counteract Great Britain except by put ting an end to the foreign trade of Europe, Bonaparte entered with all his natural promptitude, and with the blind zeal of a military despot, upon that scheme of policy, to which he gave the name of the Continental system. Having subdued Austria for the third time, and completely humbled her; having dissolved the German Empire, and overturned the kingdom of Prussia at a single blow; confident in his apparent omnipotence, he issued from the field of Jena (Nov. 21, 1806) the famous Berlin decree, the first step in his new anti-commercial career. On the alleged ground of the tyranny established by England over the seas, and especially the abuse of declaring ports and coasts blockaded before which no adequate force was stationed-this decree retaliated by declaring the British Islands in a state of blockade, and prohibiting all commerce and intercourse with them. No letters in the English language were to pass through the French post-offices. All trade in English merchandise was forbidden. All merchandise belonging to Englishmen, or from England, was declared lawful prize. No vessels directly from England or the English colonies, or which might have been there subsequent to the date of this decree, were to be admitted into any French port. In its terms, this decree applied as much to neutrals as to Frenchmen, and threatened with seizure all American vessels, wherever bound, having British merchandise on board, or trading to or from the British Islands. Nor, in this respect, was the decree original, for the same pro |