Again, in his message to Congress of December 3, 1816, President Madison brings the subject to the attention of Congress and urges the enactment of such amendments as will suppress violations of the statute.
In the progress of time, certain slaves brought into the country in violation of the act were captured and sold, thus in effect defeating one of the prime objects of the law, which was to prevent any increase in the slave population. Thereupon, at the session of Congress, 1819, under the leadership of Charles Fenton Mercer and John Floyd of Virginia a bill was passed amending the existing statute, requiring the President to use armed cruisers off the coasts of Africa and America to suppress the trade, providing for the immediate return to Africa of any imported slaves, directing the President to appoint agents to receive and care for them on their return and appropriating One Hundred Thousand Dollars to carry out the general purposes of the law.[[39]]
In the House, on motion of Hugh Nelson, of Virginia, the death penalty was fixed as the punishment for violating the law, but this provision was stricken out by the Senate.[[40]]
In February, 1823, Charles Fenton Mercer, a representative from Virginia, in the House, secured the adoption of the following joint resolution:
"RESOLVED, That the President of the United States be requested to enter upon and to prosecute from time to time such negotiations with the maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its ultimate denunciation as Piracy under the laws of Nations by the consent of the civilized world."[[41]]
Mr. Mercer, in urging the adoption of this resolution, denounced the African slave trade "as a crime begun on a barbarous shore, claimed by no civilized state, and subject to no moral law; a remnant of ancient barbarism, a curse extended to the New World by the colonial policy of the Old."[[42]]
Mr. Mercer supplemented his congressional action by visits made at his own expense to the Governments of the Old World to urge upon them the adoption of the policy set forth in his resolution.'[[43]]
It was early appreciated that unless at least a qualified "right of search" was accorded the war vessels of the leading nations engaged in the effort to suppress the slave trade, these efforts would be seriously hindered. Accordingly the lower house of Congress, in May, 1821, under the leadership of Charles Fenton Mercer, from whose committee the resolution was reported, adopted the recommendation that a "right of search" be accorded the British Government in return for a like privilege accorded the United States.[[44]] This resolution, however, was defeated in the Senate.
Subsequently President Monroe submitted to Congress the draft of a treaty with England embodying this provision. In a special message, under date of May 21, 1824, he gave at length his reasons for approving the treaty—saying:
"Should this convention be adopted there is every reason to believe that it will be the commencement of a system destined to accomplish the entire abolition of the slave trade."