But there are eight other boats, that are still unfinished, on the stocks, to which the resolution of the Senator from Wisconsin is applicable.
I have no disposition now to discuss the great question involved in the speech of the Senator from Wisconsin; but the Senator will pardon me, if I venture to suggest that he has misapprehended the meaning of the statute on which he relies. Certainly he has misapprehended it or I have. He has misapprehended it or the Administration has. I do not conceive that the question which he has presented can arise under the statute. The language on which he relies is as follows:—
“If any person shall within the limits of the United States fit out and arm, or attempt to fit out and arm, or procure to be fitted out and armed, or shall knowingly be concerned in the furnishing, fitting out, or arming of any ship or vessel, with intent that such ship or vessel shall be employed in the service of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people, to cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens, or property of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people, with whom the United States are at peace,” &c.[188]
The operative words on which the Senator relies being “any colony, district, or people,” I understand the Senator to insist that under these words Spain cannot purchase ships in the United States to cruise against her Cuban subjects now in revolt. That is the position of the Senator. He states it frankly. To that I specifically reply, that the language of the statute is entirely inapplicable. Those words, if the Senator will consult their history, were introduced for a specific purpose. It was to meet the case of the revolted Spanish colonies already for eight years in arms against the parent Government, having ships in every sea, largely possessing the territories on the Spanish main, and with independence nearly achieved.
There was no question of belligerence. It was admitted by all the civilized world. Nation after nation practically recognized it. Our Government, our courts, every department of the Government, recognized the belligerence of those Spanish colonies. Their independence was recognized more tardily, after ample discussion in these two Chambers as late as 1820; but their belligerence was a fact perfectly established and recognized by every branch of the Government. To meet their case, and for no other object, as I understand it, Mr. Miller, a Representative of South Carolina, on the 30th day of December, 1817, introduced the following resolution:—
“Resolved, That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of so amending the fourth section of the Act passed on the 3d of March, 1817, entitled ‘An Act more effectually to preserve the neutral relations of the United States,’ as to embrace within the provisions thereof the armed vessels of a Government at peace with the United States and at war with any colony, district, or people with whom the United States are or may be at peace.”[189]
The important words “any colony, district, or people” were introduced to cover the precise case of the revolted Spanish colonies and their precise condition at that moment, there being no question of belligerence. Now the practical question is, whether these words, introduced originally for a specific purpose, having an historic character beyond question, can be extended so as to be applied to insurgents who have not yet achieved a corporate existence,—who have no provinces, no cities, no towns, no ports, no prize courts. Such is the fact. I cannot supply the fact, if it does not exist; nor can the Senator, with his eloquence and with his ardor enlisted in this cause. We must seek the truth. The truth is found in the actual facts. Now do those facts justify the concession which the Senator requires?
The Cuban insurgents, whatever the inspiration of their action, have not reached the condition of belligerents. Such, I repeat, is the fact, and we cannot alter the fact. Here we must rely upon the evidence, which, according to all the information within my reach, is adverse. They do not come within any of the prerequisites. They have no provinces, no towns, no ports, no prize courts. Without these I am at a loss to see how they can be treated as belligerents by foreign powers. Before this great concession there must be assurance of their capacity to administer justice. Above all, there must be a Prize Court. But nobody pretends that there is any such thing.