February 19, 1806.
Thursday, February 20.
Trade with St. Domingo.
The Senate resumed the third reading of the bill to suspend the commercial intercourse between the United States and the French island of St. Domingo.
Mr. White.—Mr. President, it will be recollected that the bill, as originally introduced on this subject by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Logan,) was variant in every shape and feature from that now before us. The first bill I considered altogether impotent, and had little or no concern as to its fate; but that now under consideration, as presented by the committee, is of a very different complexion, and goes the full length of interdicting all commerce between this country and the island of St. Domingo.
Our local situation, Mr. President, gives to us advantages in the commerce of the West Indies over all the nations of the world; and it is not only the right and the interest, but it is the duty of this Government, by every fair and honorable means, to protect and encourage our citizens in the exercise of those advantages. If, in other respects, we pursue a wise policy, and remain abstracted from the convulsions of Europe, that for many years to come are not likely to have much interval; enjoying, as we shall, all the advantages of peace-wages, peace-freight, peace-insurance, and the other peace privileges of neutral traders, we must nearly acquire a monopoly of this commerce. We can make usually a treble voyage; that is, from this continent to the West Indies, thence to Europe, and back to America again, in the time that the European vessels are engaged in one West India voyage. This circumstance of itself, properly improved, at a period perhaps not very remote, whenever others of those islands may be released from, or refuse longer submission to their present colonial restrictions upon commerce, will enable us to rival even the British in transporting to the markets of Europe the very valuable productions of the West Indies, such as sugar, molasses, coffee, spirits, &c. Again, sir, I state nothing new when I say that the produce of this country is essential to the West India islands, and the facility with which we can convey it to them, must at all times enable us to furnish them much cheaper than they can be furnished by any other people. It requires not indeed the spirit of prophecy to foretell, that the time must come when the very convenient and commanding situation we occupy, in every point of view, relative to the most valuable of those islands, will place in our hands the entire control of their trade; that is, if we pursue a wise and politic system of measures in relation to them; holding fast upon all the great advantages nature has given us, and promptly availing ourselves of such others as circumstances may throw in our way. As a source of public revenue; as a means of increasing our national capital; and, though last, not least, as a nursery for our seamen, the importance of this commerce to the United States is incalculable, and should be guarded with a jealous eye; we should never suffer our rightful participation in it to be diminished by others, much less have the folly to diminish it ourselves. Those islands are situated in our very neighborhood, and but for the arbitrary colonial restrictions upon commerce, to which they are now subject, no other nation could hold a successful competition with us in their markets, unless some such ill-judged, baleful, anti-commercial measure, as has now fallen to the genius of the gentleman from Pennsylvania to contrive, should enable them to do so.
I will now, sir, notice the relative hostile situations of France and St. Domingo, and see how far gentlemen are borne out in their positions—that the people of St. Domingo can be considered only as revolted slaves, or, at best, as French subjects now in a state of rebellion; that they are nationally in no respect separated from France; that to trade with them is a violation of the laws of nations, and that we have no right to do so. This, so far as I could understand them, forms a summary of the points that have been urged in support of the present measure, and in opposition to the trade; each of which deserves some attention. If I am wrong in these points, the friends of the bill will please now to correct me; and I hope gentlemen will become convinced during the discussion, that the case which so many of them have stated, of any foreign power succoring and protecting the revolted slaves of the Southern States, is not the parallel of that before us. As to the first point, it is to be recollected, that some years past, to quote from high authority, “during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long lost liberties,” when our enlightened sister Republic of France was, in her abundant kindness, forcing liberty upon all the world, and propagating the rights of man at the point of the bayonet, in one of her paroxysms of philanthropy, she proclaimed, by a solemn decree of her Convention, the blessings of liberty and equality to the blacks of St. Domingo too; invited them to the fraternal embrace, and to the honors of a Conventional sitting. The wisdom or the policy of this proceeding, it is not my business to inquire into, but it certainly affords some excuse, if any be necessary, for the subsequent conduct of those unfortunate people. The decree abolishing for ever slavery in the West Indies, (French,) and extending all the blessings of citizenship and equality to every human creature, of whatever grade or color, then under the Government of France, passed the Convention in February, seventeen hundred and ninety-four. The existence of such a paper I did not expect would have been doubted here till the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Kitchel) actually denied it. In the new Annual Register, of ninety-four, is the following account of it, page 347: “La Croix rose to move the entire abolition of slavery in the dominions of France. The National Convention rose spontaneously to decree the proposition of La Croix. On motion of Danton, on the 5th, the Convention resolved to refer to the Committee of Public Safety the decree of emancipation, in order that they might provide the most effectual and safest means of carrying it into effect.” But here is the decree itself, as taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine, and furnished to me by a friend: “National Convention, 1794, February 4th. The National Convention decrees that slavery is abolished in all the French colonies. It decrees in consequence that all the inhabitants of the French colonies, of whatever color, are French citizens, and from this day forward shall enjoy those rights which are secured to them by the declaration of rights, and by the constitution.” And this same principle the Convention frequently recognized, by receiving at their bar, in the most complimentary manner, various deputations of blacks from the West Indies, thanking them for the boon conferred upon them. One of these instances, among many others, I will submit, as a curiosity in legislative proceedings, to the Senate: “National Convention. Order of the day. A band of blacks of both sexes, amidst the sound of martial music; and escorted by a great band of Parisians, came into the hall to return thanks to the Legislature for having raised them to the rank of men. The President gave the fraternal kiss to an old negress, 114 years old, and mother of eleven children. After which she was respectfully conducted to an armed chair and seated by the side of the President, amid the loudest bursts of applause.” By the original decree, the liberty of the blacks was established. This ceremony, it seems, was only to show their equality; and certainly, sir, the President could not have given a much stronger, or a much kinder evidence of it to the old lady. But, Mr. President, the claim of those people to freedom does not rest here. I have in my hand a document of much more recent date, and even more to be relied upon. It is the proclamation of the then First Consul, now the Emperor and King, to the people of St. Domingo, when General Le Clerc went there, in the winter of 1801, at the head of the French forces, which I will read. First, a short proclamation of General Le Clerc’s:
LIBERTY. EQUALITY.
PROCLAMATION.
On board the Ocean, off the Cape, the 15th of Pluviose, 10th year of the French Republic, (Feb. 6, 1802.)