[134] House Reports, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, p. 2. The President had in his message spoken in exhilarating tones of the success of the government in suppressing the trade. The House Committee appointed in pursuance of this passage made the above report. Their conclusions are confirmed by British reports: Parliamentary Papers, 1822, Vol. XXII., Slave Trade, Further Papers, III. p. 44. So, too, in 1823, Ashmun, the African agent, reports that thousands of slaves are being abducted.
[135] Ayres to the Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 24, 1823; reprinted in Friends' View of the African Slave-Trade (1824), p. 31.
[136] House Reports, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 5–6. The slavers were the "Ramirez," "Endymion," "Esperanza," "Plattsburg," "Science," "Alexander," "Eugene," "Mathilde," "Daphne," "Eliza," and "La Pensée." In these 573 Africans were taken. The naval officers were greatly handicapped by the size of the ships, etc. (cf. Friends' View, etc., pp. 33–41). They nevertheless acted with great zeal.
[137] Parliamentary Papers, 1821, Vol. XXIII., Slave Trade, Further Papers, A, p. 76. The names and description of a dozen or more American slavers are given: Ibid., pp. 18–21.
[138] House Reports, 17 Cong. 1 sess. II. No. 92, pp. 15–20.
[139] House Doc., 18 Cong. 1 sess. VI. No. 119, p. 13.
[140] Parliamentary Papers, 1823, Vol. XVIII., Slave Trade, Further Papers, A, pp. 10–11.
[141] Opinions of Attorneys-General, V. 717.
[142] R.W. Habersham to the Secretary of the Navy, August, 1821; reprinted in Friends' View, etc., p. 47.
[143] Ibid., p. 42.