If the Government of
the United States had no authority to interfere, in any way, with
the institution of slavery in the States, they would not have had
the authority to require this stipulation. It is well known that
this engagement was not fulfilled by the British naval and military
commanders; that, on the contrary, they did carry away all the slaves
whom they had induced to join them, and that the British Government
inflexibly refused to restore any of them to their masters; that a claim
of indemnity was consequently instituted in behalf of the owners of the
slaves, and was successfully maintained. All that series of transactions
was an interference by Congress with the institution of slavery in the
States in one way--in the way of protection and support. It was by the
institution of slavery alone that the restitution of slaves enticed by
proclamations into the British service could be claimed as property.
But for the institution of slavery, the British commanders could neither
have allured them to their standard, nor restored them otherwise than
as liberated prisoners of war.
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