Salmon P. Chase

“ Fears of forfeiture of property, and even of life, have been easily overcome by hopes of enormous gains, and so long as markets for slaves remain open, and imperfect execution of the laws permits the expectation of profit from crime, the most conspicuous results of penal legislation will be, more cunning in the contrivance and more adroitness in the use of means for evading or defeating its intent and operation. ”

“ We protest against the doctrine laid down in the District Court, that men are to be deprived of property, life, and character-for a forfeit of all these are the penalties of engaging in the slave-trade-on any 'suspicions,' however strong. ”

“ If the cargo and equipments of the vessel are all innocent in their own nature, a forfeiture may, nevertheless, be decreed, provided there be positive proof of a guilty intention to employ her in the slave-trade. ”

“ In this day this traffic is so managed, that while every one knows the truth of the case, the truth of the case is always defeated; that while every one can point out the felon, the felon still walks abroad, sworn to and certified an innocent man. By plan, no one reveals his true character. Fraud is ingenious in device. The trade, however amenable in reality to the law, is now carried on with a regular machinery to evade law. This is a prerequisite of the trade ”

“ It does not seem unreasonable, since it is the paramount interest of humanity that the traffic in men be, at all events, arrested, to require of the trader, who engages in a commerce, which, although not unlawful, is necessarily suspicious from its theatre and circumstances, that he keep his operations so clear and so distinct in their character, as to repel the imputation of prohibited purpose.
The bark Kate arrived from Havana at New York about the 17th of May, with a cargo consigned to parties there. ”

“ The simple fact that the bark was bound for the coast of Africa with such a cargo on board as is usually taken there for the purpose of lawful trade, can raise no legal presumption against her. Upon such a case, the law would presume her voyage innocent, however a suspicious person might suspect the contrary.
2. It is true that a lawful cargo is consistent with an illegal purpose to engage the vessel containing it in the slave-trade on reaching the African coast; but to forfeit or convict upon that ground, there must be positive proof of such guilty purpose. ”

“ But it should be more desirous still-it has no interest deeper-that the great laws of evidence, by which property and reputation and life itself are maintained, be scrupulously respected. Not only justice, but justice judicially administered, and to be administered, is the standing interest of all commonwealths ”

“ The bark and all her cargo was either adapted or capable of being adapted to a slave voyage.
On the other hand, it was shown by one Machado, a Portuguese, long in the African trade, and a person frequently summoned in slave cases, and by Smalley, a stevedore, engaged in loading vessels for the west coast of Africa, and by other persons of better standing than either, that there is a regular trade with Cape Palmas and the west coast of Africa; that houses of unquestionable integrity in New York are engaged in it; that the vessel, as respected size, was suitable enough for the legitimate trade ”

“ The difficulty of penetrating the disguises of crime is enhanced in the case of the slave-trade by the circumstance that a very considerable traffic, regarded as legitimate, has sprung up and is carried on with the same African coast from which human cargoes are collected. ”

“ He pretended to be a stranger to Otto; to be ignorant of our language, and to have no connection with the bark; but trunks marked with his name were found in her cabin; he was detected exchanging signs with Otto, and it was soon discovered that his ignorance of our language was a mere pretence. Hernandez, who represented himself as shipper of part of the cargo, but whose manifest of part included every article on the custom-house manifest, and several others, never appeared to protect his interest. There is reason to think that the name was but an alias for Da Costa. ”

“ As already noticed, the name of the shipper of the Kate's cargo on the 3d of July, who swore to the shipper's manifest on that day, was Jose Hernandez. Da Costa was then in New York. When the manifest of cargo was again presented to the custom-house for a clearance, on the 14th or 15th of September, the name of Jose Hernandez did not appear on it as shipper; no shipper, in fact, appeared to make oath at that time. Da Costa was then in custody of the marshal on the charge for which he stood indicted. 'Hernandez' never appeared either as claimant or witness, nor was any account given of him. ”

“ They are defeets, not in the heart, but in the brain. There is nothing makes a man suspect more than to know little; and, therefore, men should remedy suspicion by seeking to know more, and not to keep their suspicions in smother.' [7]
Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Ashton, for the United States.
The slave-trade, it is known, is carried on at this moment to a frightful extent on American vessels from American ports, and by the aid of American capital. Millions of dollars are said to be invested in the traffic. Why is this? The fault is not with our people, nor with Congress ”

“ When they are discovered and proved, their ordinary force ought to be greatly strengthened by the failure of a party on whom they are fastened to make full and frank explanation of them. And the force of such suspicions will increase in proportion as their explanation is easy to the party. ”

“ We assert, as a true rule of evidence in regard to these slaver voyages, the rule laid down by the District Judge; a gentleman who brings to every class of question, high intelligence, of course, but to this class brings specially as well, an advantage which no intelligence could give,-the advantage of 'old experience' with the shipping business of our great American port. In speaking of invoking 'circumstances calculated to raise suspicions,' he may not have spoken philologically well, but he spoke well practically ”

“ The observation was right when applied, as it was, to a class of persons whose art is the ars celare artem; to a trade where the avarice and wicked invention of Europe and America alike have been engaged for half a century, with the gallows in view before the operator, as the penalty of failure,-in reducing to a science the art of stealing men ”