notorious slave dealers in Brazil, aided by English capitalists, with this intent.[47] The message of 1849 “earnestly” invites the attention of Congress “to an amendment of our existing laws relating to the African slave-trade, with a view to the effectual suppression of that barbarous traffic.  It is not to be denied,” continues the message, “that this trade is still, in part, carried on by means of vessels built in the United States, and owned or navigated by some of our citizens."[48] Governor Buchanan of Liberia reported in 1839:  “The chief obstacle to the success of the very active measures pursued by the British government for the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast, is the American flag.  Never was the proud banner of freedom so extensively used by those pirates upon liberty and humanity, as at this season."[49] One well-known American slaver was boarded fifteen times and twice taken into port, but always escaped by means of her papers.[50] Even American officers report that the English are doing all they can, but that the American flag protects the trade.[51] The evidence which literally poured in from our consuls and ministers at Brazil adds to the story of the guilt of the United States.[52] It was proven that the participation of United States citizens in the trade was large and systematic.  One of the most notorious slave merchants of Brazil said:  “I am worried by the Americans, who insist upon my hiring their vessels for slave-trade."[53] Minister Proffit stated, in 1844, that the “slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag, in American-built vessels."[54] So, too, in Cuba:  the British commissioners affirm that American citizens were openly engaged in the traffic; vessels arrived undisguised at Havana from the United States, and cleared for Africa as slavers after an alleged sale.[55] The American consul, Trist, was proven to have consciously or unconsciously aided this trade by the issuance of blank clearance papers.[56]

The presence of American capital in these enterprises, and the connivance of the authorities, were proven in many cases and known in scores.  In 1837 the English government informed the United States that from the papers of a captured slaver it appeared that the notorious slave-trading firm, Blanco and Carballo of Havana, who owned the vessel, had correspondents in the United States:  “at Baltimore, Messrs. Peter Harmony and Co., in New York, Robert Barry, Esq."[57] The slaver “Martha” of New York, captured by the “Perry,” contained among her papers curious revelations of the guilt of persons in America who were little suspected.[58] The slaver “Prova,” which was allowed to lie in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and refit, was afterwards captured with two hundred and twenty-five slaves on board.[59] The real reason that prevented many belligerent Congressmen from pressing certain search claims against England lay in the fact that the unjustifiable detentions had unfortunately revealed so much American guilt that it was deemed wiser to let the matter end in talk.  For instance, in 1850 Congress demanded information as to illegal searches, and President Fillmore’s report showed the uncomfortable fact that, of the ten American ships wrongly detained by English men-of-war, nine were proven red-handed slavers.[60]