Negroes, newly landed, were openly advertised for sale in the public press, and bids for additional importations made.  In reply to one of these, the Mobile Mercury facetiously remarks:  “Some negroes who never learned to talk English, went up the railroad the other day."[54] Congressmen declared on the floor of the House:  “The slave trade may therefore be regarded as practically re-established;"[55] and petitions like that from the American Missionary Society recited the fact that “this piratical and illegal trade—­this inhuman invasion of the rights of men,—­this outrage on civilization and Christianity—­this violation of the laws of God and man—­is openly countenanced and encouraged by a portion of the citizens of some of the States of this Union."[56]

From such evidence it seems clear that the slave-trade laws, in spite of the efforts of the government, in spite even of much opposition to these extra-legal methods in the South itself, were grossly violated, if not nearly nullified, in the latter part of the decade 1850-1860.

89. Apathy of the Federal Government. During the decade there was some attempt at reactionary legislation, chiefly directed at the Treaty of Washington.  June 13, 1854, Slidell, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, made an elaborate report to the Senate, advocating the abrogation of the 8th Article of that treaty, on the ground that it was costly, fatal to the health of the sailors, and useless, as the trade had actually increased under its operation.[57] Both this and a similar attempt in the House failed,[58] as did also an attempt to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty.[59] Most of the actual legislation naturally took the form of appropriations.  In 1853 there was an attempt to appropriate $20,000.[60] This failed, and the appropriation of $8,000 in 1856 was the first for ten years.[61] The following year brought a similar appropriation,[62] and in 1859[63] and 1860[64] $75,000 and $40,000 respectively were appropriated.  Of attempted legislation to strengthen the laws there was plenty:  e.g., propositions to regulate the issue of sea-letters and the use of our flag;[65] to prevent the “coolie” trade, or the bringing in of “apprentices” or “African laborers;"[66] to stop the coastwise trade;[67] to assent to a Right of Search;[68] and to amend the Constitution by forever prohibiting the slave-trade.[69]

The efforts of the executive during this period were criminally lax and negligent.  “The General Government did not exert itself in good faith to carry out either its treaty stipulations or the legislation of Congress in regard to the matter.  If a vessel was captured, her owners were permitted to bond her, and thus continue her in the trade; and if any man was convicted of this form of piracy, the executive always interposed between him and the penalty of his crime.  The laws providing for the seizure of vessels engaged in the traffic were so constructed