Excerpt from Duty of the Free States: Or Remarks Suggested by the Case of the Creole

This statement of the case of the Creole is derived chiefly from the testimony of the officers and crew ofthe vessel, and very naturally falls under suspicion of being colored, in part, by prejudice and passion. We must hear the other side, and compare all the witnesses, before we can understand the whole case. The main facts, however, cannot be misunderstood. The shipping of the slaves at Norfolk, the rising of a part of their number against the officers of the vessel, the success of the insurrection, the carrying of the vessel into the port of Nassau, and the recognition and treatment of the slaves as free by the British authorities of that place; these material points of the case cannot be questioned. The letter of our government, stating these facts as grounds of complaint against England, is written with much caution, and seems wanting in the tone of earnest ness and confidence which naturally belongs to a good cause. It does not go to the heart of the case. It relies more on the comity of nations, than on principles of justice and natural law. Still, in one respect it is de cided. It protests against, and complains of, the British authorities, and calls loudly for redress. Lt'maintains, that it was the plain and obvious duty of the authori ties at Nassau to give aid and succor to the officers of the Creole in reducing the slaves to subjection, in re sumlug their voyage with their cargo of men as well as of tobacco, and in bringing the insurgents to trial in this country. It maintains, that the claims of the American masters to their slaves existed, and were in force in the British port, and that these claims ought to have been acknowledged and sustained by the British magistrate. The plain inference is, that the government of the United States is bound to spread a shield over American slavery abroad as well as at home. Such is the letter.

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