were to be fruitless. The United States had
invited the world to join her in denouncing the slave-trade as piracy;
yet, when such a pirate was waylaid by an English vessel, the United
States complained or demanded reparation. The only answer which this
country for years returned to the long-continued exposures of American
slave-traders and of the fraudulent use of the American flag, was a
recital of cases where Great Britain had gone beyond her legal powers in
her attempt to suppress the slave-trade.[52] In the face of overwhelming
evidence to the contrary, Secretary of State Forsyth declared, in 1840,
that the duty of the United States in the matter of the slave-trade "has
been faithfully performed, and if the traffic still exists as a disgrace
to humanity, it is to be imputed to nations with whom Her Majesty's
Government has formed and maintained the most intimate connexions, and
to whose Governments Great Britain has paid for the right of active
intervention in order to its complete extirpation."[53] So zealous was
Stevenson, our minister to England, in denying the Right of Search, that
he boldly informed Palmerston, in 1841, "that there is no shadow of
pretence for excusing, much less justifying, the exercise of any such
right. That it is wholly immaterial, whether the vessels be equipped
for, or actually engaged in slave traffic or not, and consequently the
right to search or detain even slave vessels, must be confined to the
ships or vessels of those nations with whom it may have treaties on the
subject."[54] Palmerston courteously replied that he could not think
that the United States seriously intended to make its flag a refuge for
slave-traders;[55] and Aberdeen pertinently declared: "Now, it can
scarcely be maintained by Mr. Stevenson that Great Britain should be
bound to permit her own subjects, with British vessels and British
capital, to carry on, before the eyes of British officers, this
detestable traffic in human beings, which the law has declared to be
piracy, merely because they had the audacity to commit an additional
offence by fraudulently usurping the American flag."[56] Thus the
dispute, even after the advent of Webster, went on for a time, involving
itself in metaphysical subtleties, and apparently leading no nearer to
an understanding.[57]

In 1838 a fourth conference of the powers for the consideration of the
slave-trade took place at London. It was attended by representatives of
England, Franc