gated 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 Engla