self, 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 as
to render the duty unremunerative; and marshals now find their fees for
such services to be actually less than their necessary expenses. No one
who bears this fact in mind will be surprised at the great indifference
of these officers to the continuing of the slave-trade; in fact, he will
be ready to learn that the laws of Congress upon the subject had become
a dead letter, and that the suspicion was well grounded that certain
officers of the Federa