traffic in slaves (not the African slave-trade, but
THE TRAFFIC IN SLAVES) unjust and inhuman,' and in which
both nations engaged to do all in their power to suppress it. Mr.
Wilberforce inquired of me whether I thought that a proposal for a
mutual, restricted, qualified right of search would be acceptable to
the American government. I had at that time a feeling to the full as
strong against the right of search, as it had then been exercised by
British cruisers, as ever the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Ingersoll) had, in all his life. I had been myself somewhat involved
in the question as a public man. It constituted one of the grounds
of my unfortunate difference from those with whom I had long been
politically associated; and it was for the exertions I had made
against the admission of that right that I forfeited my place in the
other end of the capitol, and, which was infinitely more painful to
me, for this I had differed with men long dear to me, and to whom I
had also been dear, insomuch that for a time it interrupted all
friendly relations between us.

"The first thing I said, in reply to Mr. Wilberforce, was: 'No; you
may as well save yourselves the trouble of making any proposals on
that subject; my countrymen, I am very sure, will never assent to
any such arrangement.' He then entered into an argument, the full
force of which I felt, when I said to him, 'You may, if you think
proper, make the proposal; but I think some other mode of getting
over the difficulty must be resorted to; for the prejudices of my
country are so immovably strong on that point, that I do not believe
they will ever assent.'

"I returned home, and, under the administration of Mr. Monroe, I
filled the office of Secretary of State; and in that capacity I was
the medium through which the proposal of the British government was
afterwards made to the United States to arrange a special right of
search for the suppression of the slave-trade. This proposition I
resisted and opposed in the cabinet with all my power. And I will
say that, although I was not myself a slaveholder, I had to resist
all the slaveholding members of the cabinet, and the President also.
Mr. Monroe himself was always strongly inclined in favor of the
proposition, and I maintained the opposite ground against him and
the whole body