University of Virginia Library

TO JAMES MONROE.[111]

Dear Sir

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Herewith are the communications from Mr. Adams.
He pinches Castlereagh not a little. I always suspected
that the enlistments & apprenticeship of
captured Negroes, in the W. Inds. would be the
refuge agst. the allegations on our part.[112]

But, if the former be for life, & the latter for
14 years even for those of mature age, both be
forced, as the law & order in council shew, how can
either be a situation in which the unfortunate
blacks are protected in the privileges of freedom?
Nor is it conceivable that the act of Parlt, which
contemplates evidently the African trade, and
seizures on the high seas, can be fairly applied to
negroes in the U. States in a slavery originating
with G. B. herself, seduced or forced therefrom
with her sanction, and recd. on board vessels within
the waters of the U. S. As the B. Govt. [illegible]
a full [illegible] into the charges agst. its officers,
whether wth. a view to discredit this Govt. or for

whatever other purpose, it will be proper to promote
the establishment of the truth. It will be particularly
proper to keep in the front of the transaction,
the inviting proclamation of the B. Commander,
and the bondage de facto into which, it is admitted,
that the negroes are placed, under the name of
freedom & protection. I hope Mr. Adams will not
fail in the most suitable stage of the business to do
justice to this view of the subject. It will put
our charges on defensible ground, even if we fail
to establish what is fairly to be believed, that the
captives or fugitives in question were sold into the
ordinary slavery of the W. Indies. The object
of Ld. Castlereagh evidently is to draw the question
to a point most difficult of proof, and in the failure
of it to avail himself of an ostentatious zeal for an
impracticable investigation.