If a cruiser may at any time burn prizes, it is because of some exceptional exigency in a particular case, and not according to general rule, which practically declares that there can be no right to take a prize, if there be no port into…

The right of capture and the right of trial are the complements of each other, through which a harsh prerogative is supposed to be rounded into the proper form of civilized warfare.

Therefore every ship and cargo burned by the captors for the reason that they had no port testifies that they are without that vital sovereignty on the ocean which is needed in the exercise of belligerent jurisdiction, and that they are…

Nay, more, all these bonfires of the sea cry out against the power which by precipitate concession furnished the torch.

British ports constitute their naval base of operations and supplies, furnishing everything needful, except an officer, the ship’s papers, and a court for the trial of the prizes, each of which is essential to the legality of the…

The whole proceeding, from the laying of the keel in a British dockyard to the bursting flames on the ocean, is a mockery of International Law and an insult to a friendly power.

But the principles which govern it are as old as justice and humanity, in the interests of which belligerent rights are said to be conceded.

Here it is all reversed, and it is now apparent, that, whatever the motives of the British Government, the concession was in behalf of injustice and inhumanity.

If such a case is not condemned by International Law, then has this law lost its virtue.

Call such cruisers by whatever polite term most pleases the ear, and you do not change their character with their name.

Without a home and without a legal character, they are mere gypsies of the sea, disturbers of the common highway, outlaws, and enemies of the human race.

There is a precedent which shows how impossible it is for a pretended power, without a single port, to possess belligerent rights on the ocean, and how impossible it is for the ship of such pretended power to be anything but a felon ship.

Whatever the force of Rebel Slavery on land, it is no more on the ocean than the “deposed prince,” “without power of protecting the innocent or punishing the guilty, or in any way of administering justice”; and, like the prince, it has…

If he was a pirate, worthy of death, then, by the same rule, those rovers who rob cargoes, burn ships, and adorn their cabins with rows of stolen chronometers, careless of a Prize Court, are entitled to small favor from a civilized power.

Without considering more critically what should be the fate of these ocean incendiaries, or what the responsibilities of England, out of whom they came, I content myself with the conclusion that they are not entitled to ocean belligerence.

Pirate is a hard word; but Jefferson did not shrink from applying it to “private armed vessels,” infesting our coasts, preying upon our commerce, and making captures at the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas.

It will recognize this act precisely as it recognizes other political and military acts, without presuming to interpose any unconstitutional veto,--and it will recognize this act to the full extent, as was intended, according to its…

Even if the Court should hesitate, there can be no hesitation with the President, or with the people, bound in sacred honor to the freedom of every slave in the Rebel States.

Even if Rebel Slavery, coagulated in embryo government, has arrived at that semi-sovereignty de facto on the ocean which justifies belligerent rights, yet the Christian powers should indignantly decline to make the concession, because by…

It is sufficient to say that every argument of fact and reason, every whisper of conscience and humanity, every indignant outburst of an honest man against recognition of Slavery as an independent power, is equally strong against any…

Therefore against every effort of surrender the Proclamation presents an insuperable barrier.

Sad day for England, when another wicked compromise was struck with Slavery, kindred to that old treaty which mantles the cheeks of honest Englishmen, when the slave-trade was protected and its profits secured to British subjects!

Like produces like, and the parent power, which is Slavery, must stamp itself upon the ship, making it a floating offence to Heaven, with no limit to its audacity,--wild, outrageous, impious, a monster of the deep, to be hunted down by all…

That fatal concession, made in a moment of eclipse, when reason and humanity were obscured, must be annulled.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.