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770 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

American passed by the sufferers, the Spaniard stopped and
saved them. But the prisoner’s guilt must outweigh all
these considerations, We cannot dispense mercy. That is
the attribute of a higher power. You and I, gentlemen, are
bound to do our duty according to law, and we should be
false to our oaths, our country and our God, if we were to
shut our eyes to the force of the testimony before us.

The concluding part of the charge was very favorable to
Portana, Velasquez and Ferrer. No participation what-
ever, Jupge Story remarked, was proved against Portana—
the only circumstance against the second was the statement
of Perez that he was with him (Perez) when the money waa
buried; and the third, Ferrer, was evidently a servant and
an African, Although set down in the ship’s papers as free,
that fact was by no means conclusive. Vessels going on 4
slaving voyage would never carry a native African with
them as a slave, because that circumstance would subject
them te capture by the English or other cruisers. There was
therefore every reason to believe that Ferrier, although de
scribed as a free black, was in reality a slave.

JupaE Srory, in the course of his charge, made the following
remarks in relation to the alave trade. This inhuman traffic,
he said, had long been the reproach of Christendom. It had
‘been carried on with as much zeal by England and America
as by the French and Spanish. And although Christianity
had blessed us with its light for 1800 years, it was only until
very lately that this species of commerce had been wholly
abolished. He could not agree in the remarks which hed
been made by both counsel for the defense, upon the conduct
of the United States as counected with this matter. The
Constitution had never sanctioned the slave trade. It met an
existing state of things, and passed an act taxing the trade,
and enabling Congress to prohibit it altogether at the expira-
tion of 20 years. It did this in 88, and in 1806 a prospective
act was passed to take effect in January, 1807, declaring the
slave trade forever abolished in this country. He was not
aware that the traffic had been carried on during the first 20

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