of Mexico, and the movement toward the
acquisition of Cuba. The demand for slaves was manifested in the illicit
traffic that noticeably increased about 1835, and reached large
proportions by 1860. It was also seen in a disposition to attack the
government for stigmatizing the trade as criminal,[8] then in a
disinclination to take any measures which would have rendered our
repressive laws effective; and finally in such articulate declarations
by prominent men as this: "Experience having settled the point, that
this Trade _cannot be abolished by the use of force_, and that
blockading squadrons serve only to make it more profitable and more
cruel, I am surprised that the attempt is persisted in, unless as it
serves as a cloak to some other purposes. It would be far better than it
now is, for the African, if the trade was free from all restrictions,
and left to the mitigation and decay which time and competition would
surely bring about."[9]

76. ~The Attitude of the North and Congress.~ With the North as yet
unawakened to the great changes taking place in the South, and with the
attitude of the South thus in process of development, little or no
constructive legislation could be expected on the subject of the
slave-trade. As the divergence in sentiment became more and more
pronounced, there were various attempts at legislation, all of which
proved abortive. The pro-slavery party attempted, as early as 1826, and
again in 1828, to abolish the African agency and leave the Africans
practically at the mercy of the States;[10] one or two attempts were
made to relax the few provisions which restrained the coastwise
trade;[11] and, after the treaty of 1842, Benton proposed to stop
appropriations for the African squadron until England defined her
position on the Right of Search question.[12] The anti-slavery men
presented several bills to amend and strengthen previous laws;[13] they
sought, for instance, in vain to regulate the Texan trade, through which
numbers of slaves indirectly reached the United States.[14] Presidents
and consuls earnestly recommended legislation to restrict the clearances
of vessels bound on slave-trading voyages, and to hinder the facility
with which slavers obtained fraudulent papers.[15] Only one such bill
succeeded in passing the Senate, and that was dropped in the House.[16]

The only legislation of this period was confined to a few appropriation
bills. Only one of these acts, that of 1823, appropriat