y expect to know what it really is that we
respect. Doubtless the flag is _prima facie_ evidence of the
nationality of the vessel; and, if this evidence were in its nature
conclusive and irrefragable, it ought to preclude all further
inquiry. But it is sufficiently notorious that the flags of all
nations are liable to be assumed by those who have no right or
title to bear them. Mr. Stevenson himself fully admits the extent
to which the American flag has been employed for the purpose of
covering this infamous traffic. The undersigned joins with Mr.
Stevenson in deeply lamenting the evil; and he agrees with him in
thinking that the United States ought not to be considered
responsible for this abuse of their flag. But if all inquiry be
resisted, even when carried no further than to ascertain the
nationality of the vessel, and impunity be claimed for the most
lawless and desperate of mankind, in the commission of this fraud,
the undersigned greatly fears that it may be regarded as something
like an assumption of that responsibility which has been deprecated
by Mr. Stevenson....

"The undersigned renounces all pretension on the part of the
British government to visit and search American vessels in time of
peace. Nor is it as American that such vessels are ever visited;
but, it has been the invariable practice of the British navy, and,
as the undersigned believes, of all navies in the world, to
ascertain by visit the real nationality of merchant-vessels met
with on the high seas, if there be good reason to apprehend their
illegal character....

"The undersigned admits, that, if the British cruiser should
possess a knowledge of the American character of any vessel, his
visitation of such vessel would be entirely unjustifiable. He
further admits, that so much respect and honor are due to the
American flag, that no vessel bearing it ought to be visited by a
British cruiser, except under the most grave suspicions and
well-founded doubts of the genuineness of its character.

"The undersigned, although with pain, must add, that if such visit
should lead to the proof of the American origin of the vessel, and
that she was avowedly engaged in the slave-trade, exhibiting to
view the manacles, fetters, and other usual implements of torture,
or had even