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“The Cuba Slaves,” Charleston Courier , 13 Sept. 1839.
The Cuba Slaves.--We concur with those who entertain the opinion that our
Government and our courts have no right to discuss the question, whether the captured
Africans in the Armistead [sic] were lawfully enslaved or not, according to
the laws of Spain. That is a question, which belongs exclusively to the Spanish Government
and the Spanish Courts. It is enough that they had been recognized and sold as slaves
on Spanish territory, and were in possession of their ostensible owners, at the time
of their mutiny--this is sufficient to oust any foreign tribunal of the right to
decide on their status or civil condition. The fact that they had been enslaved
in contravention of the law of Spain, prohibiting the slave trade, can make no difference
in the present case. Had they escaped or been wrested from their captors, before
they reached a Spanish port, then their status might properly have come within
the cognizance of foreign tribunals. But the moment they were landed on Spanish territory,
and there claimed as slaves, the jurisdiction of the Spanish Courts became complete
and exclusive--and their escape or forcible rescue from their ostensible owners,
during a subsequent voyage from one Spanish port to another, furnished no pretext
for cognizance of their civil condition by foreign Courts. Prima facie they
are lawful slaves, from the fact of their having been claimed and treated as slaves,
on Spanish territory--and although Spanish tribunals might sift the questions more
thoroughly, foreign courts are concluded, from further inquiry, by this aspect of
the case. The manner in which slaves have been reduced to a state of slavery is not
a question of foreign cognizance--the fact of slavery is all that they can
decide on--the question of right belongs exclusively to the home tribunal.
On no other principle could the comity or the peace of nations be preserved. In questions
like these all that the claimant is required to do, is to show possession--to
impose on him the necessity of going into title would be a fruitful source
of individual injustice and international discord.
