[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 29, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3514-S3515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 540--RECOGNIZING THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 
 SLOOP-OF-WAR USS ``CONSTELLATION'' AS A REMINDER OF THE PARTICIPATION 
   OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND OF THE 
          EFFORTS OF THE UNITED STATES TO END THE SLAVE TRADE

  Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself and Mr. Cardin) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 540

       Whereas, on September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the 
     United States was adopted, and article I, section 9 declared 
     that Congress could prohibit the importation of slaves into 
     the United States in the year 1808;
       Whereas, in 1794, the United States Congress passed ``An 
     Act to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the 
     United States to any foreign place or country'', approved 
     March 22, 1794 (1 Stat. 347), thus beginning the efforts of 
     the United States to halt the slave trade;
       Whereas, on May 10, 1800, Congress enacted a law that 
     outlawed all participation by people in the United States in 
     the international trafficking of slaves and authorized the 
     United States Navy to seize vessels flying the flag of the 
     United States engaged in the slave trade;
       Whereas, on March 2, 1807, President Thomas Jefferson 
     signed into law ``An Act to prohibit the importation of 
     slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the 
     United States, from and after the first of January, in the 
     year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight'' (2 
     Stat. 426);

[[Page S3515]]

       Whereas, on January 1, 1808, the prohibition on the 
     importation of slaves into the United States took effect;
       Whereas, on March 3, 1819, Congress authorized the Navy to 
     cruise the coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade, 
     declaring that Africans on captured ships be placed under 
     Federal jurisdiction and authorizing the President to appoint 
     an agent in Africa to facilitate the return of captured 
     Africans to the continent;
       Whereas, in 1819, the Royal Navy of Great Britain 
     established the West Coast of Africa as a separate naval 
     station and actively plied the waters in pursuit of slave 
     ships, and Great Britain negotiated with many other countries 
     to obtain the right to search vessels suspected of engaging 
     in the slave trade;
       Whereas, on May 15, 1820, Congress declared the trading of 
     slaves to be an act of piracy and that those convicted of 
     trading slaves were subject to the death penalty;
       Whereas the Webster-Ashburton Treaty between Great Britain 
     and the United States, signed August 9, 1842, provided that 
     both countries would maintain separate naval squadrons on the 
     coast of Africa to enforce their respective laws against the 
     slave trade;
       Whereas, in 1843, the newly formed United States African 
     Squadron sailed for Africa and remained in operation until 
     the Civil War erupted in 1861;
       Whereas, in 1859, the USS  Constellation, the last all-sail 
     vessel designed and built by the United States Navy, sailed 
     to West Africa as the flagship of the United States African 
     Squadron, which consisted of 8 ships, including 4 steam-
     powered vessels suitable for chasing down and capturing slave 
     ships;
       Whereas, on December 21, 1859, the USS Constellation 
     captured the brig  Delicia after a 10-hour chase, and 
     although the Delicia had no human cargo on board upon 
     capture, the crew had been preparing the ship to take on 
     slaves;
       Whereas, on the night of September 25, 1860, the USS 
     Constellation spotted the barque  Cora near the mouth of the 
     Congo River and, after a dramatic moonlit chase, captured the 
     slave ship with 705 Africans crammed into her permanent 
     ``slave deck'';
       Whereas after capturing the Cora, a detachment of the  
     Constellation's crew sailed the surviving Africans to 
     Monrovia, Liberia, a colony founded for the settlement of 
     free African Americans, which became the destination for all 
     Africans freed on slave ships captured by the United States 
     Navy;
       Whereas, on May 21, 1861, the USS  Constellation captured 
     the brig Triton, and although the Triton did not have 
     Africans captured for slavery on board when intercepted by 
     the Constellation, a search confirmed that the ship had been 
     prepared to take on slaves;
       Whereas the Triton, registered in Charleston, South 
     Carolina, was one of the first Union naval captures of the 
     Civil War;
       Whereas, from 1859 to 1861, the USS Constellation and the 
     United States African Squadron captured 14 slave ships and 
     liberated nearly 4,000 Africans destined for a life of 
     servitude in the Americas, a record unsurpassed by the 
     squadron under previous commanders; and
       Whereas, on September 25, 2008, the USS Constellation 
     Museum will hold a ceremony to commemorate the bicentennial 
     of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade aboard the 
     same ship that, 148 years before, forced the capitulation of 
     the slave ship Cora and freed the 705 Africans confined 
     within: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes the historical and educational significance 
     of the USS Constellation, a 153-year-old warship berthed in 
     Baltimore, Maryland, as a reminder of both the participation 
     of the United States in the slave trade and the efforts of 
     the United States Government to suppress the inhumane 
     practice;
       (2) applauds the preservation of the historic vessel and 
     the efforts of the USS Constellation Museum to engage people 
     from all over the world with this vital part of our history; 
     and
       (3) supports the USS Constellation as an appropriate site 
     for the Nation to commemorate the bicentennial of the 
     abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 2008.

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