Sghbnck to To His Excellency the Secretary for Foreign Affairs Of the United States of North America, at the Foreign Office, Washington, December 29, 1874

No. 259. General Schenck to Mr. Fish.

Sir: Inclosed with this I transmit an original communication addressed to you by the special delegates of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society and the Universal Alliance, who are constituted in London the international antislavery committee, calling your attention to an accompanying “memorandum,” and inviting an appointment, on the part of the United States, of a delegate ad audiendum et ad referendum to a conference proposed to be held in London on the 1st of February, 1875, “with the view of renewing, by a diplomatic act participated in by all the civilized powers, the declaration of the congress of Vienna, dated February 8, 1815, relative to the slave-trade, and the resolutions adopted by the diplomatic conference of Verona, dated November 28, 1822.”

The signers of this paper are gentlemen of such position and character, the organization which they represent so respectable, and the cause in which they are engaged one of such universal benevolence, that I cannot hesitate to forward at once their invitation, although you may not deem it necessary to depute any one to take part in their deliberation.

I transmit also a copy of the note of the delegates of the committee to me and a copy of my reply. Their note, although dated the 12th instant, was not received till yesterday.

I have, &c.,

Resolutions relative to the abolition of the slave-trade, adopted by the Conference of Verona, 28th November, 1822.

The plenipotentiaries of Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, assembled in congress at Verona—

Considering that their august sovereigns have taken part in the declaration of the 8th February, 1815, by which the powers assembled in congress at Vienna have proclaimed, in the face of Europe, their invariable resolution to cause the cessation of the commerce known under the name of the African slave-trade;

Considering, further, that in spite of this declaration and the legislative measures by which it has been followed in several countries, and the different treaties concluded since the said epoch between the maritime powers, this commerce, solemnly proscribed, has continued to this day; that it has gained in intensity what it may have lost in extent; that it has taken a more odious and unhappy character by the nature of the means to which those who practice it are forced to have recourse;

That the causes of an abuse so revolting exist principally in fraudulent practices, by means of which the projectors of these despicable speculations elude the laws of their countries, evade the surveillance of the vessels employed to put a stop to the course of their iniquities, and conceal criminal operations, of which thousands of human beings become from year to year the innocent victims;

That the powers of Europe are called upon by their former engagements, as well as by a sacred duty, to seek the most efficacious means of ending a traffic which the laws of almost every civilized country have declared illicit and culpable, and to punish rigorously those who pursue it in manifest opposition to these laws—have recognized the necessity of devoting the most serious attention to an object of such great importance to the welfare and honor of humanity, and declare in consequence, in the name of their august sovereigns, that they persist irrevocably in the principles and sentiments that these sovereigns have manifested by the declaration of 8th February, 1815;

That they have not ceased and will never cease to regard the slave-trade as “a scourge which has too long desolated Africa, degraded Europe, and afflicted humanity;”

That they are ready to concur in all that can assure and accelerate the complete and definite abolition of this commerce;

That, finally, to give effect to this renewed declaration, their respective cabinets will give themselves over heartily to the examination of every measure, compatible with the rights and interests of their subjects, to bring about a result establishing in the eyes of the world the sincerity of their wishes and efforts in favor of a cause worthy of their common solicitude.