British seamen on neutral shipping, 1807
Notes:
Between England and the United States of America, a spirit of animosity, caused chiefly by the impressment of British seamen, or of seamen asserted to be such, from on board of American merchant vessels, had long unhappily subsisted. It is, we believe an acknowledged maxim of public law, as well that no nation, but the one he belongs to, can release a subject from his natural allegiance, as that, provided the jurisdiction of another independent state be not infringed, every nation has a right to enforce the services of her subjects, wherever they may be found. Nor has any neutral nation such a jurisdiction over her merchant vessels upon the high seas, as to exclude a belligerent nation from the right of searching them for contraband of war, or for the property or persons of her enemies. And, if in the exercise of that right the belligerent should discover on board of the neutral vessel a subject who has withdrawn himself from his lawful allegiance, the neutral can have no fair ground for refusing to deliver him up ; more especially, if that subject is proved to be a deserter from the sea or land service of the former.

When, by the maritime ascendancy of England, France could no longer trade for herself, America proffered her services, as a neutral, to trade for her ; and American merchants and their agents, in the gains that flowed in, soon found a compensation for all the perjury and fraud necessary to cheat the former out of her belligerent rights. The high commercial importance of the United States, thus acquired, coupled with a similarity in language, and to a superficial observer, a resemblance in person, between the natives of America and of Great Britain, has occasioned the former to be the principal, if not the only, sufferers by the exercise of the right of search. Chiefly indebted for their growth and prosperity to emigration from Europe, the United States hold out every allurement to foreigners ; particularly to British seamen, whom, by a process peculiar to themselves, they can naturalize, as quickly as a dollar can exchange masters, and a blank form, ready signed and sworn to, be filled up. It is the knowledge of this fact that makes British naval officers, when searching for deserters from their service, so harsh in their scrutiny, and so sceptical of American oaths and asseverations.

The crew of a vessel, armed or unarmed, sailing under the flag of the United States, usually consists of one or more of the following classes:

1. Native American citizens;

2. American citizens, wherever born, who were such at the definitive treaty of peace in 1783;

3. Foreigners in general, who may or may not have become citizens of America subsequently to the treaty in question;

4. Deserters from the British army or navy, whether natives of Britain or of any other country.

To the first class Great Britain cannot have the shadow of a right ; and, from such of the second as were British born, she barred herself by the treaty acknowledging the independence of the revolted colonies. Of the third class, the only portion which England can have any pretension to seize, are the subjects of the power or powers with whom she may be at war, and her own native subjects. With respect to the former, the very act of entering on board a neutral implies that the foreigner has thrown off his belligerent character : he is a non-combatant of the most unequivocal description, and, as such, entitled to exemption from seizure. A passenger, especially if a military man, may be an exception.

With respect to her own subjects serving on board neutral vessels, Great Britain claims a right to take them, because she considers that they owe to her an allegiance previous and paramount to that exacted of them by the neutral. There can hardly be a doubt, as it appears to us, that a belligerent may take her native seafaring subjects from a neutral merchant vessel. We shall not, however, stop to discuss a subject that branches into so many ramifications, but proceed to the fourth class, deserters from the British army or navy. If such deserter owes a natural allegiance to the nation on board of whose vessel he is serving, he is in his proper place, and no other nation has a right to molest him. If he owes no natural allegiance to either, the right of present possession may be allowed to step in, and decide the clam on behalf of the neutral. If, on the contrary, the nation that claims him as a deserter, can claim him also as a native subject, surely that nation, a belligerent too, has a right to withdraw him from the service of the neutral. Having submitted these few remarks, we shall proceed to relate one or two occurrences, to which they will be found closely to apply.