* For those who would be persuaded that there was such a slave
interest, perhaps the best presentation is to be found in
Professor Dodd's Life of Jefferson Davis.
These two issues Yancey, however, failed to unite, though the
commercial convention of 1859 at last gave its support to a
resolution that all laws, state or federal, prohibiting the
African slave trade ought to be repealed. That great body of
Northern capital which had dealings with the South was ready, as
it always had been, to finance any scheme that Southern business
desired. Slavers were fitted out in New York, and the city
authorities did not prevent their sailing. Against this somber
background stands forth that much admired action of Lewis Cass of
Michigan, Buchanan's Secretary of State. Already the slave trade
was in process of revival, and the British Navy, impelled by the
powerful anti-slavery sentiment in England, was active in its
suppression. American ships suspected of being slavers were
visited and searched. Cass seized his opportunity, and declaring
that such things "could not be submitted to by an independent
nation without dishonor," sent out American warships to prevent
this interference. Thereupon the British government consented to
give up trying to police the ocean against slavers.
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