The Collected Library, Including Americana and Early Photography

Pensacola Bay, U. States Frigate Constellation, May 7, 1838. One bifolium sheet, 12 1/2 x 8 in. (317 x 203 mm). Autograph letter signed by Commander Alexander J. Dallas II of the USS Constellation to Commander Hiram Paulding of the USS Levant. In part: ...You will proceed... and cruise on the Northern Coast of Cuba, touching occasionally at Havana Matamoros and Key West. The object of your cruise will be the protection of our commerce... and the suppression of the Slave Trade. In the performance of this duty you will take for your guidance the established Law of nations and the Acts of Congress..." Docket on verso. Creasing from old folds, scattered light foxing.

Interesting letter signed by Alexander J. Dallas II (1791-1844) of the Constellation, to Hiram Paulding (1797-1878) of the Levant, both in the West Indies Squadron, ordering him to cruise the Gulf of Mexico, and police any ships participating in the slave trade.

The U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1789, barred the government from instituting federal bans on the importation of enslaved persons for 20 years. In 1794, Congress passed the Slave Trade Act, which outlawed the construction of ships in U.S. ports for use in the international slave trade. In 1807, with the 20-year ban almost up, another law took the matter further, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves outlawed the admission of any enslaved persons to American ports, even on foreign vessels. Advocates of these laws hoped by restricting the addition of new enslaved persons into the country, the institution of slavery as a whole would eventually diminish. In practice however the laws were sporadically enforced, and often met with pressure from officials in Southern slave holding states.

Dallas's order to Paulding in this letter shows some commanders in the U.S. Navy were dedicated to enforcing the laws. Tens of thousands of slaves were still imported into the United States after 1808, mostly entering via trade from Cuba to Texas, and significant enforcement of laws did not start until the Union blockage of the South during the Civil War.

Hiram Paulding (1797-1878) was a career U.S. Naval Officer who served with distinction from the War of 1812 through the American Civil War, eventually attaining the rank of Rear Admiral.