16 AVES ISLAND. 



Panola, with extra provisions and equipments for said voyage, which 

 very materially increased our loss by the voyage. 



We arrived at Wilmington^ North Carolina, on the 1st day of Feb- 

 ruary, A. D. 1855, having been absent on the voyage sixty-seven days, 

 and the objects of which totally defeated, having gone out and returned 

 in ballast, thereby entailing a severe damage to the charterers. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



JOHN H. McCLENNEN. 



Commonwealth op Massachusetts, 

 Suffolk County, 



Then personally appeared the above named John H. McClennen, 

 and made oath that the above statement signed by him is true. 

 Before me, 



GEORGE MORRILL, 

 Justice of the Peace. 

 March 2, 1855. 



3Ir. Shelton to Mr. Marcy. 



Boston, 3£ay 14, 1855. 

 Sir: Insomuch as we remain entirely unacquainted in respect to 

 any decisive action having been taken by the executive branch of the 

 federal government of the United States towards obtaining just and 

 speedy reparation from the State of Venezuela, for the wrongs and 

 injuries received by us from its authorities, we deem it not improper 

 to again solicit your early attention, and, through you, the notice of 

 his excellency. President Pierce, to the facts and principles of interna- 

 tional law and justice upon which our claim for full indemnity and for 

 effectual measures, if need be by force, to obtain that redress, is founded. 

 The honor and dignity and rights of our country are not, we know, in 

 our keeping. If it was our privilege, it is not our duty, to make any 

 suggestions on su^ topics to the Chief Magistrate of the United States^ 

 or to you, with whom is placed that high trust, except in so far as our 

 individual and personal rights as citizens are directly involved. And, 

 possessed of that confidence, the declarations of the President on 

 assuming the responsibilities of his exalted station were so well calcu- 

 lated to inspire, as well as the evidences since exhibited, in more than 

 one instance, of his firm resolution, and that of yourself, to "submit 

 to nothing that is wrong," we have no motive for thrusting our opinion 

 on that subject before you, either in the form of counsel or admonition. 

 We desire to confine ourselves to the taking care of " our own affairs," 

 and this is, in the Jirst place, what we would respectfully urge upon 

 our government it should constrain the Venezuelan government to do. 

 Our government will not, in acceding to this request, ' ' ask anything 

 that is not clearly right;" for such is the duty of nations as well as 

 individuals. And, in the second place, we desire that our government 



