ALABAMA CLAIMS. 137 



the Arguments for the United States. Thus it is that 

 he foils into the mistake of asserting a false construc 

 tion of an Act of Congress, by having a mutilated 

 text before him, quoting a part of a sentence, which 

 may or may not justify his construction, and sup 

 pressing the context and the sequent words of the 

 same sentence, which clearly contradict his construc 

 tion. Acting on his own theoiy of blind prejudice, 

 we should be compelled to assume that on this occa 

 sion he perpetrates a deed of deliberate bad faith, 

 with intention to practice on the &quot; supposed credulity 

 and ignorance&quot; of the people of Great Britain. 



Why did the British Arbitrator put together such 

 a mass of angry, irrelevant, confused, and contradictA 

 ory declamation against the American Government, J 

 and denunciation of its Agent and Counsel \ To vin 

 dicate the honor of British statesmen, Sir Alexander 

 declares, in a speech at a banquet in London [Xovem- 

 ber 4th], against unjust charges coming from the 

 American Government. But that should have been 

 done by speech or otherwise, as Sir Alexander Cock- 

 burn professedly, and in England, and not under the 

 false pretense of an Arbitrator at Geneva. And vil 

 olent denunciation of our Case or Arguments constiJ 

 tutes no answer to our charges. And in such vituper 

 ation of the American Agent and Counsel, Sir Alexan 

 der not only throws off all pretense of judicial charac 

 ter, and assumes the tone of a mere advocate, but he 

 acts the part of an advocate in temper and manner 

 such as the proper Counsel of the British Govern 

 ment could not have descended to. Indeed, the 



