CHAPTER XXXI.

SLAVERY AS A POLITICAL AND LEGAL PROBLEM.

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1775-1800.

BRITISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA DECLARE THEIR INDEPENDENCE. A NEW GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED.- SLAVERY THE BANE OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.. -THE TORY PARTY ACCEPT THE DOCTRINE OF PROPERTY IN MAN. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LOCKE CONSTITUTION IN THE SOUTH. THE WHIG PARTY THE DOMINANT POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE NORTHERN STATES.SLAVERY RECOGNIZED UNDER THE NEW GOVERNMENT. -ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION IN THE STATES. ATTEMPTED LEGISLATION AGAINST SLAVERY. - ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. — THEIR ADOPTION IN 1778. DISCUSSION CONCERNING THE DISPOSAL of the Western Territory. MR. JEFFERSON'S RECOMMENDATION. AMENDMENT BY MR. SPAIGHT. - CONGRESS IN NEW YORK IN 1787. DISCUSSION RESPECTING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE Western TerrITORY.-CONVENTION AT PHiladelphia to FRAME THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. - PROCEEdings of the CON. VENTION. THE SOUTHERN STATES STILL ADVOCATE SLAVERY.-SPEECHES ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION BY LEADING STATESMEN. CONSTITUTION ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION IN 1787.FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS UNDER THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION HELD IN NEW YORK IN 1789. -THE INTRODUCTION OF A TARIFF-BILL. -AN ATTEMPT TO AMEND IT BY INSERTING A CLAUSE LEVYING A TAX ON SLAVES BROUGHT BY WATER. EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS. - A CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC OPINION Of the Middle AND EASTERN STATES ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S ADDRESS TO The Public for PROMOTING THE ABOLI TION OF SLAVERY.-MEMORIAL TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS. -CONGRESS IN 1790.BITTER DISCUSSION ON THE RESTRICTION OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. SLAVE POPULATION.VERMONT AND KENTUCKY ADMITTED INTO THE UNION. A LAW PROVIDING FOR THE RETURN OF FUGITIVES FROM "LABOR AND SERVICE."-CONVENTION OF FRIENDS HELD IN PHILADELPHIA. AN ACT AGAINST THE FOREIGN SLAVE-TRADE. MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY.-CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA REVISED.- NEW YORK PASSES A BILL FOR THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY. CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY REVISED. - SLAVERY AS AN INSTITUTION FIRMLY ESTABLISHED.

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HE charge that the mother-country forced slavery upon the British colonies in North America held good until the colonics threw off the yoke, declared their independence, and built a new government, on the 4th of July, 1776. After the promulgation of the gospel of human liberty, the United States of America could no longer point to England as the "first man Adam" of the accursed sin of slavery. Henceforth the American government, under the new dispensation of peace and the equality of all men, was responsible for the continuance of slavery, both as a political and legal problem.

Slavery did not escheat to the English government upon the expiration of its authority in North America. It became the

dreadful inheritance of the new government, and the eyesore of American civilization. Instead of expelling it from the political institutions of the country, it gradually became a factor of great power. Instead of ruling it out of the courts, it was clothed with the ample garments of judicial respectability.

The first article of the immortal Declaration of Independence was a mighty shield of beautifully wrought truths, that the authors intended should protect every human being on the American. Continent.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident :— that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

It was to be expected, that, after such a declaration of principles, the United States would have abolished slavery and the slave-trade forever. While the magic words of the Declaration of Independence were not the empty "palaver" of a few ambitious leaders, yet the practices of the local and the national government belied the grand sentiments of that instrument. From the earliest moment of the birth of the United-States government, slavery began to receive political support and encouragement. Though it was the cruel and depraved offspring of the British government, it nevertheless was adopted by the free government of America. Political policy seemed to dictate the methods of a political recognition of the institution. And the fact that the slave-trade was prohibited by Congress at an early day, and by many of the colonies also, did not affect the institution in a local

sense.

The Tory party accepted the doctrine of property in man, without hesitation or reservation. Their political fealty to the Crown, their party exclusiveness, and their earnest desire to co-operate with the Royal African Company in the establishment of the slave institution in America, made them, as per necessity, the political guardians of slavery. The institution once planted, property in man having been acquired, it was found to be a difficult task to uproot it. Moreover, the loss of the colonies to the

British Crown did not imply death to the Tory party. It doubtless suffered organically; but its individual members did not forfeit their political convictions, nor suffer their interest in the slave-trade to abate. The new States were ambitious to acquire political power. The white population of the South was small when compared with that of the North; but the slave population, added to the former, swelled it to alarming proportions.

The local governments of the South had been organized upon the fundamental principles of the Locke Constitution. The government was lodged with the few, and their rights were built upon landed estates and political titles and favors. Slaves in the Carolinas and Virginias answered to the vassals and villeins of England. This aristocratic element in Tory politics was in harmony, even in a republic, with the later wish of the South to build a great political "government upon Slavery as its chief corner-stone." Added to this was the desire to abrogate the law of indenture of white servants, and thus to the odium of slavery to loan the powerful influence of caste, ranging the Caucasian against the Ethiopian, the intelligent against the ignorant, the strong against the weak.

New England had better ideas of popular government for and of the people, but her practical position on slavery was no better than any State in the South. The Whig party was the dominant political organization throughout the Northern States; but the universality of slavery made dealers in human flesh members of all parties.

The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence deprecated slavery, as they were pronounced Whigs; but nevertheless many of them owned slaves. They wished the evil exterminated, but confessed themselves ignorant of a plan by which to carry their desire into effect. The good desires of many of the people, born out of the early days of the struggle for independent existence, perished in their very infancy; and, as has been shown, all the States, and the Congress of the United States, recognized slavery as existing under the new political government.

But public sentiment changes in a country where the intellect is unfettered. First, on the eve of the Revolutionary War, Congress and nearly all the States pronounced against slavery; a few years later they all recognized the sacredness of slave property; and still later all sections of the United States seemed to have been agitated by anti-slavery sentiments. In 1780 the Legislature

of Pennsylvania prohibited the further introduction of slaves, and gave freedom to the children of all slaves born in the State. Delaware resolved "that no person hereafter imported from Africa ought to be held in slavery under any pretense whatever.” In 1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island modified their slave-code, and forbade further importations of slaves. In 1778 Virginia passed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves, and in 1782 repealed the law that confined the power of emancipating to the Legislature, only on account of meritorious conduct. Private emancipations became very numerous, and the sentiment in its favor pronounced. But the restriction was re-enacted in about ten years. The eloquence of Patrick Henry and the logic of Thomas Jefferson went far to enlighten public sentiment; but the political influence of the institution grew so rapidly that in 1785, but two years after the war, Washington wrote LaFayette, "petitions for the abolition of slavery, presented to the Virginia Legislature, could scarcely obtain a hearing." Maryland, New York, and New Jersey prohibited the slave-trade; but the institution held its place among the people until 1830. North Carolina attempted to prohibit in 1777, but failed; but in 1786 declared the slave-trade "of evil consequences and highly impolitic." South Carolina and Georgia refused to act, and the slave-trade continued along their shores.

After the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1778, the Continental Congress found itself charged with the responsibility of deciding the conflicting claims of the various States to the vast territory stretching westward from the Ohio River. The war over, the payment of the public debt thus incurred demanded the consideration of the people and of their representatives. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia laid claim to boundless tracts of lands outside of their State boundaries. But New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and South Carolina, making no such claims, and lacking the resources to pay their share of the war debt, suggested that the other States should cede all the territory outside of their State lines, to the United States Government, to be used towards liquidating the entire debt. The proposition was accepted by the States named; but not, however, without some modification. Virginia reserved a large territory beyond the Ohio with which to pay the bounties of her soldiers, while Connecticut retained a portion of the Reserve since so famous in the history

of Ohio. The duty of framing an ordinance for the government of the Western territory was referred to a select committee by Congress, consisting of Mr. Jefferson of Virginia (chairman), Mr. Chase of Maryland, and Mr. Howell of Rhode Island. The plan reported by the committee contemplated the whole region included within our boundaries west of the old thirteen States, and as far south as our thirty-first degree north latitude. The plan proposed the ultimate division of this territory into seventeen States; eight of which were to be located below the parallel of the Falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), and nine above it. But the most interesting rule reported by Mr. Jefferson was the following, on the 19th of April, 1784:

"That after the year 1800, of the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been convicted to be personally guilty."

Mr. Spaight of North Carolina moved to amend the report by striking out the above clause, which was seconded by Mr. Reed of South Carolina. The question, upon a demand for the yeas and nays, was put: "Shall the words moved to be stricken out stand?" The question was lost, and the words were stricken The ordinance was further amended, and finally adopted on the 23d of April.

out.

The last Continental Congress was held in the city of New York in 1787. The question of the government of the Western territory came up. A committee was appointed on this subject, with Nathan Dane of Massachusetts as chairman. On the 11th of July the committee reported "An Ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, Northwest of the Ohio." It embodied many of the features of Mr. Jefferson's bill, concluding with six unalterable articles of perpetual compact, the last being the following: "There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the parties shall be duly convicted." When upon its passage, a stipulation was added for the delivery of fugitives from "labor or service;" and in this shape. the entire ordinance passed on the 13th of July, 1787.

Thus it is clear that under the Confederation slavery existed,

St. Clair Papers, vol. i. p. 120.