removed. At the final adjournment, the Journal, in accordance with a previous vote, was intrusted to the custody of Washington, by whom it was afterward deposited in the department of state. It was first printed by order of congress in 1818. Yates, one of the members from New York, took short notes of the earlier debates, which were publishad after his death in 1821. The more perfect notes of Madison, recently published, with the official Journal, the notes of Yates, and a representation to the legislature of Maryland, made by Luther Martin, furnish materials for a view, tolerably complete, of the conflicting opinions by which the convention was divided, and of the process which gradually matured and brought into shape the federal consititution. The following are the provisions of the constitution which are presumed to relate to the subject of slavery:

Preamble. "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.

"Art. 1. Sec. 1. All legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a congress of the United States, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives.

"Sec. 2. *** Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to servitude for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.

"Sec. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the congress prior to the year 1808; but a tax or duty may be imposed, not exceeding ten dollars on each person.

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in the cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. "No bill of attainder, or ex post facto laws, shall be passed.

"Art. III. Sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

"Art. IV. Sec. 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges of citizens, in the several states.

"No person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

Sec. 3. New states may be admitted by the congress into this Union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts

of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well as of the congress.

The congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.

66 'Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive when the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence.

"Art. VI. This constitution, and the laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all the treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."

The above are all the clauses of the constitution that have been quoted, on one side or the other, as bearing upon the subject of slavery.

It will be noted that the word "slave," or "slavery," does not appear therein. Mr. Madison, who was a leading and observant member of the convention, and who took notes of its daily proceedings, affirms that this silence was designed the convention being unwilling that the constitution of the United States should recognize property in human beings. In passages where slaves are presumed to be contemplated, they are uniformly designated as "persons," never as property. Contemporary history proves that it was the belief of at least a large portion of the delegates that slavery could not long survive the final stoppage of the slave-trade, which was expected to (and did) occur in 1808.

The following among the amendments to the constitution proposed by the ratifying convention of one or more states, and adopted, are supposed by some to bear on the questions now agitated relative to slavery:

"Art. I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the rights of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

"Art. II. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. "Art. V. No person shall be *** deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

CHAPTER XXIV.

POLITICAL HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1789 TO 1800. First session of First Congress, 1789.-Tariff bill-duty imposed on imported slaves.The Debate-views of Roger Sherman, Fisher Ames, Madison, &c.-Review of the state of slavery in the States in 1790.-Second session.-Petitions from the Quakers of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York.-Petition of Pennsylvania Society, signed by Franklin.-Exciting debate-power of Congress over slavery.-Census of 1790.Slave population.-Vermont the first State to abolish and prohibit slavery.-Constitution of Kentucky-provisions in respect to slavery.-Session of 1791.-Memorials for suppression of slave-trade, from Virginia, Maryland, New York, &c.-The Right of Petition discussed.-First fugitive slave law, 1793.-First law to suppress African Slave Trade, 1794.-The Quakers again, 1797-their emancipated slaves reduced again to slavery, under expost facto law of North Carolina.-Mississippi territory-slavery clause debated.-Foreign slaves prohibited.-Constitution of Georgia-importation of slaves prohibited, 1798-provisions against cruelty to slaves.-New York provides for gradual extinguishment of slavery, 1799.-Failure of similar attempt in Kentucky.— Colored citizens of Pennsylvania petition Congress against Fugitive Slave law and slave-trade—their petition referred to a committee; bill reported and passed, 1800.

THE first session of the new Congress was held in the city of New York in

1789. A quorum was obtained for business on the 6th of April. A tariff bill having been reported, and being under discussion in the house on the question of its second reading, Parker, of Virginia, moved to insert a clause imposing a duty of ten dollars on every slave imported. "He was sorry the constitution prevented Congress from prohibiting the importation altogether. It was contrary to revolution principles, and ought not to be permitted." The only state which seemed to have a direct pecuniary interest in this question was Georgia. In all the other states at present represented on the floor, the importation of slaves, whether from Africa or elsewhere, was prohibited. Even South Carolina, just before the meeting of the federal convention, had passed an act, as she had been accustomed to do occasionally in colonial times, when the prices of produce were too low to be remunerative, prohibiting, for one year, the importation of slaves-a prohibition since renewed for three years. But, notwithstanding this temporary prohibition, the same jealousy as to her right of importation, so strongly manifested in the federal convention, was now exhibited on the floor of the house. Smith, the representative from the Charleston district," hoped that such an important and serious proposition would not be hastily adopted. It was rather a late moment for the first introduction of a subject so big with serious consequences. No one topic had been yet introduced so important to South Carolina and the welfare of the Union." Sherman, of Connecticut, threw out some suggestions similar to those he had offered in the federal convention. He "approved the object of the motion, but did not think it a fit subject to be embraced in this bill. He could not reconcile himself to the insertion of human beings, as a subject of impost, among goods, wares, and merchandise. He hoped the motion would be withdrawn for the present, and taken up afterwards as an independent subject."

Jackson, of Georgia, "was not surprised, however others might be so, at the

quarter whence this motion came. Virginia, an old settled state, had her complement of slaves, and the natural increase being sufficient for her purpose, she was careless of recruiting her numbers by importation. But gentlemen ought to let their neighbors get supplied before they imposed such a burden. He knew this business was viewed in an odious light at the eastward, because the people there were capable of doing their own work, and had no occasion for slaves. But gentlemen ought to have some feeling for others. Surely they do not mean to tax us for every comfort and enjoyment of life, and, at the same time, to take from us the means of procuring them! He was sure, from the unsuitableness of the motion to the businsss now before the house, and the want of time to consider it, the gentleman's candor would induce him to withdraw it. Should it ever be brought forward again, he hoped it would comprehend the white slaves as well as the black, imported from all the jails of Europe; wretches convicted of the most flagrant crimes, who were brought in and sold without any duty whatever. They ought to be taxed equally with Africans, and he had no doubt of the equal constitutionality and propriety of such a course."

In reply to the suggestions of Sherman, Jackson, and others, Parker declared "that, having introduced the motion on mature reflection, he did not like to withdraw it. The gentleman from Connecticut had said that human beings ought not to be enumerated with goods, wares, and merchandise. Yet he believed they were looked upon by African traders in that light. He hoped congress would do all in their power to restore to human nature its inherent privileges; to wipe off, if possible, the stigma under which America labored; to do away the inconsistency in our principles justly charged upon us; and to show, by our actions, the pure beneficence of the doctrine held out to the world in our Declaration of Independence."

Sherman still "thought the principles of the bill and the principles of the motion inconsistent. The principle of the bill was to raise revenue; it was the principle of the motion to correct a moral evil. Considering the proposed duty as having revenue for its object, it would be unjust, because two or three states would bear the burden. He should therefore vote against the present motion, though he had no objection to taking up the subject by itself on the principles of humanity and policy." Ames, of Massachusetts, "detested slavery from his soul; but he had some doubts whether imposing a duty on their importation would not have an appearance of countenancing the practice." "It is the fashion of the day," said Jackson, "to favor the liberty of slaves. He believed them better off as they were, and better off than they had been in Africa. Experience had shown that liberated slaves would not work for a living. Thrown upon the world without property or connections, they can not live but by pilfering. Will Virginia set her negroes free? When the practice comes to be tried there, the sound of liberty will lose those charms which make it grateful to the ravished ear."

Madison supported Parker's motion in an elaborate speech, in which he replied to all the various objections urged against it. "The confounding men

with merchandise might be easily avoided by altering the title of the bill; it was, in fact, the very object of the motion to prevent men, so far as the power of congress extended, from being confounded with merchandise. The clause in the constitution allowing a tax to be imposed, though the traffic could not be prohibited for twenty years, was inserted, he believed, for the very purpose of enabling congress to give some testimony of the sense of America with respect to the African trade. By expressing a national disapprobation of that trade, it is to be hoped we may destroy it, and so save ourselves from reproaches, and our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled with slaves. This was as much the interest of South Carolina and Georgia as of any other states. Every addition they received to their number of slaves tended to weakness, and rendered them less capable of self-defense. In case of hostilities with foreign nations, their slave population would be a means, not of repelling invasions, but of inviting attack. It was the duty of the general government to protect every part of the Union against danger, as well internal as external. Every thing, therefore, which tended to increase this danger, though it might be a local affair, yet, if it involved national expense or safety, became of concern to every part of the Union, and a proper subject for the consideration of those charged with the general administration of the government." Bland was equally decided with Madison and Parker in support of the motion. Burke, of South Carolina, suggested that gentlemen were contending about nothing; for if not particularly mentioned, slaves would still fall under the general five per cent. ad valorem duty on all unenumerated articles, a duty just about equivalent to the one proposed. Madison replied that no collector of the customs would presume to apply the terms goods, wares, and merchandise to persons; and in this he was supported by Sherman, who denied that persons were recognized any where in the constitution as property. He thought that the clause in the constitution on which the present motion was founded applied as much to other persons as to slaves, and that there were other persons to whom it ought to be applied, as convicts, for instance; but the whole subject ought to be taken up by itself. Finally, upon Madison's suggestion, Parker consented to withdraw his motion, with the understanding that a separate bill should be brought in. A committee was appointed for that purpose; but there the matter was suffered to rest.

At the next session, 1790, the House became involved in an exciting discussion in reference to slavery and the slave-trade. Slavery still existed in every state of the Union except in Massachusetts. A clause in the constitution of that state, declaring all men to be born free and equal, inserted for the express purpose of tacitly abolishing slavery, had been judicially decided (1783) to have that effect. A few months previously to the final adoption of the constitution of Massachusetts, the state of Pennsylvania had passed an act (1780) introducing a system of gradual emancipation, prohibiting the further importation of slaves, (and by a subsequent act their exportation,) and assuring freedom to all persons thereafter born in that state, or brought into it, except runaways from other states and the servants of travelers and others not re