The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1860-02-09

in man." Gr;uverneur Morris, whose hand was
to give the finishing form to the work Of the
Convention, denounced slavery as nefarious
institution" Luther Martin believed that God
was Lord Of all, viewing with equal eye the poor
African slAye and his american MASTER" and
he would aauthorize the General Government
to make such regulations as should be most ad-
yautapeous for the gradual abolition of slavery
and the emancipation of the slaves which were
already in the Statesr Elbridge Gerry would
leave slavery to be dealt with by the States, but
he would give no sanction to it" Oliver Ellis
worth believed slavery would soon be only q
speck in the country" George Mason declared
that slavery prodnced the most pernicious Ell
fects on manners - that " every master of slaves
is born petty tyrant - that sit brought the
curse of Heaven on country" Roger Sherman
(. would not tax slaves, because it would imply
that they were property" Rufus King would by
organic law enact that slavery shall be forever
prohibited in the western Territories. Alex
apder Hamilton, James Wilson, Robert Morris,
and other Statesmen, whose names are inperish-
ably associated with the constitutional history
of the Republic, have left in the records OF the
country their sentiments of hostility to slavery.
The trainers Of the Constitution, like the mem
bers of the 6rst Congress, who branded the
slave trade; the. members of the Congress of
I77e, who declared that "all men are created
eauai; and the members of the Congress of 1857,
who stamped the words slavery shall be and is
forever prohibited on every foot of the territory
northwest Of the Ohio, were hostile to the trafhc
in men, to the extension of slavery, and to Its
perpetuity in America a5 - n5eeG
But there came into that Convention the rep
res initiatives of small but powerful class, which
chung, in South Carolina and Georgia, with re-
lsntess tenacity to the British slaye-trading and
and slave-perpetuating policy.
1os fn ocla in
and Georgia" the signers of. the Declaration OF
Independence had erased from the original draft
of jefferson the arraignment of the British mon
arch for "waging cruel war against human ma
ture itself' violating its most sacred rights OF
life and liberty in the persons of distant peo-
pie, who never offended him, captivating and
carrying them into slavery in another hemis-
phere." This class had broken the second article
of the association of union, which prohibited the
and the traffic in slaves and in that
time of trial and of anxiety, when the men who
had met undismayed the power OF England on
the perilous ridges of battle trembled for the fu-
ture of their country the representatives OF this
class of the extreme South came
into that council of patriotic statesmen, ready to
peril the unity of the Republic, unless they could
" ring from the Convention the power to continue
the inhuman, loathsome and polluted traffic in
the muscles and bones of men-a traffic which
Jefferson branded as an " execrabie commerce,
and Madison pronounced Internal" To silence
the claanorous demands of the Rutledges and
Pinckneys, the Buffers and Baldwins-the rep
resentatives of this class-the Convention made
compromise, by which they permitted tile slave
trade to continue for twenty years longer, I'M
checked by national legislation ffths of the
slaves to be represented in the House, and a pro-
vision to be incorporated into the Constitution for
the rendition of persons owing service or labor in
one State, escaping into another. These conces-
sions were wrung from the Convention, not by
the power of the slaveholdiug class, but by It's
rather; by the fatal confidence of the
statesmen OF that day, that slavery would soon
pass away under the influences of the ideas they
had proclaimed and the institutions they had
founded. The slave representation and the
clause con eernng fugitives from labor were
then regarded as questions Of little practical i'm
portance, while the authority wholly to extin-
guish the slave traffic after 1903, and the inhi-
bition of slavery by the ordinance of 1877 in the
Northwest were deemed fatal TO the expansion
and development of slavery and its malgn in
huences. 5H A3 n39d
The organization of the Federal Government,
under the Constitution, demonstrated the impo-
tcucy of the slave perpetuists and the anti
slavery sentiment of the people. Washingto
was unanimously borne into the Presidency and
to see some plan adopted by which slavery in
this country may be abolished by law" Adams
was made Vice President, and lie held that,
" consenting to slavery is sacrilegious breach
of trust" Jefferson was made Secretary of State,
and he had declared that the abolition of do
mestic slavery was the greatest object of de-
sire; that " the whole commerce between mas
ter and slave is perpetual exercise of the most
bolsterous passlons-the most unremitting des-
potism on the one part and degrading submis-
sion on the other" that the statesman should
be loaded with execration who, permitting one
half the citizens to trample on the rights of the
other, transforms those into despots, and these
into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part,
AM -Le amor patJag of the other;" that he
4" trembled for his country when he reflected
that God was just that his justice cannot sleep
forever" that the Almighty has no attribute
which can take side with us in such contest"
Hamilton was placed at the head of the Treas
ury, and he was member of an ant-slayery So
ciety in New York, where he united in a petit
tion for the emancipation of those who, free by
the laws of God are held in slavery by the laws
of the State" Jay was made Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, and he believed slavery to
be an "iniquity y" a sin Of crimson dye,n and
that "our prayers to Heaven would be impious
until we abolished it." And from the presiden-
cy of an abolition society, this pure and stainless
character was summoned by Washington to pre-
side over that highest judicial tribunal. Gou-
verneur Morris believed that Z" slavery brought
the curse OF Heaven upon a country," and Wash
ington sent him to represent his Government at
the Court OF France. Madison Gerry, Langdou,
King, Ellsworth, Sherman, Robert Morris, and
other renowned statesmen, whose anti-slavery
sentiments were recorded in the history of the
country, held seats in the Senate and House of
Representatives. Those patriotic statesmen, into
whose keeping the American people intrusted
the new-formed Government, were committed.
fully committed, against the slave traffic, the
extension of slavery, and for the ultimate eman-
cpation OF slavery in all America.
The foremost men of that day, not in the ma
tional councils, were equally committed against
the slave system. They saw what Washington
saw and expressed, the direful effects of slavery"
Patrick Henry declared that /" it would rejoice
his gerry soul, that every of his fellow-beings
was emancipated" that he " believed the time
would come to abolish this lamentable evil +"
that he would transmit to their descendants.
together with their slaves, pity for their I'M
happy lot, and an adherence of slavery James
lrejell, soon to be summoned by Washington to
the bench of the Supreme Court, in the Conyen-
ton OF North Carolina, avowed that I" when the
entire abolition of slavery takes place. it will be
an event which must be pleasing to every gen.
erous mind and every friend of human nature. -
The great Maryland lawyer, Luther Martin, de-
clared slavery is inconsistent with the genius
OF republicanism, and has a tendency to DESTROY
those principles on which it is supported, as it
lessons the sense ofne equal rights Of mankind, and
hadit"ote' us TO tyranny and oppression" William
finkney also declared, that " nothing is more
clear than that the effect of slavery is to DESTROY
that REVERENCE FOR LIBERTY, which is THE VITAL
PRINCIPLE OF REPUBLIC" that "the dreary
system of partial bondage is Ubiquitous and
most dishonorable to Mary land;" that "by the
eternal principles Of natura! justice no master has
right 10 hold has slape an bondage SINGLE hour
And this great jurist uttered these prophetic
words. which we see fnlflIad In this -. q N