gainst the _liberties_ of one people with crimes which he
urges them to commit against the _lives_ of another."[31]

To this radical and not strictly truthful statement, even the large
influence of the Virginia leaders could not gain the assent of the
delegates in Congress. The afflatus of 1774 was rapidly subsiding, and
changing economic conditions had already led many to look forward to a
day when the slave-trade could successfully be reopened. More important
than this, the nation as a whole was even less inclined now than in 1774
to denounce the slave-trade uncompromisingly. Jefferson himself says
that this clause "was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and
Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves,
and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern
brethren also, I believe," said he, "felt a little tender under those
censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet
they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others."[32]

As the war slowly dragged itself to a close, it became increasingly
evident that a firm moral stand against slavery and the slave-trade was
not a probability. The reaction which naturally follows a period of
prolonged and exhausting strife for high political principles now set
in. The economic forces of the country, which had suffered most, sought
to recover and rearrange themselves; and all the selfish motives that
impelled a bankrupt nation to seek to gain its daily bread did not long
hesitate to demand a reopening of the profitable African slave-trade.
This demand was especially urgent from the fact that the slaves, by
pillage, flight, and actual fighting, had become so reduced in numbers
during the war that an urgent demand for more laborers was felt in the
South.

Nevertheless, the revival of the trade was naturally a matter of some
difficulty, as the West India circuit had been cut off, leaving no
resort except to contraband traffic and the direct African trade. The
English slave-trade after the peace "returned to its former state," and
was by 1784 sending 20,000 slaves annually to the West Indies.[33] Just
how large the trade to the continent was at this time there are few
means of ascertaining; it is certain that there was a general reopening
of the trade in the Carolinas and Georgia, and that the New England
traders participated in it. This traffic undoubtedly reached
considerable proportions; and thro