ch
also I had the honor to be a member--met, and took under their
consideration the subjects committed to them. I found the _Eastern_
States, notwithstanding their _aversion to slavery_, were very willing
to indulge the Southern States at least with a temporary liberty to
prosecute the slave trade, provided the Southern States would, in their
turn, gratify _them_, by laying no restriction on navigation acts; and
after a very little time, the committee, by a great majority, agreed on
a report, by which the general government was to be prohibited from
preventing the importation of slaves for a limited time, and the
restrictive clause relative to navigation acts was to be omitted."[13]

That the "bargain" was soon made is proven by the fact that the
committee reported the very next day, Friday, August 24, and that on
Saturday the report was taken up. It was as follows: "Strike out so much
of the fourth section as was referred to the committee, and insert 'The
migration or importation of such persons as the several states, now
existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the
legislature prior to the year 1800; but a tax or duty may be imposed on
such migration or importation, at a rate not exceeding the average of
the duties laid on imports.' The fifth section to remain as in the
report. The sixth section to be stricken out."[14]

35. ~The Appeal to the Convention.~ The ensuing debate,[15] which lasted
only a part of the day, was evidently a sort of appeal to the House on
the decisions of the committee. It throws light on the points of
disagreement. General Pinckney first proposed to extend the
slave-trading limit to 1808, and Gorham of Massachusetts seconded the
motion. This brought a spirited protest from Madison: "Twenty years will
produce all the mischief that can be apprehended from the liberty to
import slaves. So long a term will be more dishonorable to the American
character than to say nothing about it in the Constitution."[16] There
was, however, evidently another "bargain" here; for, without farther
debate, the South and the East voted the extension, 7 to 4, only New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia objecting. The ambiguous
phraseology of the whole slave-trade section as reported did not pass
without comment; Gouverneur Morris would have it read: "The importation
of slaves into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, shall not be
prohibited," etc.[17] This emendation was,