ed before the
Legislature of Maryland,) one of the delegates from Maryland to the
Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States.

With respect to that part of the _second_ section of the _first_
Article, which relates to the apportionment of representation and
direct taxation, there were considerable objections made to it,
besides the great objection of inequality--It was urged, that no
principle could justify taking _slaves_ into computation in
apportioning the number of _representatives_ a State should have in
the government--That it involved the absurdity of increasing the power
of a State in making laws for _free men_ in proportion as that State
violated the rights of freedom--That it might be proper to take slaves
into consideration, when _taxes_ were to be apportioned, because it
had a tendency to _discourage slavery_; but to take them into account
in giving representation tended to _encourage_ the _slave trade_, and
to make it the interest of the States to continue that _infamous
traffic_--That slaves could not be taken into account as _men_, or
_citizens_, because they were not admitted to the _rights of
citizens_, in the States which adopted or continued slavery--If they
were to be taken into account as _property_, it was asked, what
peculiar circumstance should render this property (of all others the
most odious in its nature) entitled to the high privilege of
conferring consequence and power in the government to its possessors,
rather than _any other_ property: and why _slaves_ should, as
property, be taken into account rather than horses, cattle, mules, or
any other species; and it was observed by an honorable member from
Massachusetts, that he considered it as dishonorable and humiliating
to enter into compact with the _slaves_ of the _Southern States_, as
it would with the _horses_ and _mules_ of the _Eastern_.

By the ninth section of this Article, the importation of such persons
as any of the States now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall
not be prohibited prior to the year 1808, but a duty may be imposed on
such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person.

The design of this clause is to prevent the general government from
prohibiting the importation of slaves; but the same reasons which
caused them to strike out the word "national," and not admit the word
"stamps," influenced them here to guard against the word "_slaves_."
They anxiously sought to avoid the admiss