ition so wicked and abominable? We are, of course, not informed
what passed in the committee, but we can well imagine, from the language
used by the chairman and others in the Convention. Said Mr. Rutledge,
"If the Convention thinks North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
will ever agree to this plan [the Federal Constitution] unless their
right to import slaves be untouched, the expectation is VAIN. The people
of those States will never be such fools as to give up so important an
interest." In other words, "Gentlemen of the North, no Union without the
African slave-trade." Said Mr. Charles Pinckney, "South Carolina can
never receive the plan [of the Constitution] if it prohibits the
slave-trade. In every proposed extension of the powers of Congress, that
State has expressly and watchfully excepted that of meddling with the
importation of negroes." (_Madison Papers_, p. 1389.) Mr. Charles C.
Pinckney "thought himself bound to declare candidly, that he did not
think South Carolina would stop her importations of slaves in any short
time." Thus you see, Sir, that the "deliberate declarations" to which
you allude were made in reference to the continuance of the African
slave-trade, and not, as you suppose, to the catching of fugitive
slaves. Two New England gentlemen of the committee yielded to these
declarations, and sacrificed conscience and humanity for the sake of the
Union, and the consideration that what enriched a part enriched the
whole. Happily, in this case, Southern bluster was met by Southern
bluster, and it is owing to Virginia, and not to the virtue and
independence of New England, that the Constitution was rescued from the
infamy of granting a solemn and perpetual guarantee to an accursed
commerce.

In Virginia, the slaves, as Mr. Ellsworth remarked, multiplied so fast,
that it was _cheaper_ to raise than import them. She was then, as now, a
breeding State for the Southern markets. Hence, her delegates were as
ready to bluster for protection, as the South Carolina delegates were
for a free trade in men and women. Of course, the _motives_ assigned
were patriotic, not selfish. Mr. Randolph "could never agree to the
clause as it stands. He would sooner RISK THE CONSTITUTION." (_Madison
Papers_, p. 1396.) Mr. Madison would not consent to the continuance of
the traffic till 1808. "Twenty years will produce all the mischief that
can be apprehended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term
will be more d