ation of an illicit practice," was a
misconstruction which he did not think deserving of an answer.

It was, in fact, a bargain which he had not approved of, and did not now
probably care to talk about. It was made at the suggestion of Gouverneur
Morris, who moved that the foreign slave trade, a navigation act, and a
duty on exports be referred for consideration to a committee. "These
things," he said, "may form a bargain among the Northern and Southern
States." When the committee reported in favor of the slave trade, C. C.
Pinckney proposed that its limitation should be extended from 1800 to
1808. Gorham of Massachusetts seconded the motion, and it was carried by
the addition of the votes of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and
Connecticut to those of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia.

The committee also reported the substitution of a majority vote for that
of two thirds in legislation relating to commerce. The concession was
made without much difficulty, a Georgia delegate and three of the four
South Carolina delegates favoring it, two of the latter frankly saying
they did so to gratify New England. It was, C. C. Pinckney said, "the
true interest of the Southern States to have no regulation of commerce;"
but he assented to this proposition, and his constituents "would be
reconciled to this liberality," because, among other considerations, of
"the liberal conduct [of the New England States] towards the views of
South Carolina." There was no question of the meaning of this sudden
avowal of friendly feeling. Jefferson relates in his "Ana," on the
authority of George Mason, a member of the convention, that Georgia and
South Carolina had "struck up a bargain with the three New England
States, that if they would admit slaves for twenty years, the two
southernmost States would join in changing the clause which required two
thirds of the legislature in any vote."

The settlement of these questions was an opportune moment for the
introduction of that relating to fugitive slaves. Butler of South
Carolina immediately proposed a section which should secure their return
to their masters, and it was passed without a word. As Pinckney said in
the passage already quoted, when he went back to report to his
constituents, "it is a right to recover our slaves, in whatever part of
America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not before."

It is notable how complete and final a settlement of the slavery
quest