ecisive declaration, without agitation,
and with as little discussion as possible, and there would have dropped
the subject. It only needed, he evidently thought, that everybody, North
and South, should understand the Constitution to be a mutual agreement
to let slavery altogether alone, when the bargain would be on both sides
faithfully adhered to.

This was all very well with the numerous persons who were quite
indifferent to the subject, or who thought it very unreasonable in the
blacks not to be quite willing to remain slaves a few hundred years
longer. But there were two other classes to reckon with, and Mr. Madison
was not much inclined to be patient with either of them. To let the
subject alone was precisely what the hot-headed members from the South
were incapable of doing then, as they proved to be incapable of doing
for the next seventy years. On the other hand, all the petitioners could
really hope for was that there should be discussion. The galleries were
crowded at those earliest debates, as they continued to be crowded on
all such occasions in subsequent years. Many went to learn what could be
said on behalf of slavery, who came away convinced that the least said
the better. Agitation might disturb the harmony of the Union, which was
Madison's dread; it might lead to the death of an abolitionist, as it
sometimes did in later times; but it was sure in the end to be the death
of slavery, though its short-sighted defenders could never understand
why. They could never be made to see that its most dangerous foes were
the friends of its own household, who could not hold their tongues; that
for their case all wisdom was epitomized in the vulgar caution "to lie
low and keep dark;" that the exposure of the true character of slavery
must needs be its destruction, and that nothing so exposed it as any
attempt to defend it. Slavery was quite safe under the Constitution, as
Mr. Madison intimated, if its friends would only leave it there and
claim no other protection.

Advocates are never wanting in any court who believe that the most
effective line of defense is to abuse the plaintiff. The Quakers, it was
said, "notwithstanding their outward pretenses," had no "more virtue or
religion than other people, nor perhaps so much." They had not made
the Constitution, nor risked their lives and fortunes by fighting for
their country. Why should they "set themselves up in such a particular
manner against slavery"? Did they no