s of the Constitution, which
gave preponderance, in the number of States and in Federal
representation, to the ever-increasing free white men, against the
relatively diminishing numbers of the slaves and their owners. This
inequality of power was continually becoming greater, and evidently
could not be avoided or remedied under the Constitution, without a
complete reversal of the policy of its framers, and of the
contemporaneous construction which they placed on it.

Thus it is plain that by the legitimate and intended operation of the
Constitution, slavery had come to that stage of its existence, when it
must either prepare for its own gradual decline and ultimate
disappearance, or it must provide means for invigorating and prolonging
its life. There was only one way in which its power could be increased
and for some time yet firmly established, viz.: by the reopening of the
infamous and almost universally condemned African slave trade. This
would have accomplished a double purpose. It would have increased the
numbers of the South, and enabled them measurably to balance the
representation of the North, as well as to extend their dominion over
the Territories, and lay the foundations of new States; or, in case of
their success in destroying the Union, it would enable them to carry out
their cherished schemes of empire, as an independent power. But, what
was, perhaps, more important, it would tend to prolong, if not to
perpetuate slavery, by infusing new supplies of barbarism among the
African race, lowering their present grade of civilization, retarding
their improvement on the whole, and thus postponing the inevitable day
of their liberation.

There are strong indications, in the early proceedings of the
conspirators, that they seriously entertained the design of replenishing
their gangs of laborers from the shores of Africa. It was only after the
contest had assumed a serious aspect, and the immense difficulties of
their position began to dawn upon them, that they were compelled
ostensibly to abandon that design. They were compelled to conciliate the
border States, which were all opposed to the foreign slave trade.
Virginia, whose chief annual income was derived from the sale of her
slave population, rather than from the productions of their labor, was
an indispensable ally to the rebellion, and she would hardly assent to
the importation of Africans, in competition with her own supply.
Moreover, it began to be obvio