onists from British rule was not inspired
originally by abstract enthusiasm for the rights of man. It was rather a
demand for the chartered rights of British subjects, according to the
liberal principles set forth by Locke and Chatham and Burke and Fox; a
demand pushed on by the self-asserting strength of communities become
too vigorous to endure control from a remote seat of empire, especially
when that control was exercised in a harsh and arbitrary spirit. The
revolutionary tide was swelled from various sources: by the mob eager to
worry a red-coated sentry or to join in a raid under Indian disguise; by
men who embodied the common sense and rough energy of the plain people,
like Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine; by men of practical statesmanship,
like Franklin and Washington, who saw that the time had come when the
colonists could best manage their own affairs; and by generous
enthusiasts for humanity, like Jefferson and Patrick Henry.

With the minds of thoughtful men thoroughly wakened on the subject of
human rights, it was impossible not to reflect on the wrongs of the
slaves, incomparably worse than those against which their masters had
taken up arms. As the political institutions of the young Federation
were remolded, so grave a matter as slavery could not be ignored.
Virginia in 1772 voted an address to the King remonstrating against the
continuance of the African slave trade. The address was ignored, and
Jefferson in the first draft of the Declaration alleged this as one of
the wrongs suffered at the hands of the British government, but his
colleagues suppressed the clause. In 1778 Virginia forbade the
importation of slaves into her ports. The next year Jefferson proposed
to the Legislature an elaborate plan for gradual emancipation, but it
failed of consideration. Maryland followed Virginia in forbidding the
importation of slaves from Africa. Virginia in 1782 passed a law by
which manumission of slaves, which before had required special
legislative permission, might be given at the will of the master. For
the next ten years manumission went on at the rate of 8000 a year.
Afterward the law was made more restrictive. Massachusetts adopted in
1780 a constitution and bill of rights, asserting, as the Declaration
had done, that all men are born free and have an equal and inalienable
right to defend their lives and liberties, to acquire property and to
seek and obtain freedom and happiness. A test case was made up to de