ent and by his
large faith in mankind, looked confidently for the early end of slavery;
as fast as men ripened into honesty and sense, he thought, they would
recognize the folly and wrong of it.

Looking from the leaders to the mass of the community, in this early
period, we see these broad facts. Slavery was regarded by all as an
evil, and by most as a wrong. Even its champions in the convention
claimed no more for it than that it was a necessary evil; one of the
Pinckneys expressed the hope of its extinction at an early day, and the
other Pinckney dissented only in thinking this too sanguine. Further,
there was a distinct wave of anti-slavery sentiment, sympathetic with
the lofty temper of the Revolution and the genesis of a free nation.
That wave was strong enough to wipe out slavery where its economic hold
was slight; it was plainly destined to sweep at least through all the
Northern and Middle States, and hope was high that it might go farther.
But this moral enthusiasm broke helpless against the institution
wherever a strong property interest was involved with it. Manumission in
the South went no further than a few individuals. Virginia and Maryland,
needing no more slaves, ceased importing them; but South Carolina and
Georgia bargained successfully for a twenty years' supply.
Massachusetts, having almost inadvertently freed her few slaves, was
willing that the stream of misery should still flow on from Africa to
the South. In a word, so far as the negroes were concerned, the supposed
material interest of the whites remained the dominating factor
throughout the country.

CHAPTER III

CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE

For thirty years after the Constitution was established, slavery falls
into the background of the national history. Other and absorbing
interests were to the front. First, the strife of Federalist and
Democrat: Should the central government be strengthened, or should the
common people be more fully trusted? Twelve years of conservative
ascendency under Washington and Adams; then a complete and lasting
triumph for the popular party led by Jefferson. Mixed with and
succeeding this came an exasperating and perplexing struggle for
commercial rights, invaded equally by England and France in their
gigantic grapple; an ineffectual defense by Jefferson, who in executive
office proved an unskillful pilot; a half-hearted war under Madison, a
closet statesman out of place in the Presidential chair; a tempora