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1778.--DISCUSSION CONCERNING THE DISPOSAL OF THE WESTERN
TERRITORY.--MR. JEFFERSON'S RECOMMENDATION--AMENDMENT OF MR.
SPAIGHT.--CONGRESS IN NEW YORK IN 1787.--DISCUSSION
RESPECTING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WESTERN
TERRITORY.--CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA TO FRAME THE FEDERAL
CONSTITUTION.--PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION.--THE SOUTHERN
STATES STILL ADVOCATE SLAVERY.--SPEECHES ON THE SLAVERY
QUESTION BY LEADING STATESMEN.--CONSTITUTION ADOPTED BY THE
CONVENTION IN 1787.--FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS UNDER THE
FEDERAL CONSTITUTION HELD IN NEW YORK IN 1789.--THE
INTRODUCTION OF A TARIFF BILL.--AN ATTEMPT TO AMEND IT BY
INSERTING A CLAUSE LEVYING A TAX ON SLAVES BROUGHT BY
WATER.--EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS.--A CHANGE IN
THE PUBLIC OPINION OF THE MIDDLE AND EASTERN STATES ON THE
SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.--DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S ADDRESS TO THE
PUBLIC FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.--MEMORIAL TO
THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS.--CONGRESS IN 1790.--BITTER
DISCUSSION ON THE RESTRICTION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.--SLAVE
POPULATION.--VERMONT AND KENTUCKY ADMITTED INTO THE
UNION.--A LAW PROVIDING FOR THE RETURN OF FUGITIVES FROM
'LABOR AND SERVICE.--CONVENTION OF FRIENDS HELD IN
PHILADELPHIA.--AN ACT AGAINST THE FOREIGN SLAVE
TRADE.--MISSOURI TERRITORY.--CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA
REVISED.--NEW YORK PASSES A BILL FOR THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION
OF SLAVERY.--CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY REVISED.--SLAVERY AS
AN INSTITUTION FIRMLY ESTABLISHED.

The charge that the mother-country forced slavery upon the British
colonies in North America held good until the colonies threw off the
yoke, declared their independence, and built a new government, on the
4th of July, 1776. After the promulgation of the gospel of human
liberty, the United States of America could no longer point to England
as the "first man Adam" of the accursed sin of slavery. Henceforth the
American government, under the new dispensation of peace and the
equality of all men, was responsible for the continuance of slavery,
both as a political and legal problem

Slavery did not escheat to the English government upon the expiration
of its authority in North America. It became the dreadful inheritance
of the new government, and the eyesore of American civilization.
Instead of expelling it from the political institutions of the
country, it gradually became a fac