the protection of the rights of
mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who
views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice. He
would add, that domestic slavery is the most prominent
feature in the aristocratic countenance of the proposed
Constitution. The vassalage of the poor has ever been the
favorite offspring of aristocracy. And what is the proposed
compensation to the Northern States for a sacrifice of every
principle of right, of every impulse of humanity? They are
to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of
the Southern States, for their defence against those very
slaves of whom they complain. They must supply vessels and
seamen in case of foreign attack. The Legislature will have
indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties on
imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the
Southern inhabitants; for the bohea tea used by a Northern
freeman will pay more tax than the whole consumption of the
miserable slave, which consists of nothing more than his
physical subsistence and the rag that covers his nakedness.
On the other side, the Southern States are not to be
restrained from importing fresh supplies of wretched
Africans, at once to increase the danger of attack and the
difficulty of defence: nay, they are to be encouraged to it
by an assurance of having their votes in the National
Government increased in proportion: and are, it the same
time, to have their exports and their slaves exempt from all
contributions for the public service. Let it not be said
that direct taxation is to be proportioned to
representation. It is idle to suppose that the General
Government can stretch its hand directly into the pockets of
the people scattered over so vast a country. They can only
do it through the medium of exports, imports, and excises.
For what, then, are all the sacrifices to be made? He would
sooner submit himself to a tax for paying for all the
negroes in the United States than saddle posterity with such
a Constitution."[629]

Mr. Rufus King of Massachusetts in the same debate said,--

"The admission of slaves was a most grating circumstance to
his mind, and he believed would be so to a great part of the
people of America. He had not made a strenuous opposition to
i