s and Negroes, their children and their children's
children, and entitles Massachusetts to precedence over any
and all the other colonies in similar legislation. It
anticipates by many years any thing of the sort to be found
in the statutes of Virginia, or Maryland, or South Carolina,
and nothing like it is to be found in the contemporary codes
of her sister colonies in New England."[280]

The subject had been carefully weighed; and, lacking authority for
legalizing a crime against man, the Mosaic code was cited, and in
accordance with its _humane_ provisions, slaves were to be treated.
But it was _authority_ for slavery that the cunning lawyer who drew
the statute was seeking, and not precedents to determine the kind of
treatment to be bestowed upon the slave. Under it "human slavery
existed for nearly a century and a half without serious
challenge;"[281] and here, as well as in Virginia, it received the
sanction of the Church and courts. It grew with its growth, and
strengthened with its strength; until, as an organic institution, it
had many defenders and few apologists.[282]

"This article gives express sanction to the slave-trade, and
the practice of holding Negroes and Indians in perpetual
bondage, anticipating by many years any thing of the sort
to be found in the statutes of Virginia or Maryland."[283]

And it is rather strange, in the light of this plain statute
establishing and legalizing the purchase of slaves, that Mr.
Washburn's statement, unsustained, should receive the public
indorsement of so learned a body as the Massachusetts Historical
Society!

"But, after all [says Mr. Washburn], the laws on this
subject, as well as the practice of the government, were
inconsistent and anomalous, indicating clearly, that whether
Colony or Province, so far as it felt free to follow its own
inclinations, uncontrolled by the action of the mother
country, Massachusetts was hostile to slavery as an
institution!"[284]

No doubt Massachusetts was "inconsistent" in seeking liberty for her
white citizens while forging legal chains for the Negro. And how far
the colony "felt free to follow its own inclinations" Chief-Justice
Parsons declares from the bench. Says that eminent jurist,--

"Slavery was introduced into this country [Massachusetts]
soon after its first settlement, and was tolerated until the
ratification of