ce which asserted the inalienable right of every man to
liberty and equality."[165] That the contradiction existed, that it
was felt by men like Jefferson, and that it was destined to become
more prominent in the mind of the nation as the implications and
applications of the great ideas of freedom and equality were enriched
and enlarged in the expanding life of a virile democracy, can not be
denied. But it may be remarked in the defense of our Revolutionary
fathers that they were facing the practical problem of effecting
national unity and that "it is a tendency of the Anglo-Saxon race to
take the expedient in politics when the absolute right can not be
had."[166] They compromised on slavery and on the whole wisely.
Moreover, the history of the development of great moral and political
concepts indicates that men often formulate principles the logical
implications of which are not grasped until new problems and the
demand for new social adjustments emerge. The great moral categories
of courage, temperance and justice first received scientific
formulation at the hands of the Greeks; the ever swelling stream of
human civilization has vastly enriched and enlarged these conceptions
but without altering their essential meaning. When the idea of liberty
which in 1776 included only one class, namely, those who owned the
property and administered the government of the nation, was expanded
so as to include every member of the social order, at that moment
slavery was doomed.

JOHN M. MECKLIN,

_Professor in the University of Pittsburgh_

FOOTNOTES:

[122] "Democracy in America," Vol. I, pp. 30, 361 ff, 369, 370,
Colonial Press edition.

[123] Turner, "The Negro in Pennsylvania," pp. 1 and 19.

[124] Bracket, "The Negro in Maryland," p. 26.

[125] Steiner, "History of Slavery in Connecticut," p. 12.

[126] Cooley, "A Study of Slavery in New Jersey," p. 12.

[127] Moore, "Notes on the History of Slavery in Mass.," p. 5.

[128] Ballagh, "A History of Slavery in Virginia," p. 8.

[129] _Ibid._, p. 30.

[130] Ballagh, _op. cit._, p. 28.

[131] _Ibid._, p. 11.

[132] McCrady, "Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 1670-1770,"
pp. 631 ff of the Report of the American Historical Association for
1895.

[133] Sir H.H. Johnston, "The Negro in the New World," pp. 217, 218.

[134] Turner, _op. cit._, p. 40; see also DuBois, "The Suppression of
the African Slave Trade," Chs. III a