isting shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by
the congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight,
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding
ten dollars for each person."--(Art. 1, Sec. 9.)

The slave argument, drawn from this clause, is, that the word
"importation" applies only to property, and that it therefore implies,
in this clause, that the persons to be imported are necessarily to be
imported as property--that is, as slaves.

But the idea that the word "importation" applies only to property, is
erroneous. It applies correctly both to persons and things. The
definition of the verb "import" is simply "to bring from a foreign
country, or jurisdiction, or from another state, into one's own country,
jurisdiction or state."--When we speak of "importing" things, it is true
that we mentally associate with them the idea of property. But that is
simply because _things_ are property, and not because the word "import"
has any control, in that particular, over the character of the things
imported. When we speak of importing "persons," we do not associate with
them the idea of property, simply because "persons" are not property.

We speak daily of the "importation of foreigners into the country;" but
no one infers therefrom that they are brought in as slaves, but as
passengers. A vessel imports, or brings in, five hundred passengers.
Every vessel, or master of a vessel, that "brings in" passengers,
"imports" them. But such passengers are not therefore slaves. A man
imports his wife and children--but they are not therefore his slaves,
or capable of being owned or sold as his property. A man imports a gang
of laborers, to clear lands, cut canals, or construct railroads; but not
therefore to be held as slaves. An innocent meaning must be given to the
word, if it will bear one. Such is the legal rule.

Even the popular understanding of the word "import," when applied to
"persons," does not convey the idea of property. It is only when it is
applied distinctly to "slaves," that any such idea is conveyed; and then
it is the word "slaves," and not the word "import," that suggests the
idea of property. Even slave traders and slave holders attach no such
meaning to the word "import," when it is connected with the word
"persons;" but only when it is connected with the word "slaves."

In the case of Ogden _vs._ Saunders, (12 Wheaton, 332,) Chief Justice
Marshall said,