men in the gallery," who were the
Quaker deputation appointed to look after the petition.[28] It was laid
upon the table that day; and at the opening of the session on the
following morning, another petition on the same subject, from the
Pennsylvania society for the abolition of slavery, was presented. It was
signed by Benjamin Franklin (president of the society), then in the last
weeks of his life. The petition was read, and then the Quaker memorial
was called up. The excitement in the house was very great. The movement
was denominated an improper interference with state rights, or at least
an act of imprudence; and Judge Burke, of South Carolina, declared that
if these memorials were entertained by commitment, the act would "sound
an alarm and blow the trumpet of sedition through the southern states."

The question was mainly a constitutional one, but the debates took
great latitude. It was finally agreed to commit the memorials, by a vote
of forty-three to eleven. They were referred to a committee consisting
of one member from each of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

A month afterward, that committee reported seven resolutions: first,
that the general government was expressly restrained from prohibiting
the carrying on of the slave-trade until the year 1808; second, that by
a fair construction of the constitution, Congress was equally restrained
from interfering with slavery, in the matter of emancipation, in the
several states; third, that Congress had no power to interfere in the
internal regulations of slavery in the several states; fourth, that
Congress had the right, by virtue of the revenue laws, to levy a tax of
ten dollars upon every person imported as property under the special
permission of any of the states; fifth, that Congress had power to
regulate or to interdict the African slave-trade, carried on by citizens
of the United States for the supply of foreign countries; sixth, that
Congress had the right to prohibit foreigners from fitting out vessels
in the United States, to be employed in the supply of foreign countries
with slaves from Africa; seventh, that Congress would exercise their
authority to its full extent, to promote the humane objects set forth in
the memorial of the Quakers.

This report called forth zealous and sometimes angry debates for a whole
week, when it was finally agreed, at the suggestion of Fisher Ames,
s