he was not present at the time when the
slavery issue came up for final settlement.

A separate vote was taken on Article IX, the slavery section, which
passed 26 to 19. It was finally provided that

The legislature shall have no power to pass laws for the
emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners, or
without paying their owners, previous to such emancipation, a
full equivalent in money, for the slaves emancipated; they shall
have no power to prevent immigrants to this state, from bringing
with them such persons as are deemed slaves by the laws of any
one of the United States, so long as any person of the same age
or description shall be continued in slavery by the laws of this
state: that they shall pass laws to permit the owners of slaves
to emancipate them, saving the rights of creditors, and
preventing them from becoming a charge to the county in which
they reside; they shall have full power to prevent slaves from
being brought into this state as merchandise; they shall have
full power to prevent any slave being brought into this state
from a foreign country, and to prevent those from being brought
into this state, who have been since the first of January, 1789,
or may hereafter be imported into any of the United States from a
foreign country. And they shall have full power to pass such laws
as may be necessary to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them
with humanity, to provide for them necessary clothes and
provisions, to abstain from all injuries to them extending to
life or limb, and in case of their neglect or refusal to comply
with the directions of such laws, to have such slave or slaves
sold for the benefit of their owner or owners.[285]

In any discussion of the slavery question in Kentucky in its
historical aspects this article of the first constitution is
fundamental. It is evident that even at that early day the difficulty
of the slavery problem was already in the minds of the people in spite
of many other apparently more pressing issues. The article itself
remained practically intact throughout the existence of slavery in the
State. Were there ever in later years gathered within the confines of
the State any body of men who had a better grasp of the future? The
single instance of the recommendation that the legislature should pass
laws permitting the emancipation