nated the convention. The body not only ignored any
plan of emancipation but drew the reins of the existing institution
tighter than ever before by incorporating in the Bill of Rights the
famous phrase that "the right of property is before and higher than
any constitutional sanction, and the right of the owner of a slave to
such slave and its increase is the same and as inviolable as the right
of the owner of any property whatsoever." Such a statement was,
however, not brought on by the words of Clay, but was a direct
answer to the "higher law than the constitution" plea of the
abolitionists.[436] The convention amended the standard article on
slavery with a section to the effect that the "General Assembly should
pass laws providing that any free negro or mulatto immigrating to,
and any slave thereafter emancipated in, and refusing to leave that
State, should be deemed guilty of a felony, punished by confinement in
the penitentiary."

The obvious purpose of this amendment was to reduce the number of
Negroes in the State. Accordingly every slave emancipated was forced
to leave the State and the Negro population was decreased just so much
every time any slaves were set free. The convention was thus willing
to do something towards eliminating the Negro, but was not in favor of
any scheme of a general gradual liberation of the slaves. The
necessary legislative act for carrying out the provision of the
constitution was enacted March 24, 1851.[437] This law only went half
way in that it only prevented those Negroes who had been freed in
Kentucky from living in the State. It was not until March 3, 1860,
that the prohibition was extended to all free Negro immigration into
the State.[438] An interesting development of this policy was shown in
the enactment of the legislature in 1863 which declared it unlawful
for any Negro or mulatto claiming to be free under the Emancipation
Proclamation to migrate to or remain in the State. Any Negro violating
this law was to be treated as a runaway slave.[439]

The desire of the State authorities to eliminate the free Negro was
accompanied by constructive measures in behalf of the emancipated
slave. On March 3, 1856, the State legislature passed a law
appropriating $5,000 annually to aid the Kentucky Colonization Society
in the transportation of free Negroes to Liberia.[440] The universal
sentiment of the time was that the salvation of the Negro race rested
in their elimination from the Sta