e Declaration of Independence, as the
corner-stone of America: "All men are created equal, with an
unalienable right to liberty." On the first organization of temporary
governments for the continental domain, Jefferson, but for the default
of New Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated every part of that
territory to freedom. In the formation of the national Constitution,
Virginia, opposed by a part of New England, vainly struggled to
abolish the slave trade at once and forever; and when the ordinance
of 1787 was introduced by Nathan Dane without the clause prohibiting
slavery, it was through the favorable disposition of Virginia and the
South that the clause of Jefferson was restored, and the whole
northwestern territory--all the territory that then belonged to the
nation--was reserved for the labor of freemen.

The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition of the slave-trade
would bring with it the gradual abolition of slavery; but the
expectation was doomed to disappointment. In supporting incipient
measures for emancipation, Jefferson encountered difficulties greater
than he could overcome, and, after vain wrestlings, the words that
broke from him, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is
just, that His justice cannot sleep forever," were words of despair.
It was the desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove
slavery by a public act; and as the prospects of a general
emancipation grew more and more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the
action of the State, did all that he could by bequeathing freedom to
his own slaves. Good and true men had, from the days of 1776,
suggested the colonizing of the negro in the home of his ancestors;
but the idea of colonization was thought to increase the difficulty of
emancipation, and, in spite of strong support, while it accomplished
much good for Africa, it proved impracticable as a remedy at home.
Madison, who in early life disliked slavery so much that he wished "to
depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves"; Madison, who
held that where slavery exists "the republican theory becomes
fallacious"; Madison, who in the last years of his life would not
consent to the annexation of Texas, lest his countrymen should fill it
with slaves; Madison, who said, "slavery is the greatest evil under
which the nation labors--a portentous evil--an evil, moral, political,
and economical--a sad blot on our free country"--went mournfully into
old age with th