on of the Constitution, there
is nothing in the legislation of the State indicating any change of
opinion as to the relative rights and position of the white and black
races in this country, or indicating that it meant to place the
latter, when free, upon a level with its citizens. And certainly
nothing which would have led the slaveholding States to suppose, that
Connecticut designed to claim for them, under the new Constitution,
the equal rights and privileges and rank of citizens in every other
State.

The first step taken by Connecticut upon this subject was as early as
1774, when it passed an act forbidding the further importation of
slaves into the State. But the section containing the prohibition is
introduced by the following preamble:

"And whereas the increase of slaves in this state is injurious to the
poor, and inconvenient."

This recital would appear to have been carefully introduced, in order
to prevent any misunderstanding of the motive which induced the
Legislature to pass the law, and places it distinctly upon the
interest and convenience of the white population--excluding the
inference that it might have been intended in any degree for the
benefit of the other.

And in the act of 1784, by which the issue of slaves, born after the
time therein mentioned, were to be free at a certain age, the section
is again introduced by a preamble assigning similar motive for the
act. It is in these words:

"Whereas sound policy requires that the abolition of slavery should be
effected as soon as may be consistent with the rights of individuals,
and the public safety and welfare"--showing that the right of property
in the master was to be protected, and that the measure was one of
policy, and to prevent the injury and inconvenience, to the whites, of
a slave population in the State.

And still further pursuing its legislation, we find that in the same
statute passed in 1774, which prohibited the further importation of
slaves into the State, there is also a provision by which any negro,
Indian, or mulatto servant, who was found wandering out of the town or
place to which he belonged, without a written pass such as is therein
described, was made liable to be seized by any one, and taken before
the next authority to be examined and delivered up to his master--who
was required to pay the charge which had accrued thereby. And a
subsequent section of the same law provides, that if any free negro
shall travel witho