CH. XXXII.]
POWERS OF CONGRESS—SLAVE-TRADE.
203
dred and eight. The latter amendment was substituted by the vote of seven states against four; and as thus amended, the clause was adopted by the like vote of the same states.[1]
§ 1328. It is to the honour of America, that she should have set the first example of interdicting and abolishing the slave-trade, in modern times. It is well known, that it constituted a grievance, of which some of the colonies complained before the revolution, that the introduction of slaves was encouraged by the crown, and that prohibitory laws were negatived.[2] It was doubtless to have been wished, that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had been allowed to be put into immediate operation, and had not been postponed for twenty years. But it is not difficult to account, either for this restriction, or for the manner, in which it is expressed.[3] It ought to be considered, as a great point gained in favour of humanity, that a period of twenty years might for ever terminate, within the United States, a traffic, which has so long, and so loudly upbraided the barbarism of modern policy. Even within this period, it might receive a very considerable discouragement, by curtailing the traffic between for-- ↑ Journ. of Convention, p. 222, 275, 276, 285, 291, 292, 358, 378; 2 Pitk. Hist. ch. 20, p. 261, 262.—It is well known, as an historical fact, that South-Carolina and Georgia insisted upon this limitation, as a condition of the Union. See 2 Elliot's Deb. 335, 336; 3 Elliot's Deb. 97.
- ↑ See 2 Elliot's Debates, 335; 1 Secret Journal of Congress, 378, 379.
- ↑ See 3 Elliot's Debates, 98, 250, 251; 3 Elliot's Debates, 335 to 338.—In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence by Mr. Jefferson, there is a very strong paragraph on this subject, in which the slave-trade is denounced, "as a piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, and the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market, where men should be bought and sold;" and it is added, that "he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit, or restrain this execrable commerce." 1 Jefferson's Corresp. 146, in the fac simile of the original.
