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PATRICK HENRY, GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.
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impressions of right and wrong. What adds to the wonder is, that this abominable practice has been introduced in the most enlightened ages. Times that seem to have pretensions to boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined morality, have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of violence and tyranny, which our more rude and barbarous, but more honest ancestors detested. Is it not amazing, that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, — that in such an age, and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle, and generous, yet adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in speculation. How few in practice, from conscientious motives!"
Indeed, to express our views of slavery and the slave trade, we could not employ more intense and truthful words than were uttered by the men who participated in the struggle for American liberty, who were members of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, and the leaders of public opinion in the early history of our nation.
We might quote the language of Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, who, early in the convention, said, "He never would concur in upholding domestic slavery. It was a nefarious institution. It was the curse of Heaven!"
The general opinion existing at that time is expressed by John Jay, James Monroe, James Mad-
