64
THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
innocence, and open my mouth for my oppressed brethren, who can not open theirs for themselves. . . . The almost daily accounts I have of the inhumanity perpetrated in these States, on this race of men, distresses me night and day, and brings the subject of the slave trade with more pressure on my spirit; and I believe I feel a measure of the same obligation that the prophet did when he was ordered to 'cry aloud, spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins' And here I think I can show that our nation is revolting from the law of God, the law of reason and humanity, and the just principles of government, and with rapid strides establishing tyranny and oppression."
When the subject of continuing or abolishing the slave trade was before the Convention called to frame the Constitution of these United States, some of the members expressed very boldly and fully their views upon the whole slavery question. I will give a few extracts, as reported by Mr. Yates, (pp. 64-67:)
"It was said that we had just assumed a place among independent nations, in consequence of our opposition to the attempts of Great Britain to enslave us, that this opposition was grounded upon the preservation of those rights to which God and nature had entitled us, not in particular, but in common with all the rest of mankind. That we had appealed to the Supreme Being for his assistance as a God of freedom; who could not but approve our efforts to preserve the rights which he had thus imparted to his creatures; that now, when we scarcely had risen from our knees, from supplicating his aid and protection — in forming our government over a free people, a government formed pretendedly on the
