principles of liberty, and for its preservation, — in that government to have a provision, not only putting it out of its power to restrain and prevent the slave trade, even encouraging that most infamous traffic, by giving the States power and union, in proportion as they cruelly and wantonly sport with the rights of their fellow creatures, ought to be considered as a solemn mockery of, and insult to, that God whose protection we then implored, and could not fail to hold us up detestation, and render us contemptible to every true lend of liberty in the world That, on the contrary, e ought rather to prohibit, expressly, in our Constitution, the further importation of slaves; and to authorize the general government, from time to time, to make such regulations as should be thought advantageous, for the gradual abolition of slavery and the emancipation of the slaves which are already in the States.
That slavery is inconsistent with the genius of republicanism, and has a tendency to destroy those principles on which it is supported, as it lessens the sense of the equal rights of mankind, and habituates us to tyranny and oppression. It was further urged, that by this system of government, every State is to be protected both from foreign invasions and from domestic insurrections; that from this consideration, it was of the utmost importance it should have a power to restrain the importation of slaves, since in proportion as the number of slaves was increased in any State, in the same proportion the State is weakened, and exposed to foreign invasion or domestic insurrection, and by so much ess will it be able to protect itself against either, and therefore will, by so much the more, want aid from, and be a burden to, the Union."But I need not multiply testimonies on this point, very student of American history knows what has
