Constitution, if it prohibits the slave-trade; " she" would not stop her importation of slaves in any short time." Said Mr Kutledge, of South Carolina, " the people of the Carolinas and Georgia will never be such fools as to give up so important an interest." "Religion and humanity have nothing to do with this question. Interest alone is the governing principle with nations." In apportioning taxes, he thought three slaves ought to be counted as but one free man; while in apportioning representatives, his colleagues—Messrs Butler and Pinckney—declared, "the blacks ought to stand on an equality with the whites." Mr Pinckney would "make blacks equal to whites in the ratio of representation; "he went further,—he would have "some security against an emancipation of slaves;" and, says Mr Madison, "seemed to wish some provision should be included [in the Constitution] in favour of property in slaves." "South Carolina and Georgia," said Mr Pinckney, "cannot do without slaves." "The importation of slaves would be for the interest of the whole Union; the more slaves, the more produce to employ the carrying trade, the more consumption also."
On the other hand, Mr Bedford of Delaware thought "South Carolina was puffed up with her wealth and her negroes." Mr Madison, cool and far-sighted, always referring to first principles, was unwilling to allow the importation of slaves till 1808:—"So long a term will be more dishonourable to the American character than to say nothing about it in the Constitution."
Mr Williamson of North Carolina, in 1783, thought "slaves an encumbrance to society," and was "both in opinion and practice against slavery." Col. Mann, of Virginia, in the Convention, called the slave-trade an "infernal traffic," and said that "slavery discourages arts and manufactures; the poor despise labour when performed by slaves." "They produce the most pernicious effect on manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country." Mr Dickinson, of Delaware, thought it "inadmissible on every principle of honour and safety that the importation of slaves should be authorized." Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, "never would concur in upholding domestic slavery." It was a "nefarious institution;" "the curse of Heaven
