Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/569

No. 189] are in proportion to the numbers of inhabitants. A gentleman of three or four hundred negroes don't raise more corn than feeds them. A laborer can t be hired for less than twenty-four pounds a year in Massachusetts Bay. The net profit of a negro is not more than five or six pounds per annum. I wish to see the day that slaves are not necessary. Whites and negroes cannot work together. Negroes are goods and chattels, are property. A negro works under the impulse of fear, has no care of his master's interest.

Article 17. Dr. Franklin moves that votes should be in proportion to numbers. Mr. Middleton moves that the vote should be according to what they pay.

Sherman thinks we ought not to vote according to numbers. We are representatives of States, not individuals. States of Holland. The consent of every one is necessary. Three Colonies would govern the whole, but would not have a majority of strength to carry those votes into execution. The vote should be taken two ways ; call the Colonies, and call the individuals, and have a majority of both.

Dr. Rush. Abbé Raynal has attributed the ruin of the United Provinces to three causes. The principal one is, that the consent of every State is necessary ; the other, that the members are obliged to consult their constituents upon all occasions. We lose an equal representation ; we represent the people. It will tend to keep up colonial distinctions. We are now a new nation. Our trade, language, customs, manners, don't differ more than they do in Great Britain. The more a man aims at serving America, the more he serves his Colony. It will promote factions in Congress and in the States ; it will prevent the growth of freedom in America ; we shall be loth to admit new Colonies into the confederation. If we vote by numbers, liberty will be always safe. Massachusetts is contiguous to two small Colonies, Rhode Island and New Hampshire ; Pennsylvania is near New Jersey and Delaware ; Virginia is between Maryland and North Carolina. We have been too free with the word independence ; we are dependent on each other, not totally independent States. Montesquieu pronounces the confederation of Lycia, the best that ever was made ; the cities had different weights in the scale. China is not larger than one of our Colonies ; how populous ! It is said that the small Colonies deposit their all ; this is deceiving us with a word. I would not have it understood that I am pleading the cause of Pennsylvania ; when I entered that door, I considered myself a citizen of America.