Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/39

Rh and winked at the "infernal traffic." When the question was put, there were in favour of the importation of slaves, Georgia, the two Carolinas, and Maryland, with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Opposed to it were Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia! Subsequently Mr Ames, in the Massachusetts Convention for the adoption of the Constitution, said the Northern states "have great advantages by it in respect of navigation;" in the Virginia Convention Patrick Henry said, "Tobacco will always make our peace with them," for at that time cotton was imported from India, not having become a staple of the South. When the article which binds the free States to deliver up the fugitive slaves came to be voted on, it was a new feature in American legislation; not hinted at in the "articles of confederation;" hostile to the well-known principles of the common law of England—which always favours liberty—and the usages and principles of modern civilized nations. Yet new as it was and hostile, it seems not a word was said against it in the Convention. It "was agreed to, nem. con." Yet "The Northern delegates," says Mr Madison, "owing to their particular scruples on the subject of slavery, did not choose the word slave to be mentioned." In the Conventions of the several States it seems no remonstrance was made to this article. Luther Martin returning home, said to the House of Delegates in Maryland, "At this time we do not generally hold this commerce in so great abhorrence as we have done; when our liberties were at stake, we warmly felt for the common rights of men; the danger being thought to be past, we are daily growing more insensible to their rights."

When the several States came to adopt the Constitution, some hesitancy was shown at tolerating the slave-trade or even slavery itself. In the Massachusetts Convention, Mr Neal would not " favour the making merchandise of the bodies of men." General Thompson exclaimed, "Shall it be said, that after we have established our own independence and freedom we make slaves of others?" Washington has immortalized himself, "but he holds those in slavery who have, as good a right to be free as he has." All parties deprecated the slave-trade in most pointed