Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Slavery volume 5 .djvu/42

30 accommodation," though "containing clauses confessedly "founded on unjust principles." The North had been false to its avowed convictions, and in return "higher tonnage duties were imposed on foreign than on American bottoms." and goods imported in American vessels "paid ten per cent, less duty than the same goods brought in those owned by foreigners." The "navigation laws" and the "tobacco" wrought after their kind; South Carolina and Georgia had their way. The North, said Gouverneur Morris, in the national Convention, for the "sacrifice of every principle of right, of every impulse of humanity," had this compensation, "to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of the Southern States, for their defence against those very slaves of whom they complain. They must supply vessels and seamen in case of foreign attack. The legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties on imports."

Still, with many there lingered a vague belief that slavery would soon perish. In the first Congress Mr Jackson, of Georgia, admitted that "it was an evil habit." Mr Gerry and Mr Madison both thought that Congress had "the right to regulate this business," and, "if they see proper, to make a proposal to purchase all the slaves." But the most obvious time for ending the institution had passed by; the feeling of hostility to it grew weaker and weaker as the nation became united, powerful, and rich; its "mortal wound" was fast getting healed.

next consider the general condition and treatment of the slaves themselves. The slave is not theoretically considered as a person; he is only a thing, as much so as an axe or a spade; accordingly he is wholly subject to his master, and has no rights—which are an attribute of persons only, not of things. All that he en-