Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/436

 in relation to the old settled states, an object which he thought well worthy of consideration."

Gerry "never contemplated this subject without reflecting what his own feelings would be were himself, his children, or his friends placed in the same deplorable circumstances. He thought the subject-matter of the memorial clearly within the powers of congress They had the power to lay at once a duty of ten dollars per head on imported slaves. They had the right, if they saw proper, to propose to the southern states to purchase the whole of their slaves, and their resources in the western territory might furnish them with the means. He did not intend to propose any scheme of that kind, but only referred to it, to show that congress had a right to deal with the matter."

The question being taken by yeas and nays, the reference was carried, forty-three to eleven. Of these eleven, six were from Georgia and South Carolina, being all the members present from those two states, two were from Virginia, two from Maryland, and one from New York. North Carolina was not yet represented.

The special committee to whom the memorial was referred, consisting of one member from each of the following states, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, after a month's delay, brought in a report consisting of seven resolutions: 1st. That the general government was expressly restrained, until the year 1808, from prohibiting the importation of any persons whom any of the existing states might till that time think proper to admit. 2d. That, by a fair construction of the constitution, congress was equally restrained from interfering to emancipate slaves within the states, such slaves having been born there, or having been imported within the period mentioned. 3d. That congress had no power to interfere in the internal regulation of particular states relative to the instruction of slaves in the principles of morality and religion, to their comfortable clothing, accommodation, and subsistence, to the regulation of marriages or the violation of marital rights, to the separation of children and parents, to a comfortable provision in cases of age or infirmity, or to the seizure, transportation, and sale of free negroes; but entertained the fullest confidence in the wisdom and humanity of the state legislatures that, from time to time, they would revise their laws, and promote these and all other measures tending to the happiness of the slaves. The fourth asserted that congress had authority to levy a tax of ten dollars, should they see fit to exact it, upon every person imported under the special permission of any of the states. The fifth declared the authority of congress to interdict or to regulate the African slave-trade, so far as it might be carried on by citizens of the United States for the supply of foreign countries, and also to provide for the humane treatment of slaves while on their passage to any ports of the United States into which they might be admitted. The sixth asserted the right of congress to prohibit foreigners from fitting out vessels in the United States to be employed in the supply of foreign countries with slaves from Africa. The seventh expressed an