Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/458

 of Indiana. Had the decision rested with them, both Indiana and Illinois would have come into the Union as slave states.

The annual convention of delegates from the state societies for promoting the abolition of slavery and improving the condition of the African race, then in session at Philadelphia, presented a memorial, early in the session of 1804-5, praying congress to prohibit the further importation of slaves into the newly acquired region of Louisiana. The memorial was referred to the committee on the government of Louisiana, and a provision was inserted into the act organizing the territory of Orleans, that no slaves should be carried thither, except from some part of the United States, by citizens removing into the territory as actual settlers. This provision not to extend to negroes introduced into the United States since 1798. The intention of the latter clause was to guard against the effect of a recent act of South Carolina reviving the African slave-trade, after a cessation of it as to that state for fifteen years. This act of South Carolina, if not guarded against, might open the way for introducing an indefinite number of slaves from Africa into the new territories of Mississippi and Orleans.

In order to express the sense of the nation upon this act of South Carolina, Bard, of Pennsylvania, introduced at this session a resolution to impose a tax of ten dollars on every slave imported. In opposing this resolution in committee of the whole, Lowndes, of S. C., apologized for the conduct of his state on the ground of an alleged impossibility of enforcing the prohibition. "Such was the nature of their coast, deeply penetrated by navigable rivers, that the people of South Carolina, especially as they had stripped themselves of means by giving up to the general government the duties on imports, could not restrain their 'eastern brethren,' who, in defiance of the authority of the general government, allured by the excitement of gain, had been engaged in this trade. The repeal had become necessary to remove the spectacle of the daily violation of the law."

Lowndes added that, personally, he was opposed to the slave-trade, and that he wished the time were already arrived when it might be constitutionally prohibited by act of congress; but the imposition of the proposed tax, so far from checking the traffic, would, he thought, rather tend to its increase, by seeming to give to it a congressional sanction. Another effect of the duty would be to lay so much additional and special taxation on South Carolina, which he thought very unjust.

Bard defended his resolution on two grounds. The proposed tax was a constitutional and fair source of revenue. Since the African slave-trade made men articles of traffic, they must be subject to impost like other merchandise. The value of an imported slave being $400, a duty of ten dollars was only two and a half per cent, on the value. While this duty would add to the revenue, it would also accomplish a more important end, by showing the world that the general government was opposed to slavery, and ready to exercise its powers as far as they would go for preventing its extension. "We owe it indispensably to ourselves," said Bard, "and to the world whose eyes are upon us, to