CHAPTER slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment XLVII. of Heaven on a country. By an inevitable chain of causes 1787. and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities. He lamented that some of our eastern brethren, from a lust of gain, have embarked in this nefarious traffic. As to the states being in possession of the right to import, that was the case with many other rights now to be given up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the general government should have power to prevent the increase of slavery." Mason's fling at the New England slave traders did not pass without retort. "As I have never owned a slave," said Ellsworth, "I can not judge of the effects of slavery on character; but if slavery is to be considered in a moral light, the Convention ought to go further, and free those already in the country. As slaves multiply so fast in Virginia and Maryland, it is cheaper to raise them there than to import them, while in the sickly rice swamps foreign supplies are necessary. If we stop short with prohibiting their importation, we shall be unjust to South Carolina and Georgia. Let us not intermeddle. As population increases, poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless. Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our country." Rutledge and the two Pinckneys declared that, if the slave trade were prohibited, South Carolina would not come into the Union. "South Carolina and Georgia," said C. C. Pinckney, "can not do without slaves. As to Virginia, she will gain by stopping the importation. Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than she wants. It would be unfair to ask Carolina and Georgia to confederate on such unequal terms. The importation of slaves would be for the benefit of the whole Union. The more slaves the more produce, the greater carry XLVII. ing trade, the more consumption, the more revenue." CHAPTER Baldwin made a similar declaration on behalf of Georgia. She would not confederate if not allowed to im- 1787. port slaves. Williamson expressed his conviction that the two southern states, if prohibited to import slaves, would not become members of the Union. Wilson sug gested that, if negroes were the only imports not subject to a duty, such an exception would amount to a bounty. Gerry thought the Convention had nothing to do with the conduct of the states as to slavery; but they ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it. Dickinson and Langdon, of New Hampshire, maintained that neither honor, safety, nor good conscience would allow permission to the states to continue the slave trade. King thought the subject should be considered in a political light only. If two southern states would not consent to the prohibition, neither would other states to the allow"The exemption of slaves from duty while every other import was subject to it, was an inequality that could not fail to strike the commercial sagacity of the northern and middle states." ance. This hint about a tax was not thrown away. Charles Pinckney would consent to a tax equal to that imposed on other imports, and he moved a commitment with that view. Rutledge seconded the motion. Gouverneur Morris proposed that the whole article, including the clauses relating to navigation laws and taxes on exports, should be referred to the same committee. "These things," he remarked, "may form a bargain among the northern and southern states." Sherman suggested that a tax on slaves imported would make the matter worse, since it implied they were property. Randolph supported the commitment in hopes that some middle ground might be hit upon. He would rather risk the Constitution than support the clause CHAPTER as it stood. XLVII. Ellsworth advocated the article as it was. "This widening of opinions had a threatening aspect. He 1787. was afraid we should lose two states, with such others as might be disposed to stand aloof, should fly into a variety of shapes and directions, and most probably into several confederations-not without bloodshed." The motion for reference prevailed, and the article was referred to a grand committee of one from each state. The report of this committee retained the prohibition of export duties, but struck out the restriction on the enactment of navigation laws. Until the year 1800 it allowed the unrestrained migration or importation of such persons as the states might see fit to receive, subject, however, to the imposition of a duty by Congress, the maximum of which was presently fixed at ten dollars. Williamson declared himself, both in opinion and practice, against slavery; but he thought it more in favor of humanity, from a view of all circumstances, to let in South Carolina and Georgia on these terms, than to exclude them from the Union. Sherman again objected to the tax as acknowledging men to be property. Gorham replied that the duty ought to be considered, not as implying that men are property, but as a discouragement to their importation. Sherman said the duty was too small to bear that character. Madison thought it "wrong to admit, in the Constitution, the idea that there could be property in man," and the phraseology of one clause was subsequently altered to avoid any such implication. Gouverneur Morris objected that the clause gave Congress power to tax freemen imported; to which Mason replied that such a power was necessary, to prevent the importation of convicts. A motion to extend the time from 1800 to 1808, made by C. C. Pinckney and seconded by Gorham, was carried against the votes of New XLVII. Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia; Massa- CHAPTER chusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire voting this time with Georgia and South Carolina. That part of the 1787. report which struck out the restriction on the enactment of navigation acts was opposed by Charles Pinckney in a set speech, in which he enumerated five distinct commercial interests: the fisheries and West India trade, belonging to New England; the interest of New York in a free trade; wheat and flour, the staples of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; tobacco, the staple of Maryland and Virginia, and partly of North Carolina; rice and indigo, the staples of South Carolina and Georgia. The same ground was taken by Williamson and Mason, and very warmly by Randolph, who declared that an unlimited power in Congress to enact navigation laws "would complete the deformity of a system having already so many odious features that he hardly knew if he could agree to it." Any restriction of the power of Congress over commerce was warmly opposed by Gouverneur Morris, Wilson, and Gorham. Madison also took the same side. C. C. Pinckney did not deny that it was the true interest of the South to have no regulation of commerce; but, considering the commercial losses of the eastern states during the Revolution, their liberal conduct toward the views of South Carolina (in the vote just taken, giving eight years' further extension to the slave trade), and the interest of the weak southern states in being united with the strong eastern ones, he should go against any restrictions on the power of commercial regulation. "He had himself prejudices against the eastern states before he came here, but would acknowledge that he had found them as liberal and candid as any men whatever." Butler and Rutledge took the same ground, and the amended report was adopted, against the votes of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. CHAPTER Thus, by an understanding, or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, "a bargain" between the commercial represent1787. atives of the northern states and the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite of the opposition of Maryland and Virginia, the unrestricted power of Congress to enact navigation laws was conceded to the northern merchants, and to the Carolina rice planters, as an equivalent, twenty years' continuance of the African slave trade. This was the third great compromise of the Constitution. The other two were the concession to the smaller states of an equal representation in the Senate, and, to the slaveholders, the counting three fifths of the slaves in determining the ratio of representation. If this third compromise differed from the other two by involving not merely a political, but a moral sacrifice, there was this partial compensation about it, that it was not permanent, like the others, but expired at the end of twenty years by its own limitation. The method of choice, the term of service, the re-eligibility of the executive, were points as to which it was very difficult for the Convention to come to any agree. ment. The method of choice and term of service finally adopted were founded on the report of a grand committee of one from each state, which underwent, however, various amendments. The idea of a vice-president, to be chosen at the same time with the president, and, in case of death or disability, to fill his place, was first suggested by this same committee. In the draft as reported, the President of the Senate was to have fulfilled that function; by the article as agreed to, the Vice-president was made ex-officio President of the Senate. The method of choice finally adopted was by electors specially chosen for that purpose, in such manner as the state Legisla tures might direct, as many in each state as there were |