tion.

and advocate their cause, set the example of emancipa- CHAPTER Let them prove their own humanity; let them pull the beam out of their own eye previous to discover- 1790. ing the mote in their neighbor's. That is an argument that would speak for itself. Gentlemen have talked of our raising alarms; but it is at a reality, not at a bugbear. The whole tenor of the resolutions has been contrary to Southern interests; and manumission, emancipation, and abolition have been their intention. I give the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Scott) credit; I admit his candor; he has boldly spoken out. I wish the same might be done by other members, who appear to me to conceal their real designs under the specious pretext of concern for the interests of the Southern States."

Jackson's reiterated abuse of the Quakers, for which he made a sort of half apology, by remarking that he believed they cared very little about it, called up Williamson, who had just taken his seat from North Carolina,. and who had been a member of the Federal Convention. One of his colleagues was Sevier, the late rebel governor of the transitory and now extinct State of Frankland. Williamson thought the time of Congress badly employed in passing abstract resolutions as to what they could or could not do, and still worse in discussing what appeared to be the general subject of debate, whether the Quakers were the worst or the best of all religious societies. As to their conduct in the present case, he believed they held themselves bound in conscience to bear a testimony against slavery. He revered all men who respect the dictates of conscience at the expense of time and money: such men are seldom bad members of society. "We, too, must regard the dictates of conscience; we are bound to support the Constitution, and to protect the property of our fellow-citizens; and we are expressly prohibited by

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CHAPTER to cover this very case of the slave trade, and the 'persons' referred to in that clause were said to be slaves. 1790. He could not think it satisfactory to be told that there was an understanding on this subject between the Northern and Southern members of the National Convention. He trusted there was no trafficking in the Convention. When considering our constitutional powers, we must judge of them by the face of the instrument under which we sit, and not by the certain understandings which the framers of that instrument may be supposed to have had with each other, but which never transpired. At any rate, the Constitution was not obligatory until ratified by a certain number of state Conventions, which can not be supposed to have been acquainted with the understanding in the National Convention, but must be taken to have ratified the Constitution on its own merits, as they appear on the face of the instrument. He had the honor of a seat in one of those Conventions, and gave his assent to the Constitution on those principles. did then, he did now, and he ever should, judge of the powers of Congress by the words of the Constitution, with as much latitude as if it were a thousand years old, and every man in the Convention that framed it long since in his grave.

He

"I acknowledge," he added, "that by this clause of the Constitution Congress is denied the power of prohibiting, for a limited period, the importation or migration of persons, but may impose a tax or duty; and I say, as well on the white as on the black person. But some certain inadmissible qualities may be adherent to persons which, from the necessity of things, must and will, notwithstanding this provision, justify the exclu sion of the persons themselves, such as a plague, or hostile designs against the Union by armed immigrants. In

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such a case, if the importation were not prevented, I CHAPTER should be more inclined to impute it to want of physical than of constitutional power. In consistency with this 1790. mode of reasoning, I believe that if Congress should at any time be of opinion that a state of slavery attached to a person is a quality altogether inadmissible into America, they would not be bound by the clause above cited from prohibiting that hateful quality. As in the first case the plague, and in the second the enmity and arms, so in the third the state of slavery may, notwithstanding any thing in this clause, be declared by Congress qualities, or conditions, or adherents, or what you please to call them, which, being attached to any person, the person himself can not be admitted.

"By another clause of the Constitution, Congress have power to regulate trade.. Under that head not only the proposition now under consideration, but any other or further regulation which to Congress may seem expedient, is fully in their power. Nay, sir, if these wretched Africans are to be considered as property, as some gentlemen would have it, and, consequently, as subjects of trade and commerce, they and their masters so far lose the benefit of their personality, that Congress may at pleasure declare them contraband goods, and so prohibit the trade altogether.

"Again, sir, Congress have power to establish a rule of naturalization. This rule, it is clear, depends on the mere pleasure of Congress. Whenever they please, they may declare, by law, that any and every person, black or white, who from foreign ports can only get his or her foot on the American shore, within the territory of the United States, shall, to all intents and purposes, be not only free persons, but free citizens. And that Congress has such power is clearly proved by the very

CHAPTER the Constitution from giving liberty to a single slave. II. That business remains with the individual states; it is 1790. not committed to Congress, who have no right to intermeddle with it." He was therefore opposed to all the resolutions.

March 23.

After some further debate, in which the merits of the Quakers continued to hold a large place, the sixth resolution was agreed to. The seventh, pledging Congress to exert their full powers for the restriction of the slave trade—and, as it might also be understood, for the discountenancing of slavery-was struck out. The committee then rose, and reported the resolutions to the House.

The next day, as soon as the preliminary business had been disposed of, it was moved to take up this report. Ames, so eloquent formerly on the molasses duty, but silent hitherto throughout this debate, now expressed the opinion that the subject might rest at the stage it had reached. He regretted the time consumed, and the manner also in which the debate had been conducted. He reprobated the idea of a declaration of abstract propositions. Let the report lie on the files of the House, where it might be occasionally referred to.

Ames was highly complimented by Jackson, who wished that more of the members from the eastward had acted in a similar spirit. Madison thought the suggestion of Ames a good one, with this modification, that the report of the Committee of the Whole should be entered on the journals for the information of the public, and to quiet the fears of the South, by showing that Congress claimed no power to prohibit the importation of slaves before 1808, and no power of manumission at any time.

Burke "complained of this as an uncandid method of disposing of the business. He would rather it should

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pass regularly through the forms of the House. It was CHAPTER smuggling the affair to let it rest here, as it deprived the people of the counsel of their Senate." Smith took the 1790. same ground. The precedents quoted of memorials entered on the journals were not applicable to the present question, which involved a discussion of the powers of Congress. On a question as to those powers, the Senate, composing one branch of the Legislature, should certainly be consulted. Both reports were now to be entered on the journals, without any declaration to show which had been approved and which rejected. They were precluded from having the yeas and nays on the report, and yet it would be called the act of the House. Madison contended that, as it was impossible to shut the door altogether upon this business, the method proposed was the most conciliatory, and the best adapted to the present situation of things. The motion finally prevailed, by a vote of twenty-nine to twenty-five, and the report was entered on the journal as follows:

"That the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit can not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year 1808.

"That Congress have no authority to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, or in the treatment of them, in any of the states, it remaining with the several states. alone to provide any regulations therein which humanity and true policy require.

"That Congress have authority to restrain the citizens of the United States from carrying on the African slave trade for the purpose of supplying foreigners with slaves, and of providing by proper regulations for the hụmane treatment, during their passage, of slaves imported by the said citizens into the said states admitting such importation.