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Page 59
On the sea an execrable piracy, the trade in slaves, to the national
scandal, was still tolerated under the national flag. In the States,
as a sectional institution, beneath the shelter of local laws, Slavery
unhappily found a home. But in the only terrritories at this time
belonging to the nation, the broad region of the Northwest, it was
already made impossible, by the Ordinance of Freedom, even before the
adoption of the Constitution. The District of Columbia, with its Fatal
Dowry, was not yet acquired.
The government thus organized was Anti-slavery in character. Washington
was a slave-holder, but it would be unjust to his memory not to say that
he was an Abolitionist also. His opinions do not admit of question.
* * * * *
By the side of Washington, as, standing beneath the national flag, he
swore to support the Constitution, were illustrious men, whose lives
and recorded words now rise in judgment. There was John Adams, the
Vice-President, great vindicator and final negotiator of our national
independence, whose soul, flaming with Freedom, broke forth in the early
declaration, that "consenting to Slavery is a sacrilegious breach of
trust," and whose immitigable hostility to this wrong is immortal in his
descendants. There was also a companion in arms and attached friend,
of beautiful genius, the yet youthful and "incomparable" Hamilton,--fit
companion in early glories and fame with that darling of English
history, Sir Philip Sidney, to whom the latter epithet has been
reserved,--who, as member of the Abolition Society of New York, had
recently united in a solemn petition for those who, though "free by the
laws of God; are held in Slavery by the laws of this State." There, too,
was a noble spirit, of spotless virtue, the ornament of human nature,
who, like the sun, ever held an unerring course,--John Jay. Filling the
important post of Secretary for Foreign Affairs under the Confederation,
he found time to organize the "Society for Promoting the Manumission
of Slaves" in New York, and to act as its President, until, by the
nomination of Washington, he became Chief Justice of the United States.
In his sight Slavery was an "iniquity," "a sin of crimson dye," against
which ministers of the Gospel should testify, and which the Government
should seek in every way to abolish. "Till America comes into this
measure," he wrote, "her prayers to Heaven for liberty will be impious.
This is a strong expression, but it is just. Were I in your legislature,
I would prepare a bill for the purpose with great care, and I would
never cease moving it till it became a law or I ceased to be a member."
Such words as these, fitly coming from our leaders, belong to the true
glories of the country:
"While we such precedents can boast at home,
Keep thy Fabricius and thy Cato, Rome!"
They stood not alone. The convictions and earnest aspirations of the
country were with them. At the North these were broad and general. At
the South they found fervid utterance from slaveholders. By early
and precocious efforts for "total emancipation," the author of
the Declaration of Independence placed himself foremost among the
Abolitionists of the land. In language now familiar to all, and
which can never die, he perpetually denounced Slavery. He exposed its
pernicious influence upon master as well as slave, declared that the
love of justice and the love of country pleaded equally for the slave,
and that "the abolition of domestic slavery was the greatest object of
desire." He believed that "the sacred side was gaining daily recruits,"
and confidently looked to the young for the accomplishment of this
good work. In fitful sympathy with Jefferson was another honored son of
Virginia, the Orator of Liberty, Patrick Henry, who, while confessing
that he was a master of slaves, said: "I will not, I cannot justify it.
However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue as to
own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want
of conformity to them." At this very period, in the Legislature of
Maryland, on a bill for the relief of oppressed slaves, a young man,
afterwards by consummate learning and forensic powers acknowledged head
of the American bar, William Pinkney, in a speech of earnest,
truthful eloquence,--better for his memory than even his professional
fame,--branded Slavery as "iniquitous and most dishonorable," "founded
in a disgraceful traffic," "its continuance as shameful as its origin,"
and he openly declared, that "by the eternal principles of natural
justice, no master in the State has a right to hold his slave in bondage
for a single hour."
* * * * *
At the risk of repetition, but for the sake of clearness, review now
this argument, and gather it together. Considering that Slavery is of
such an offensive character that it can find sanction only in
"positive law," and that it has no such "positive" sanction in the
Constitution,--that the Constitution, according to its preamble,
was ordained to "establish justice" and "secure the blessings of
liberty,"--that, in the Convention which framed it, and also elsewhere
at the time, it was declared not to sanction slavery,--that, according
to the Declaration of Independence, and the Address of the Continental
Congress, the nation was dedicated to "liberty," and the "rights of
human nature,"--that, according to the principles of the common law, the
Constitution must be interpreted openly, actively, and perpetually for
freedom,--that, according to the decision of the Supreme Court, it acts
upon slaves, _not as property_, but as PERSONS,--that, at the first
organization of the national Government under Washington, Slavery had no
national favor, existed nowhere on the national territory, beneath the
national flag, but was openly condemned by Nation, Church, Colleges, and
Literature of the time,--and, finally, that, according to an amendment
of the Constitution, the National Government can exercise only powers
delegated to it, among which is none to support Slavery,--considering
these things, Sir, it is impossible to avoid the single conclusion,
that Slavery is in no respect a national institution, and that the
Constitution nowhere upholds property in man.
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