The slave trade.
Thus
Virginia not only gave to the
Union the territory from which five of the foremost Commonwealths were carved, but dedicated it to freedom.
The supreme opportunity, however, of suppressing the slave trade, came upon the adoption of the
Federal Constitution.
With every increase in the number of slaves, the difficulties and dangers of emancipation were multiplied.
The hope of emancipation rested in stopping their importation, and dispersing over the whole face of the land those who had already found a home in our midst.
Despite the opposition of
Virginia, the legality of the foreign slave trade was extended for a period of twenty years. This action of the convention is declared by
Mr. Fiske, the
New England historian, ‘a bargain between
New England and the far
South.’
Continuing, he says: ‘This compromise was carried against the sturdy opposition of
Virginia.’
George Mason, the author of our
Bill of Rights, denounced what he called the ‘infernal traffic.’
‘Slavery,’ said he, ‘discourages arts and manufactures; the poor despise labor when performed by slaves; they prevent the emigration of whites, who really strengthen and enrich a country.
They produce the most pernicious effect on manners; every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant; they bring the judgment of heaven on a country; as nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this.
By an inevitable
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chain of causes and effects,
Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.’
‘But,’ says
Mr. Fiske, ‘these prophetic words were powerless against the combination of
New England with the far
South.’
