Volume I Part 61 (1/2)
From 1785-1790, there was a wonderful change in the public opinion of the Middle and Eastern States on the subject of slavery. Most of them had pa.s.sed laws providing for gradual emanc.i.p.ation. The Friends of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania began to organize a crusade against domestic slavery. In the fall of 1789, while the Congressional debates were still fresh in the minds of the people, the venerable Dr.
Benjamin Franklin, as president of the ”Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery,” etc., issued the following letter:--
”AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC.
_From the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage_.
It is with peculiar satisfaction we a.s.sure, the friends of humanity, that, in prosecuting the design of our a.s.sociation, our endeavors have proved successful, far beyond our most sanguine expectations.
”Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labors, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan; and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and a.s.sistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compa.s.sion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence.
”Slavery is such an atrocious debas.e.m.e.nt of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils.
”The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains that bind his body do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the pa.s.sion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labor, age, and disease.
”Under such circ.u.mstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society.
”Attention to emanc.i.p.ated black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national police; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emanc.i.p.ation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty inc.u.mbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgement and abilities.
”To instruct, to advise, to qualify those who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty; to promote in them habits of industry; to furnish them with employments suited to their age, s.e.x, talents, and other circ.u.mstances; and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life,--these are the great outlines of the annexed plan which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures.
”A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary funds of the Society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or subscriptions for this purpose which may be made to our Treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, Chairman of our Committee of Correspondence.
”Signed by order of the Society, ”B. FRANKLIN, _President_.
”Philadelphia, 9th of November, 1789.”
And as his last public act, Franklin gave his signature to the subjoined memorial to the United States Congress:--
”The memorial respectfully showeth,--
”That, from a regard for the happiness of mankind, an a.s.sociation was formed several years since in this State, by a number of her citizens, of various religious denominations, for promoting the abolition of slavery, and for the relief of those unlawfully held in bondage. A just and acute conception of the true principles of liberty, as it spread through the land, produced accessions to their numbers, many friends to their cause, and a legislative co-operation with their views, which, by the blessing of Divine Providence, have been successfully directed to the relieving from bondage a large number of their fellow-creatures of the African race. They have also the satisfaction to observe, that, in consequence of that spirit of philanthropy and genuine liberty which is generally diffusing its beneficial influence, similar inst.i.tutions are forming at home and abroad.
”That mankind are all formed by the same Almighty Being, alike objects of his care, and equally designed for the enjoyment of happiness, the Christian religion teaches us to believe, and the political creed of Americans fully coincides with the position. Your memorialists, particularly engaged in attending to the distresses arising from slavery, believe it their indispensable duty to present this subject to your notice. They have observed, with real satisfaction, that many important and salutary powers are vested in you for 'promoting the welfare and securing the blessings of liberty to the people of the United States'; and as they conceive that these blessings ought rightfully to be administered, without distinction of color, to all descriptions of people, so they indulge themselves in the pleasing expectation, that nothing which can be done for the relief of the unhappy objects of their care, will be either omitted or delayed.
”From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still the birth-right, of all men; and influenced by the strong ties of humanity, and the principles of their inst.i.tution, your memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom. Under these impressions, they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of slavery; that you will be pleased to countenance the restoration of liberty to those unhappy men, who alone, in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who, amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise means for removing this inconsistency from the character of the American people; that you will promote mercy and justice towards this distressed race; and that you will step to the very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men.
”BENJ. FRANKLIN, _President_.
”PHILADELPHIA, February 3, 1790.”
The session of Congress held in 1790 was stormy. The slavery question came back to haunt the members. On the 12th of February, the memorial from the Pennsylvania society was read. It provoked fresh discussion, and greatly angered many of the Southern members. As soon as its reading was completed, the ”Quaker Memorial,” that had been read the day previous, was called up; and Mr. Hartley moved its commitment. A long and spirited debate ensued. It was charged that the memorial was ”a mischievous attempt, an improper interference, at the best, an act of imprudence;” and that it ”would sound an alarm and blow the trumpet of sedition through the Southern States.” Mr. Scott of Pennsylvania replied by saying, ”I cannot entertain a doubt that the memorial is strictly agreeable to the Const.i.tution. It respects a part of the duty particularly a.s.signed to us by that instrument.” Mr. Sherman was in favor of the commitment of the memorial, and gave his reasons _in extenso_. Mr. Smith of South Carolina said, ”Notwithstanding all the calmness with which some gentlemen have viewed the subject, they will find that the mere discussion of it will create alarm. We have been told that, if so, we should have avoided discussion by saying nothing.
But it was not for that purpose we were sent here. We look upon this measure as an attack upon property; it is, therefore, our duty to oppose it by every means in our power. When we entered into a political connection with the other States, this property was there.
It had been acquired under a former government conformably to the laws and const.i.tution, and every attempt to deprive us of it must be in the nature of an _ex post facto_ law, and, as such, forbidden by our political compact.” Following the unwise and undignified example set by the gentlemen who had preceded him on that side of the question, he slurred the Quakers. ”His const.i.tuents wanted no lessons in religion and morality, and least of all from such teachers.”
Madison, Gerry, Boudinot, and Page favored commitment. Upon the question to commit, the yeas and nays being demanded, the reference was made by a vote of forty-three to eleven. Of the latter, six were from Georgia and South Carolina, two from Virginia, two from Maryland, and one from New York. A special committee was announced, to whom the memorial was referred, consisting of one member from each of the following States: New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. At the end of a month, the committee made the following report to Congress:--
”1st. That the general government was expressly restrained, until the year 1808, from prohibiting the importation of any persons whom any of the existing states might till that time think proper to admit. 2d. That, by a fair construction of the const.i.tution, congress was equally restrained from interfering to emanc.i.p.ate slaves within the states, such slaves having been born there, or having been imported within the period mentioned. 3d. That congress had no power to interfere in the internal regulation of particular states relative to the instruction of slaves in the principles of morality and religion, to their comfortable clothing, accommodation, and subsistence, to the regulation of marriages or the violation of marital rights, to the separation of children and parents, to a comfortable provision in cases of age or infirmity, or to the seizure, transportation, and sale of free negroes; but entertained the fullest confidence in the wisdom and humanity of the state legislature that, from time to time, they would revise their laws, and promote these and all other measures tending to the happiness of the slaves. The fourth a.s.serted that congress had authority to levy a tax of ten dollars, should they see fit to exact it, upon every person imported under the special permission of any of the states. The fifth declared the authority of congress to interdict or to regulate the African slave-trade, so far as it might be carried on by citizens of the United States for the supply of foreign countries, and also to provide for the humane treatment of slaves while on their pa.s.sage to any ports of the United States into which they might be admitted. The sixth a.s.serted the right of congress to prohibit foreigners from fitting out vessels in the United States to be employed in the supply of foreign countries with slaves from Africa.
The seventh expressed an intention on the part of congress to exercise their authority to its full extent to promote the humane objects aimed at in the Quaker's memorial.”
Mr. Tucker took the floor against the report of the committee, and, after a bitter speech upon the unconst.i.tutionality of meddling with the slavery question in any manner, moved a subst.i.tute for the whole, in which he p.r.o.nounced the recommendations of the committee ”as unconst.i.tutional, and tending to injure some of the States of the Union.” Mr. Jackson seconded the motion in a rather intemperate speech, which was replied to by Mr. Vining. The subst.i.tute of Mr.