Part 6 (1/2)

This proposition received only thirteen votes out of forty-nine Many of those opposed to it were quite ready to grant that it was hard upon the veterans of the war that they, who had received so little and who had borne so nized as creditors when at last the governe in sentiislation That would be to launch the shi+p of state upon another sea of bankruptcy There were in the hands of the people tens of millions of paper money not worth at the current rate a cent on the dollar If everybody who had lost was to be paid, the point would soon be reached where nobody would be paid at all A limit must be fixed somewhere; let it be at these certificates of debt which were the evidence of a contract overnment and its creditors

These could be paid, and they should be paid, to those ere in lawful possession of theainst Madison That the government should be absolutely just to everybody who had ever trusted to it, and lost by it, was impossible

It was a bankrupt compelled to name its preferred creditors, and it named those whom it was in honor and law bound to take care of, and over whose claims there was, on the whole, the least shadow of doubt That the loss should reain fall chiefly to those ere shrewd enough, or had the means to speculate in the public funds, was a lamentable fact; but to discriovernment

That he would have had it discriminate was creditable to Madison's heart; it was rather less creditable to his head

Of course, underneath all this debate there lay other considerations than those ation, of pity for the soldiers, and of strict regard for the letter of a contract Mr Hamilton and his friends, it was said, were anxious to establish the public credit, not so much because they wished to keep faith with creditors as because they wished to strengthen the government and build up their own party The reply to these accusations was, that the other side, under pretense of consideration for the soldiers and others on whom the burden of the war had borne most heavily, concealed hostility to the Constitution and a consolidated government These were not reflections to be spoken of in debate, but they were not the less cherished, and gave to it piquancy and spirit There was truth on both sides without doubt

Though defeated in this measure, Madison was not less determined in his opposition to the assumption of the debts of the States Of these debts soed more than others; and he co those which had borne their own burdens unaided to share in the obligations which others had neglected He was unfortunate, however, in assuinia over some of the Eastern States, and especially over Massachusetts, in services rendered in the struggle for independence

The comparison provoked a call for official inquiry; and that proved that Massachusetts alone had sentthe war than all the Southern States together It was not much to be wondered at, when this fact was considered, that the debt of Massachusetts should be larger than that of Virginia by 800,000 The difference between Virginia and South Carolina was the sa that the war had cost Massachusetts eneral service, and South Carolina more to repel the eneinia for either purpose Massachusetts and South Carolina were again found acting together, sier than that of any other State The total debt of all the States was about 21,000,000; and as that of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, or Connecticut, when added to the 8,000,000 of Massachusetts and South Carolina, amounted to half, ora strong combination in favor of assuh to carry theits advocates atte of the domestic debt of the Federal Union unless the debts of the several States were assumed at the sath provided for, and the assuain, referred to in the preceding chapter, which gave to the Southern States the perovernment, was concluded It would not have been difficult, probably, to defeat that piece of political jobbery by a public exposure of its terms Why Madison did not resort to it, if, as seeain had been privately made, can only be conjectured Perhaps he saw that Hamilton, as applauded by his friends and denounced by his eneeain; and that Jefferson, whose defense was that Hanorance and innocence, would not, had he not been short-sighted, have made any defense at all

For the assuovernle local burden; and this was a sinia and the other Southern States to pay for the permanent possession of the federal capital

While these questions were pending, another was thrown into the House which was not disposed of for nearly two months The debates upon it, Madison said in one of his letters, ”were shaht the introduction of the subject into Congress injudicious

The Yearly Meeting of Friends in New York and in Pennsylvania sent a ainst the continued toleration of the slave trade; and this was followed the next day by a petition from the Pennsylvania Society for the Proned by Benja for a more radical measure

”They earnestly entreat,” they said, ”your serious attention to the subject of slavery; that you will be pleased to countenance the restoration of liberty to these unhappy raded into perpetual bondage, and who, a in servile subjection; that you will devisethis 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”

The words were probably Franklin's own, and, as he died a feeeks after they ritten, theywords to his countrymen,--counsel wise and merciful as his alas

A memorable debate followed the presentation of these memorials Even in the imperfect report of it that has come down to us, the ”shah Franklin, venerable in years, exalted in character, and eminent above almost all the men of the time for services to his country, was sneered at for senility and denounced as disregarding the obligations of the Constitution But the wrath of the pro-slavery extreainst the Society of Friends, and was unrestrained by any considerations of either decency or truth In this respect the debate was the precursor of every contest in Congress upon the subject that was to follow for the co seventy years The Quakers were the representative abolitionists of that day, and the ry denunciation that was meted out to the, was poured out upon those who, in later times, took upon themselves the burden of the cause of the slave

The line of arguard of facts and the false conclusions, the misrepresentation of past history and the misapprehension of the future, the contempt of reason, of common sense, and common humanity, then laboriously and unscrupulously arrayed in defense of slavery, left nothing for the exercise of the ingenuity of le difference only between the earlier and the later time is conspicuous; the ”plantation o, which the Wises, the Brookses, the Barksdales, and the Priors of the modern South relied upon as potent weapons of defense and assault, were unknown in the earlier Congresses

Mr Madison and soinia, opposed thethat these memorials should be referred to a committee ”The true policy of the Southern members,” Madison wrote to a friend, ”was to have let the affair proceed with as little noise as possible, and to havewith an assertion of the powers of Congress, a recognition of the restraints imposed by the Constitution” This in effect was done in the end, but not till near two months had passed, within which time the more violent of the Southern members had ample opportunity to free their minds and exhaust the subject The more these people talked the worse it was, of course, for their cause Had Madison's moderate advice been accepted then, and had that example been followed for the next sixty or seventy years, it is quite likely that the colored race would still be in bondage in at least one half of the States But there was never a radual but certain progress of the opposition to slavery; for there never was a system, any attempt to defend which showed how utterly indefensible such a systeument advanced in its favor was soto the ordinary sense of mankind, that the more it was discussed the more widespread and earnest became the opposition Had the slaveholders been wise, they would never have opened their mouths upon the subject

But, like the man possessed of the devil, they never ceased to cry, ”Let me alone!” And the more they cried, the more there ho understood where that cry came from

In one respect Mr Madison declared that the me was used to protect foreigners in carrying on the slave trade in other countries, that was a proper subject for the consideration of Congress ”If this is the case,” he said, ”is there any person of hunized the limitations of the Constitution in relation to the importation of slaves into the United States, and the want of any authority in the letter of the Constitution, or of any wish on the part of Congress, to interfere with slavery in the States On these points he would have a decisive declaration, without agitation, and with as little discussion as possible, and there would have dropped the subject It only needed, he evidently thought, that everybody, North and South, should understand the Constitution to be a ether alone, when the bargain would be on both sides faithfully adhered to

This was all very ith the numerous persons ere quite indifferent to the subject, or who thought it very unreasonable in the blacks not to be quite willing to reer But there were two other classes to reckon with, and Mr Madison was not much inclined to be patient with either of them To let the subject alone was precisely what the hot-headedthen, as they proved to be incapable of doing for the next seventy years On the other hand, all the petitioners could really hope for was that there should be discussion The galleries were crowded at those earliest debates, as they continued to be crowded on all such occasions in subsequent years Many went to learn what could be said on behalf of slavery, who caitation ht disturb the harht lead to the death of an abolitionist, as it sometimes did in later times; but it was sure in the end to be the death of slavery, though its short-sighted defenders could never understand why They could never be erous foes were the friends of its own household, who could not hold their tongues; that for their case all wisdoar caution ”to lie low and keep dark;” that the exposure of the true character of slaveryso exposed it as any attempt to defend it Slavery was quite safe under the Constitution, as Mr Madison intimated, if its friends would only leave it there and clai in any court who believe that the most effective line of defense is to abuse the plaintiff The Quakers, it was said, ”notwithstanding their outward pretenses,” had no ”ion than other people, nor perhaps so much” They had not made the Constitution, nor risked their lives and fortunes by fighting for their country Why should they ”set theainst slavery”? Did they not know that the Bible not only allowed but commended it, ”from Genesis to Revelation”? That the Saviour had per Christianity, had never preached against it? That it had been--the illustration was not altogether a happy one--”no novel doctrine since the days of Cain”? The condition of these Areat happiness and comfort; yet almost in the same breath it was asserted that to excite in their e would lead to the most disastrous consequences, and possibly to massacre The memorialists were bidden to remember that, even if slavery ”were an evil, it was one for which there was no remedy;” for that reason the North had acquiesced in it; ”a compromise was made on both sides,--we took each other, with our mutual bad habits and respective evils, for better, for worse; the Northern States adopted us with our slaves, and we adopted them with their Quakers” Without such a compromise there could have been no Union, and any interference noith slavery by the govern as none of their business, and exciting the slaves to insurrection Yet how forbearing were the people of the Southern States who, notwithstanding all this, ”had not required the assistance of Congress to exterminate the Quakers!”

This was not conciliatory Those who had been disposed at the beginning to meet the petitions with a quiet reply that the subject was out of the jurisdiction of Congress were now provoked to give them a much warmer reception They could not listen patiently to the abuse of the Quakers, and, though they ht acquiesce in the toleration of slavery, they were not inclined to have it crammed down their throats as a wise, beneficent, and consistent condition of society under a republican govern should be said or done to arouse agitation, while acknowledging that all citizens ress for a redress of what they considered grievances, was moved at last to say that the memorial of the Friends orthy of consideration” While ad that under the Constitution the slave trade could not be prohibited for twenty years, ”yet,” he declared, ”there are a variety of ways by which it [Congress] could countenance the abolition, and regulations ht be made in relation to the introduction of [slavery] into the new States to be formed out of the western territory”

Gerry was still ht of interference He boldly asserted that ”flagrant acts of cruelty” were co on the African slave trade; and, while nobody proposed to violate the Constitution, ”that we have a right to regulate this business is as clear as that we have any right whatever; nor has the contrary been shown by anybody who has spoken on the occasion” Nor did he stop there He told the slaveholders that the value of their slaves in ress had the right to propose ”to purchase the whole of theht furnish them with the means”

The Southern members would, perhaps, have been startled by such a proposition as this, had he not iest a measure of this kind; he only instanced these particulars to show that Congress certainly had a right to intermeddle in the business” It is quite likely, had he pushed such a measure with his well-known zeal and deterood deal of favor; and, as the admirers of Jefferson are tenacious of his fainal Northwest Ordinance, so Gerry, had he seriously and earnestly urged the policy of using the proceeds of the sales of territorial lands to remunerate the owners of slaves for their liberation, would have left behind his to hiovernor of Massachusetts The debate, however, came to an end at last with no other result than that which would have been reached at the beginning without debate, except, perhaps, that the vote in favor of the reports upon the ht have been had there been no discussion

Within less than two years, however, Warner Mifflin of Delaware, an eminent member of the Society of Friends, as one of the first, if not the first, of that society to ress to take soeneral emancipation The petition was entered upon the journal; but on a subsequent day a North Carolina member, Mr Steele, said that, ”after what had passed at New York on this subject, he had hoped the House would have heard no more of it;”

and he ed froetic tone that he had presented the petition at Mr Mifflin's request, because the member froht of petition, though ”he considered it as totally inexpedient to interfere with the subject” The House agreed that the petition should be returned, and Steele then withdrew the ress, eighteen months afterward, the House took up the subject of the slave trade, apparently of its ownon of that traffic fron vessels The question was as inexorable as death, and the difference in regard to it then was precisely what it was in the final discussion of the next century which settled it forever One set of iven over to perdition if they dared so much as talk; the other set talked all the e of the Constitution in act all the more, because they were bidden neither to speak nor to e was not one of Madison's marked characteristics, but he never showed more of it than in his hostility to slavery

[Illustration: Fisher Aress, which had adjourned from New York to Philadelphia, where it met in December, 1790, Madison led his party in opposition to the establishment of a national bank, which Haain, as in the adjustment of the domestic debt, he and his party were defeated He coes of banks, and possibly he did not satisfy hiht of the arguainst their utility At any rate, he fell back upon the Constitution as his strongest position To incorporate a bank was not, he ress The Federalists, ere beginning to recognize him as the leader of the opposition, were quite ready to accept that challenge ”Little doubt re to reply, ”with respect to the utility of banks” assu that to be settled,--whether he meant, or not, that such was the conclusion to be drawn froument on that point,--he addressed himself to the constitutional question If the incorporation of a bank was forbidden by the Constitution, there was an end of the ress may exercise powers not expressly bestowed upon it, and if by a bank soovernht but wise to establish such an agency This was the burden of the argument of the Federalists, and Madison and his friends had no sufficient answer The bill was at length passed by a vote of thirty-nine to twenty

But it had still to pass the ordeal of the cabinet The President was not disposed to rely upon his own judgment either one way or the other

He asked, therefore, for the written opinions of the secretaries of the treasury and of state, Haeneral, Randolph The same request was ton held his ability and knowledge of constitutional law in high esteem than because of the proument in favor of the bill was an answer to the papers of the three other gentlemen, and was accepted as conclusive by the President