were then in favor of denouncing the slave-
trade as piracy. But the men from Massa-
chusetts, and from every New England State,
said to them: " You shall not do it; you
cannot do it." And why? "Because,"
said they, "our people have invested im-
mense sums of money in ships and trade, for
the purpose of carrying these cargoes into
your territory; and if you denounce it at
once as piracy, a large portion of our people
will be ruined." And as the records of the
debales of that Convention show, as a matter
of fact, it bad finally to be settled between
the Virginia men and the Northern men, just
as all great questions are ever settled, upon
the basis of compromise. The Virginians
said to them: "We will give you twenty
years;" and they accepted it. And it was
under those circumstances that it was written
in the Constitution of the United States, that
the slave-trade should not cease until the year
1808, which was twenty years after the Con-
stitution was submitted to the people of the
United States for their ratification. In other
words, New England and the North bar-
gained for twenty years more of the slave-
trade, as the only compromise which they
would make upon that subject.
Mr. STIRLING. I would request the gentle-
man from Cecil (Mr. Scott) to ask the gentle-
man from Prince George's (Mr. Belt) for his
authority for that statement
Mr. SCOTT. I was going to do so.
Mr. BELT. As my friend from Baltimore
city (Mr. Stirling) has interposed at this
time, as he did once before, to ask for the
authority, I will say to him that at the proper
time, if he challenges it in argument, I will
produce to him the proof up to the very as-
sertion I make; full proof from the records
of the debates in that Convention. He shall
have authority to his full satisfaction,
Mr. SCOTT. That does not interfere with
my position at all. Nations as well as indi-
viduals grow wiser as they grow older, or
ought to. And at the time our Constitution
was formed the nations of Europe bad not
formed these treaties I speak of. The civil-
ized world had not become so convinced of
the atrocity of that institution as they are
now. It only proves that they assented for
the time being to a system of commerce that
was common all over the world.
I have a work here which has been kindly
furnished to me by a friend, (Mr. Cushing,)
in which I find that Mr Pinckney, of South
Carolina said in that Convention :
"if slavery be wrong, it is justified by the
example of all the world."
That is just the point I was making; that
they had not been educated up to the point of
prohibiting the slave trade. He further says :
"in all ages, one-half of mankind have
been slaves, if the Southern States were let
alone, they will probably of themselves stop
importations. He would himself, as a citi- |
zen of South Carolina, vote for it. An at-
tempt to take away the right as proposed,
will produce serious objections to the Consti-
tution which he wished to see adopted."
It just simply proves that the public opinion
of the world at that time had not got up to
the point of denouncing the slave-trade as
piracy. But years afterwards they reached
that point, and our Government, uniting by
treaties with all the civilized nations on
earth, agreed that they would stop that traffic
in human flesh, and denounce it as piracy.
The point I was making was that an institu-
tion that had no other or higher origin than
piracy, could not be a good institution. And
I find here that—
"General Pinckney thought himself bound
to declare candidly that he did not think that
South Carolina would stop her immigration
of slaves in any short time."
South Carolina did not want to stop it,
And it was at the instance and request of
Southern men who wanted to buy, as well as
Northern men who wanted to sell, that the
slave trade was kept open until 1808. That
is the origin of the title in slaves; nothing
more nor less than piracy.
If you will turn back to the first chapter of
Genesis, you will find that other property
dates back to that period. For shortly after
the creation of Adam and. Eve, the Creator
gave them an undisputed right and title to
all species of property; to the land and its
produets, to the fish of the sea, the fowls of
the air, and the beasts of the earth. But no
mention is made in that grant of title from
the Almighty, of any right to hold or enslave
a fellow-man.
Another argument of the gentleman from
Somerset (Mr. Jones) was that the negro was
so degraded that he was unfit for liberty.
Well, how did he become so degraded? You
first seize a man, and degrade him; and then
because he is degraded, say he is not fit for
freedom. That is a beautiful argument I
The gentleman also said that it was be-
cause of the morbid abolition sentiment of
the North which had become so predominant,
that the shackles were tightened upon your
slaves in the Southern States. Now, I think
there is another reason for it than that. The
immense profits produced by the cultivation
of cotton, and the consequent increase of the
prices of slaves, made it profitable to breed
them for the market. Therefore the chains
upon the slaves were tightened, and these
props were put up around the institution to
prevent it from being interfered with.
The gentleman from Somerset (Mr. Jones)
denies the sinfulness of slavery; and argues
that the slaves of Maryland are kindly treated,
and compares their condition with the condi-
tion of the laboring population of Europe.
Well, sir, I believe that generally the slave-
holders of Maryland use their slaves well. I
think that they are altogether as generous |
