agree to the plan, unless their right to import
slaves be untouched, the expectation is vain,
The people of those States will never be such
fools as to give up so important an interest.
He was strenuous against striking out the
section, and seconded the motion of Gen.
Pinckney for a commitment."
Three days after this debate, Gen, Pinck-
ney moved to strike out of the report of the
committee the words " the year eighteen hun-
dred," as the year limiting the importation of
slaves, and to insert the words, "the year
eighteen hundred and eight." Therefore the
time designated in the Constitution of the
United States was so designated upon the
motion of Gen. Pinckney, of South Carolina ;
and not upon the motion of any delegate from
a Northern State. And here is the recorded
vote which passed that proposition of Gen.
Pinckney, and I ask the attention of this
House to the vote, that they may see whether
Northern States passed that vote. It was
passed by seven in the affirmative and four
in the negative, as follows :
Affirmative.—New Hampshire, Massachu-
setts, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia,
Negative.— New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Del-
aware, and Virginia.
In that Convention the Southern States
had a majority of six to five. Had the South
desired to stop the importation of slaves, all
they had to do was to vote against it; they
got the votes of but three Northern States
for it.
it thus appears that the words in the Con-
stitution of the United States to-day, were
put in there, not by Northern men, but on
the motion of Gen. Pinckney, of South Caro-
lina, who, with Mr. Rutledge, of North Caro-
lina, declared that unless they were put in,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
could not be expected to join the Federal
Union, And the question on the adoption
of the motion of Mr. Pinckney was carried
by Southern votes. Let us have this record
right; and let us hear no more in this House
about the whole weight of slavery in the
United States being upon the North.
in the Convention of Massachusetts, the
Constitution was adopted by a vote of 187
out of 355, a majority of only 19 votes being
in favor of its adoption. So strenuous was
the opposition to the Constitution that it is
asserted on high authority that had the vote
been token when the Convention first met,
before the reason why this article was put in
was assigned, that is, to get the South to
enter the Union, Massachusetts would have
rejected the Constitution of the United States ;
and it is hardly too much to say that the fate
of the Federal Constitution was to be decided
by the action of the Convention of that
State.
Mr. BELT. Those who have read the de-
bates upon the adoption of the Constitution
40 |
of the United States, with an intent to ascer-
tain what was the real question before those
great men, have learned, as I have from my
slight reading of what occurred there, that
there were two questions relating to this mat-
ter of the slave trade before that body. One
was whether the slave trade, as such, should
be abolished. The other was the practical
and direct question in reference to negro sla-
very itself, whether cargoes of slaves should
be imported to reinforce the negro popula-
tion. They were two entirely and absolutely
distinct questions. Now what the gentleman
(Mr., Cushing) has read is a portion, and but
a small portion, of that which at one time oc-
curred in that Convention upon one of these
questions.
Now, as I came in here to-night unprovi-
ded with any authorities at all, all I desire to
say is that I tender myself upon my reputa-
tion to make good to this House that in point
of fact, upon the question of keeping open
the African slave trade—which as regards
the question of humanity, was the worse
of the two questions considered—as a matter
of fact the proposition to continue it was
maintained by the men of the North, as
against the men of Virginia.
Mr. STIRLING. The gentleman said before,
" the men of the South."
Mr. BELT. I wish no mistake about it. I
say the men of Virginia and of the South gen-
erally.
Mr. CUSHING. Does the gentleman aban-
don the point about the importation of slaves
until 1808?
Mr. BELT. I do not, I include that in the
tender I now make. I will show that the
men who proposed and advocated in the Con-
vention the proposition to continue the slave
trade until 1808, were Northern men, and
they did it exclusively upon the ground that
a large portion of their people had so much of
their money invested in the trade that it would
be an outrage and a wrong suddenly to stop it.
Now I tender myself to prove that propo-
sition.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. When may we expect
that proof?
Mr. BELT. Whenever in this debate I am
allowed the opportunity to speak,
Mr. STIRLING. I must say that I was so
surprised at what the gentleman from Prince
George's (Mr. Belt) said, that I called the
attention of the gentleman from Cecil (Mr-
Scott) to it. The gentleman from Prince
George's distinctly stated that the permission
to continue the slave trade for twenty years
after the adoption of the Constitution, was
upon the proposition of Northern men, and
secured by Northern votes. Now any col-
league (Mr. Cushing) has distinctly proved
from the debates of that Convention, that
that particular clause was moved by a gen-
tlemen from South Carolina; and the few
Northern States that voted for it, did so |
