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CHAPTER forth to be offered for sale in quarter sections of a hundred and sixty acres, and, in case the installments of the 1804. price were punctually met, no interest was to be charged. Besides the reservation of salt-springs, and the sixteenth section in each township for the use of schools, an entire township was to be reserved in each district of survey toward a seminary of learning.

At the preceding session of Congress a memorial had been presented, accompanied by the proceedings of a convention of the people of Indiana, held at Vincennes, of which the object was to obtain a suspension, as to Indiana, of the article of compact of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery north of the Ohio. A committee, to whom the memorial had been referred, and of which Randolph was chairman, had deemed it "highly danger. ous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the Northwestern country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier;" and they had declared their belief that, "in the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, the inhabitants of Indiana would, at no distant day, find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labor and immigration." This report, made just at the close of the late session, was referred at the present session, together with the papers on which it had been founded, to a new committee, of which Rodney, the new democratic representative of Delaware, was chairman. This committee reported in favor of the qualified suspension of the prohibition of slavery, so as to admit, for ten years, the introduction of slaves born within the United States, their descendants to be free, males at the age of twenty-five, and females at twenty-one. On this report no action was had; but the subject, as we shall presently see, was not allowed to rest here, being re

peatedly urged on Congress by the inhabitants of In- CHAPTER diana.

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Early in the session, the annual convention of dele- 1804. gates from the various state societies for promoting the abolition of slavery, and improving the condition of the African race, then in session at Philadelphia, had presented a memorial praying Congress to prohibit the further importation of slaves into the newly-acquired region of Louisiana. This proposal bore a striking resemblance to the suggestions of Jefferson in his famous report to the Continental Congress on the western territory, embodied afterward in a somewhat more stringent shape into the famous ordinance of 1787. Consistency, and that special regard for the abstract rights of man which Jefferson always so loudly professed, might indeed have made it proper enough that this suggestion, instead of being left to the abolition societies, should have come from the president himself. But if Jefferson loved the rights of man, he loved popularity more; and he had early found that opposition to slavery was not the road to popularity. Ever since his return from Europe, he had observed on this point a cautious silence; and his efforts toward ridding his country of the curse which he had so eloquently denounced in his Notes on Virginia (not originally intended for publication, but for distribution among his European friends), had been limited to a few slight intimations in his confidential correspondence of a hope that something to bring it about might some time be done by somebody. The memorial of the abolition convention was not, however, entirely without effect. It was referred to the Committee on the government of Louisiana, and a provision was inserted into the act organizing the Territory of Orleans, that no slaves should be carried thither except from some part of

CHAPTER the United States, by citizens removing into the territory XVII. as actual settlers, this permission not to extend to ne1804. groes introduced into the United States since 1798.

The intention of this latter provision was to guard against the effects of a recent act of South Carolina reviving the African slave trade, after a cessation of it, as to that state, for fifteen years, and of six years as to the whole Union. Such a result of the triumph of democratical principles in South Carolina was rather shocking to some sincere Northern advocates of the rights of man; especially as it might open the way to the introduction of an indefinite number of slaves from Africa into the new territories of Mississippi and Orleans. In addition to the above prohibition, Bard, of Pennsylvania, to limit the evil as far as might be, and to express the sense of the nation upon it, introduced a resolution to impose a tax of ten dollars on every slave imported.

In opposing this resolution in Committee of the Whole, Lowndes apologized for the conduct of his state on the ground of an alleged impossibility of enforcing the prohibition. Such was the nature of their coast, deeply penetrated by navigable rivers, that the people of South Carolina, especially as they had stripped themselves of means by giving up to the general government the duties on imports, could not restrain their "Eastern brethren," who, in defiance of the authority of the general government, allured by the excitement of gain, had been engaged in this trade. The repeal had become necessary to remove the spectacle of the daily violation of the law.

All this was very ingenious; but when we consider that Congress, at its very last session, had inflicted additional and severe penalties of fine and confiscation on the persons and vessels employed in this trade, the effect of which there had not yet been time to test, there must

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have been, it would seem, other reasons besides mere CHAPTER disgust at the success of the smugglers for this sudden triumph in South Carolina of the favorers of the African 1804. slave trade. And perhaps the increasing value of slave labor consequent on the increasing demand for cotton, by which the culture of indigo had been generally superseded, and the expectation that Charleston might become the entrepôt for supplying slaves to the new territories of Mississippi and Orleans, had quite as much weight.

Lowndes added that, personally, he was opposed to the slave trade, and that he wished the time were already arrived when it might be constitutionally prohibited by act of Congress; but the imposition of the proposed tax, so far from checking the traffic, would, he thought, rather tend to its increase, by seeming to give to it a Congressional sanction. Another effect of the duty would be to lay so much additional and special taxation on South Carolina, which he thought very unjust.

Bard defended his resolution on two grounds. The proposed tax was a constitutional and fair source of revenue. Since the African slave trade made men articles of traffic, they must be subject to imposts like other merchandise. The value of an imported slave being $400, a duty of ten dollars was only two and a half per cent. on the value. While this duty would add to the revenue, it would also accomplish a more important end by showing the world that the general government was opposed to slavery, and ready to exercise its powers as far as they would go for preventing its extension. "We owe it indispensably to ourselves," said Bard, "and to the world whose eyes are upon us, to maintain the republican character of our government." As additional reasons in favor of his resolution, he dwelt at length on the cruelty and immorality of the slave trade, and the dan

CHAPTER ger of slave insurrections, of which St. Domingo had furXVII. nished so striking an example, and two or three alarms 1804. of which had recently occurred in Virginia.

Mr. Speaker Macon expressed the opinion that the morality or immorality of the slave trade had nothing to do with the question before the House. "The question is not whether we shall prohibit the trade, but whether we shall tax it. Gentlemen think that South Carolina has done wrong in permitting the importation of slaves. That may be, and still this measure may also be wrong. Will it not look like an attempt in the general government to correct a state for the undisputed exercise of its constitutional power? It appears to be something like putting a state to the ban of the empire." Here was the germ of the argument afterward zealously urged by Mr. Calhoun, and still in many mouths, but pushed much further than Macon ventured to go. For we are now gravely told not only that the states, so long as they confine themselves to the exercise of constitutional rights, are to be secure from any direct interference, which nobody denies, but also that they are entitled to the direct countenance and support of the general government in every thing which they are constitutionally entitled to do, even though they may see fit to adopt or to persevere in an obsolete, retrograde, barbarous course of policy, alike disastrous to themselves and disgraceful to the nation.

Lucas, of Pennsylvania, denied that South Carolina had any right to complain of the proposed duty. If she had the right, under the Constitution, to permit the importation, Congress, under the same Constitution, had the right to impose the tax. If she chose to exercise her constitutional authority, why complain of a like exercise of it on the part of Congress? If she wished to avoid paying the tax, let her prohibit the importation.