Part 49

Some years ago the States, even those in which slaves abound most, loudly exclaimed against the further importation of that class of people, and by their laws prohibited their traffic. Either they did this on moral principles or considerations of policy. In 1802, Congress stretched out her arm to aid the State Governments against the evil they so much deprecated, and passed a law inflicting fines and forfeitures on every man who should be found importing slaves into the United States. What might have been the issue of these combined exertions, or how far they might ultimately secure their end, I cannot tell; but, as to South Carolina, they have become nugatory; by repealing her prohibitory law she has rejected the interference of Congress. Why that State has done so; why she has abandoned a measure which, the other day, was considered so much her interest, I know not, nor is it for me to offer any conjectures. South Carolina is a sovereign State, and has a right to consult and pursue her own interest, so far as the general good will permit; for hitherto she may come, and no further. Every State has a right to import slaves if it so chooses, and Congress has a right to tax all the slaves imported; but when the powers of a State, though constitutional, operate against the general interest, then the exercise of those powers is politically wrong, because it is contrary to the fundamental principle of society, the public good, which is paramount to law and the constitution itself. And, in my opinion, the importation of slaves is hostile to the United States: to import slaves is to import enemies into our country; it is to import men who must be our natural enemies, if such there can be. Their circumstances, their barbarism, their reflections, their hopes and fears, render them an enemy of the worst description.

Gentlemen tell us, though I can hardly think them serious, that the people of this description can never systematize a rebellion. I will not mention facts, it is sufficient to say that experience speaks a different language--the rigor of the laws, and the impatience of the slaves, will mutually increase each other, until the artifices of the one are exhausted, and until, on the other hand, human nature sinks under its wrongs, or obtains the restoration of its rights. The negroes are in every family; they are waiting on every table; they are present on numerous occasions when the conversation turns on political subjects, and cannot fail to catch ideas that will excite discontentment with their condition. And what is to be expected from the people of this description, but that they will some day, and especially if their importation continues, produce a disturbance that may not be easily quieted, or kindle a flame that may not be readily extinguished. If ten thousand of them have been, as it is said, smuggled into the United States, in the course of a year or two past, and if ten or fifteen thousand of them may now be legally brought annually into our country, for four years to come, it will hardly be imagined that the general interest will be unaffected by such an importation.

If they are ignorant, they are, however, susceptible of instruction, and capable of becoming proficients in the art of war. To be convinced of this we have only to look at St. Domingo.

There the negroes felt their wrongs, and have avenged them; they learned the rights of man, and asserted them; they have wrested the power from their oppressors, and have become masters of the island. If they are unarmed, they may be armed; European powers have armed the Indians against us, and why may they not arm the negroes? And if they are already as numerous as is consistent with safety, it must be extreme impolicy to import more; it is to accelerate an event which we cannot contemplate without pain.

Slavery is not only impolitic as it affects the strength and tranquillity of the United States, but as it prevents their wealth, which can only grow out of society where the arts, sciences, and manufactures, are cultivated and improved. But, sir, I despise to argue on the advantages or disadvantages of what is contrary to the genius of our Government; what is radically unjust, and violates the principles of morality.

The Americans boast of being the most enlightened people in the world--they certainly enjoy the greatest share of liberty, and understand the principles of rational government more generally than any other nation on earth. They have denounced tyranny and oppression; they have declared their country to be an asylum for the oppressed of all nations. But will foreigners concede this high character to us, when they examine our census and find that we hold a million of men in the most degraded slavery? This is nearly one-fifth of our whole population; in some of the States nearly the half. Here, then, is a fact that must have weight to sink our national character, in spite of volumes to support it. It is a fact, from which foreigners will infer, that we possess the principles of tyranny, but want the power to carry them into operation, except against the untutored and defenceless African. If, then, we hold a consistency of national character in any estimation, we will give every discouragement in our power to the importation of slaves. It is in this view that the tax contemplated by the resolution is principally to be considered, and only incidentally as matter of revenue.

But, sir, I presume, on permission, to say, that the importation of slaves is in direct contradiction to the principles of morality. On these principles the Constitution of the United States is founded; on them every law ought to be founded; otherwise legislation will progress in the dark, and every step deviate still more from its true direction. “Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you,” is a law paramount to all human institutions; it is the fundamental law of human nature, of Christianity, and of every rational Government; it is a law which we wish all men to respect in their dealings with us; and it is a law which every man confesses he ought to observe, and, in spite of all the sophistry of depravity, must acknowledge himself subject to its cognizance. I need not, nor will I, ask if we have observed this law as to the Africans; for it must be obvious to every man that it is not possible to violate it in a greater degree than we have done towards that unfortunate and wretched people.

But, notwithstanding all the information our country enjoys, numbers in the Eastern States have been embarked, for some years past, in the cruel traffic of slaves, and smuggling them into other States. And it is to be feared that many of them are, at this moment, preparing means to stimulate the barbarous tribes of Africa to war against each other; mutually to torture every human feeling; to violate the strongest ties of nature and affection; to tear the husband from the wife, and the wife from the husband; the parent from the child, and the child from the parent; and are coolly and deliberately forging irons, that they may have the infernal pleasure of coolly and deliberately riveting them on the unfortunate men, women, and children, who may fall into their hands. Such an enterprise, such a traffic as this, must affect our national character; it is self-evidently wrong, and, at first view, must receive the disapprobation of every disinterested man. The genius of our constitution, the mildness of its administration, and the prevailing sentiment of the nation, must sanction every measure to discourage the further admission of a people whose numbers already excite most painful sensations. In a word, the tax is constitutional; no article can bear a tax better than the one here proposed; it is a uniform tax, and justified on the ground of sound policy; and so far as it tends to discourage the slave-trade, it is supported by every principle of virtue. If I have uttered a word offensive to any member of the House, it will not be attributable to design, but to an honest solicitude to promote the honor and interest of our country.

Mr. BEDINGER said he differed widely, as to the effects of this motion, from the gentleman who had just spoken. He was as hostile to the slave-trade as any man in the Union; and if he could believe that the imposition of a tax of ten dollars upon every imported negro would check the importation, he would vote for it. But he believed the resolution would have a different effect, and would rather sanction than discourage the trade. In point of revenue, the tax was of little consideration. Suppose a thousand slaves to be imported monthly, the amount of the tax would be about $100,000 a year; which in four years, at the expiration of which Congress would have power to prohibit the trade altogether, would amount to $400,000--a sum too trifling to be put into competition with the adoption of any measure that went to sanction such a trade.

Mr. MACON (the Speaker) believed the resolution was not founded in good policy. All the declamation and appeal to the passions urged in its behalf appeared to him unnecessary and irrelevant. The avowed object of the proposed tax was to show the hostility of Congress to the principle of importing slaves. How could this opposition of Congress be manifested, when it would become the duty of the armed ships of the United States, as soon as the tax was imposed, to protect this trade, as well as all other trade on which taxes were laid? He asked whether vessels engaged in this trade would not, under such circumstances, possess the same right to the protection of the Government as any other vessels engaged in any other kind of trade? Can this House tax this trade, and refuse it the same protection that is extended to all other trade? The question is not whether we shall prohibit the slave trade, but simply whether we shall tax it. Gentlemen are of opinion that the State of South Carolina has done wrong in permitting the importation of slaves. Suppose that this is the case. May not this measure be wrong also? Will it not look like an attempt in the General Government to correct a State for the undisputed exercise of its constitutional powers? It appeared to him to be something like putting a State to the ban of the empire. It will operate as a censure thrown on the State. To this, said Mr. M., I can never consent. As far as the law that may be founded upon this resolution can go, it will hold forth an evidence of the opinion entertained by Congress of the act of the Legislature of South Carolina. I know that these ideas may be unpopular in some parts of the Union, but I, notwithstanding, consider them just. There does not appear to me to be any necessity for our interposition, as, since the adoption of the constitution, no slaves have, I believe, been permitted to be imported, and as only four years are yet to run before Congress will be possessed of the constitutional right of prohibiting such importation altogether. And the simple question now is, whether for a trifling revenue, we will undertake to protect this trade. My idea is, that those who at present go into the traffic, have no right to claim your protection; but once legalize it by taxing it, and they will acquire the right thereto, and will demand it. All that has been said on the circumstances connected with the slave trade either here or in England, and on its morality or immorality, are in my opinion foreign to the true point involved in this debate, which is, Is the measure contemplated by the resolution politic, or is it not? In my opinion it is impolitic, for the reasons I have assigned, and for many others which might be added. I shall therefore, on this ground, vote against it.

Mr. FINDLAY was of opinion that the policy of the measure embraced by the resolution, and nothing else, was before them. Gentlemen seemed all to unite in their abhorrence of the slave trade; they differed only about the means of preventing it. It was well understood that a large majority of the Federal Convention were inimical to the slave trade. That convention had only acted upon it in a commercial point of view. As they considered imported slaves an article of commerce, the House possessed the same liberty of acting with regard to them, as with regard to other articles of trade. In some of these articles, Congress had the right of exercising unlimited taxation; in this case, their power was limited to a certain amount. Imported goods, on an average, were subjected to a duty of about 20 per cent. On this subject, a difference of opinion exists as to the propriety of making imported slaves an article of revenue. This is the true question, and not whether we shall cast a censure upon any particular State. It does not follow, that, because we lay a particular tax, we censure those who pay it. Considering this, then, as an article of trade, the tax might have been long since laid, had not all the States prohibited the traffic. Under those circumstances, it could not be taken up as a subject of revenue.

Mr. F. observed, that, though it might be unbecoming in the House to be influenced by resentment against the State of South Carolina, yet it was proper that they should be influenced by the policy of the case. As a profitable article of commerce, it appeared as eligible a subject of taxation as could be found, and as justly liable to taxation as any other. As to the disgrace, which some gentlemen were of opinion would arise from taxing it, that arose from the existence of the slave trade. In laying the tax, we shall do all we can to discourage it; and if we do not like to use the money derived from taxing it in the common way, we may apply it to special objects--to ameliorate the state of slavery, or to any other object.

Mr. F. concluded his remarks by observing, that this question being brought forward, he could not justify himself in neglecting to embrace the opportunity it presented of discountenancing the importation of slaves. He considered it proper that Congress should take up the subject as the constitution presented it to them. At a certain period they would possess the right of prohibiting it altogether, and until then they enjoyed the power of taxation. This being the only constitutional power they did possess, he trusted they would exert it.

Mr. S. L. MITCHILL declared his wish that the proposition of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. BARD) should be considered merely as a subject of political economy. In the remarks which he proposed to offer upon it, he should, therefore, confine himself to that object. He would, therefore, say nothing on the immorality of a trade which deprived a large portion of the human species of their rights. He should pass over, in silence, every thing that might be urged to exhibit it as impious and irreligious; and he would not utter a word on its repugnance to the principles of our equal jurisprudence, and the spirit of our free Government. The slavery of a portion of our species was a copious theme, when viewed in either of these aspects; but, on the present occasion, he was willing to waive them all. The proposition was to be considered only in its commercial, economical, and fiscal relations; and on each of these it would be proper to make a few observations.

It was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic. During the present session, memorials had been presented to Congress praying for exoneration from the exportation bonds, which had been given to one of the collectors of the customs, to ensure the landing of a cargo of New England rum in Africa, which it was not pretended to be denied was bartered away for slaves. These voyages were said to be carried on under the flag of a foreign nation; and the common practice, as was alleged, was, to go to the island of St. Croix and procure Danish papers and colors. Under this cover, the voyages were performed. To prevent the confiscation of the vessels under the law, on conviction of being engaged in the slave trade, it had been customary to sell that article of property in a foreign port.

Mr. M. observed that the extent of this shocking commerce was very considerable at this time. Some time ago, he had seen a list of the American vessels then known to be hovering on the coast of Guinea in quest of captive negroes. They were numerous and active, and so fatally busy as to excite the apprehensions of the benevolent Sierra Leone Company. In various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without secrecy, shame, or apprehension. The construction of the ships, the shackles for confining the wretched passengers, and all the dismal apparatus of cruelty, were attended to with the systematic coolness of an ordinary adventure. Regardless of legal prohibitions, these merciless men, as greedy as the sharks of the element on which they sailed, collected their slaves along the shores, and at the factories of Negroland, from the river Senegal to the countries of Congo and Angola. Countenanced by their fellow-citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill-fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina.

So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common consent. And, therefore, as was observed by a gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. HUGER,) the Legislature of that State had lately repealed their restrictive law, and legitimated a trade which neither that regulation of their common wealth, nor the concurrent authority of the nation, could prevent. And it may be received as a correct general idea on this subject, that the citizens of the navigating States bring negroes from Africa, and sell them to the inhabitants of those States which are more distinguished for their plantations.

Thus in spite of the spirit of our republican institutions, and the letter of our laws, a commerce in slaves is carried on to an alarming extent--a species of slavery peculiar in its form and character, and unlike that which was practised in ancient or modern Europe--a kind of servitude unheard of by the civilized world, until it was made known among the discoveries of the Portuguese along the western coast of that continent which reaches from Ceuta to the Cape of Good Hope. There it seems to have been extant from time immemorial, among the barbarous powers of a country who have eradicated all the tender relations of society, and established in their place the forceful and ferocious distinctions of MASTER and SLAVE. From those rude and uncivilized tribes, did Christian people learn the lessons of negro slavery. Under such instructors, and with such examples before them, have the Europeans and their descendants carried those savage customs of Africans into the New World, and most unfortunately tainted with them the manners and ordinances of a more refined race of men. For a delineation of this peculiar state of society, in its native regions, the world is much indebted to the undaunted enterprise of Mr. Parke; as, for its baneful effects upon the white nations who have adopted it, they will long remember the disclosures of Mr. Wilberforce, and the researches of Mr. Clarkson.

This doleful traffic it was not in the power of Congress to prevent by any present regulations. By the 9th section of the first article of the constitution the power of admitting such persons as they please is reserved to the States, until the year 1808. South Carolina has authorized the importation of negro slaves from Africa. This Congress can neither prohibit nor punish. But the National Legislature can exercise the authority granted by the same paragraph of the constitution, “of imposing on such importation a tax or duty not exceeding ten dollars for each person.”

There could be no doubt of the power of Congress to declare and levy such an impost on imported slaves for four years to come. The only question therefore was, whether it would be good policy to do so? Mr. MITCHILL contended that it would. On this point he replied to a gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. LOWNDES,) who had argued that such a tax would discourage agriculture. He contrasted the cultivation of lands by the labor of freemen, with the more expensive management of them by slaves. He compared the husbandry of the Northern and Middle States, with the rural economy of the South. He examined in detail the moderate profits of a plantation on which bread, corn, grass, and live stock, were raised, and the enormous income derived to the proprietor of an estate employed in the culture of tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar. He examined the smaller expense of feeding, clothing, and housing laborers in warm than in cold climates. It has been computed by men of observation, that a working slave on a cotton plantation would, besides supporting himself, clear for his master a net sum of two hundred dollars a year. On the average course of crops, where the plants were not attacked by the cherille, this estimate was considerably below the mark. And on this conviction he believed there was no important article whatever that would bear an impost so well.

Mr. M. then replied to an argument of the gentleman from North Carolina, (Mr. MACON,) that the imposition of the tax would be a recognition of the right to trade in slaves, and bind the nation to protect it with the force of the navy. He considered slavery already recognized in many of the States, and permitted by the constitution. It was a fact that it did exist, and Congress could not put an end to it. But this body might interpose its authority, and discountenance it as far as possible; and by laying the duty as high as the constitution permitted, a very desirable addition would be made to the revenue. Two hundred thousand dollars might be computed to be derived from this sort of merchandise imported into the country. Nor would Congress be bound to protect the African commerce on the high seas; the existing statute would be in force against it; the trade would still be unlawful as far as the power of Congress extended. And under the proposition now under debate, this species of traffic would be so far from receiving encouragement, that it would be punished in cases where Congress could punish it, and taxed in the cases to which the power to punish it did not extend.

He then delineated the wretched condition of a man subdued by fraud or force, deprived of the exercise of his will and judgment, subjected to the dominion and caprice of another, robbed of his rights and privileges, divested of moral power and agency, degraded from the rank of a human being, and brutalized into a chattel--a thing--and divested of the character of a person. In this point of view, such articles, bought and sold publicly in the market, were to be considered as mere merchandise, as working machines, or animals of labor? Distressing as the recollection was to every sympathizing or patriotic heart, it was useless to dwell upon it, as it was beyond our reach to grant relief. He would therefore treat it strictly as a case of foreign merchandise heretofore admitted free, but upon which it was now intended to impose a duty. For his own part, he should be glad if it could be laid, ad valorem, upon the price of the article. But, as the matter was circumstanced, there was no other method that could be adopted than to impose it, per capita, upon the individual persons imported. By laying the tax, he would imitate the ways of Divine Providence, and endeavor to extract good out of evil.

Concluding thus that the tax was constitutional, that the subject would bear it, and that it would be a seasonable and proper expression of the Congressional sentiment on the subject. Mr. M. proceeded to show what an abundance of excellent purposes could be answered by $200,000 collected annually for four years.

In the course of his remarks, Mr. M. said, he had endeavored to avoid all harshness of expression on a topic of a peculiarly delicate nature, and prone to excite much sensibility in debate, but considered it strictly as a matter of political economy. In his attempt to state his reasoning to the committee, not as an abstract speculator, but as a man of business, he hoped he had given no offence to any gentleman by any severity of animadversion. He looked upon negro slavery as a dark spot on some of the members of the national body, which was spreading wider, turning blacker, and threatening a gangrene all around--and he felt a confidence that all friends to the health of this body would take warning by its fatal progress in a neighboring island--which had so mortified in St. Domingo, as to make that extreme part rot and drop off from the system to which it once belonged.

Mr. SLOAN said he rose to observe, in a few words, that however afflicting it might be to contemplate a certain part of the creation used as articles of traffic, imported and exported the same as cattle, he did not consider the morality or immorality of the practice before the House. We must take the constitution as we find it, and as it is not in our power to prohibit the importation, the only question to be considered is, whether we shall most encourage the traffic, by letting the articles imported remain free of duty or by imposing a tax upon them. This view, he believed, presented to the mind the true question, and believing himself that a tax would, in some degree, discourage the importation, he should vote for the resolution.

Mr. T. MOORE.--I am astonished to hear gentlemen, who advocate the resolution now under consideration, reprobate a traffic as horrid and infamous, and yet wish to draw a revenue from infamy, if it is an infamy.

I differ very widely in opinion from the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania, who thinks that a tax of ten dollars per head will operate as a check to the growth of this horrid traffic. If I thought it would have that effect I would cheerfully vote for the resolution. I believe a tax of ten dollars will not prevent the importation of a single person of this description.

The gentleman told us that he hoped the General Government were disposed to discourage this traffic as far as they are authorized by the constitution. I hope this House will discourage this impolitic act of the Legislature of one of the Southern States--not by imposing a tax on those unfortunate people imported into the United States, but by passing a resolution expressive of its disapprobation of all acts permitting the importation of certain people into the United States. As the General Government cannot prohibit this traffic before the year 1808, I hope this House will reject the resolution under consideration, and totally disapprove every measure which attempts to draw revenue from an act that rivets the chains of slavery on any of the human race.