I said the States would never have entered into the confederation, unless their property had been guaranteed to them, for such is the state of agriculture in that country, that without slaves it must be depopulated.  Why will these people then make use of arguments to induce the slave to turn his hand against his master?  We labor under difficulties enough from the ravages of the late war.  A gentleman can hardly come from that country, with a servant or two, either to this place or Philadelphia, but what there are persons trying to seduce his servants to leave him; and, when they have done this, the poor wretches are obliged to rob their master in order to obtain a subsistence; all those, therefore, who are concerned in this seduction, are accessaries to the robbery.

The reproaches which they cast upon the owners of negro property, is charging them with the want of humanity; I believe the proprietors are persons of as much humanity as any part of the continent and are as conspicuous for their good morals as their neighbors.  It was said yesterday, that the Quakers were a society known to the laws, and the Constitution, but they are no more so than other religious societies; they stand exactly in the same situation; their memorial, therefore, relates to a matter in which they are no more interested than any other sect, and can only be considered as a piece of advice; it is customary to refer a piece of advice to a committee, but if it is supposed to pray for what they think a moral purpose, is that sufficient to induce us to commit it?  What may appear a moral virtue in their eyes, may not be so in reality.  I have heard of a sect of Shaking Quakers, who, I presume, suppose their tenets of a moral tendency; I am informed one of them forbids to intermarry, yet in consequence of their shakings and concussions, you may see them with a numerous offspring about them.  Now, if these people were to petition Congress to pass a law prohibiting matrimony, I ask, would gentlemen agree to refer such a petition?  I think if they would reject one of that nature, as improper, they ought also to reject this.

Mr. Page (of Va.) was in favor of the commitment; he hoped that the designs of the respectable memorialists would not be stopped at the threshold, in order to preclude a fair discussion of the prayer of the memorial.  He observed that gentlemen had founded their arguments upon a misrepresentation; for the object of the memorial was not declared to be the total abolition of the slave trade:  but that Congress would consider, whether it be not in reality within their power to exercise justice and mercy, which, if adhered to, they cannot doubt must produce the abolition of the slave trade.  If then the prayer contained nothing unconstitutional, he trusted the meritorious effort would not be frustrated.  With respect to the alarm that was apprehended, he conjectured there was none; but there might be just cause, if the memorial was not taken into consideration.  He placed himself