Mr. ELLSWORTH, as he had never owned a slave, could not judge of the effects of slavery on character.  He said, however, that if it was to be considered in a moral light, we ought to go further and free those already in the country.  As slaves also multiply so fast in Virginia and Maryland that it is cheaper to raise than import them, whilst in the sickly rice swamps foreign supplies are necessary, if we go no further than is urged, we shall be unjust towards South Carolina and Georgia.  Let us not intermeddle.  As population increases, poor laborers will be so plenty as to render slaves useless.  Slavery, in time, will not be a speck in our country.  Provision is already made in Connecticut for abolishing it.  And the abolition has already taken place in Massachusetts.  As to the danger of insurrections from foreign influence, that will become a motive to kind treatment of the slaves.

Mr. PINCKNEY.  If slavery be wrong, it is justified by the example of all the world.  He cited the case of Greece, Rome and other ancient States; the sanction given by France, England, Holland and other modern States.  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 citizen of South Carolina, vote for it.  An attempt to take away the right, as proposed, will produce serious objections to the Constitution, which he wished to see adopted.

Gen. PINCKNEY declared it to be his firm opinion that if himself and all his colleagues were to sign the Constitution and use their personal influence, it would be of no avail towards obtaining the assent of their constituents.  South Carolina and Georgia cannot do without slaves.  As to Virginia, she will gain by stopping the importations.  Her slaves will rise in value, and she has more than she wants.  It would be unequal, to require South Carolina and Georgia, to confederate on such unequal terms.  He said the Royal assent, before the Revolution, had never been refused to South Carolina, as to Virginia.  He contended that the importation of slaves would be for the interest of the whole Union.  The more slaves, the more produce to employ the carrying trade; the more consumption also; and the more of this, the more revenue for the common treasury.  He admitted it to be reasonable that slaves should be dutied like other imports; but should consider a rejection of the clause as an exclusion of South Carolina from the Union.

Mr. BALDWIN had conceived national objects alone to be before the Convention; not such as, like the present, were of a local nature.  Georgia was decided on this point.  That State has always hitherto supposed a General Government to be the pursuit of the central States, who wished to have a vortex for everything; that her distance would preclude her, from equal advantage; and that she could not prudently purchase it by yielding national powers.  From this it might be understood, in what light she would view an attempt to abridge one of her favorite prerogatives.  If left to herself, she may probably put a stop to the evil.  As one ground for this conjecture, he took notice of the sect of ——­; which he said was a respectable class of people, who carried their ethics beyond the mere equality of men, extending their humanity to the claims of the whole animal creation.