He placed himself in the case of a slave, and said, that on hearing that Congress had refused to listen to the decent suggestions of a respectable part of the community, he should infer, that the general government (from which was expected great good would result to every class of citizens) had shut their ears against the voice of humanity, and he should despair of any alleviation of the miseries he and his posterity had in prospect; if anything could induce him to rebel, it must be a stroke like this, impressing on his mind all the horrors of despair.  But if he was told, that application was made in his behalf and that Congress were willing to hear what could be urged in favor of discouraging the practice of importing his fellow-wretches, he would trust in their justice and humanity, and wait the decision patiently.  He presumed that these unfortunate people would reason in the same way; and he, therefore, conceived the most likely way to prevent danger, was to commit the petition.  He lived in a State which had the misfortune of having in her bosom a great number of slaves, he held many of them himself, and was as much interested in the business, he believed, as any gentleman in South Carolina or Georgia, yet, if he was determined to hold them in eternal bondage, he should feel no uneasiness or alarm on account of the present measure, because he should rely upon the virtue of Congress, that they would not exercise any unconstitutional authority.

Mr. MADISON (of Va.) The debate has taken a serious turn, and it will be owing to this alone if an alarm is created; for had the memorial been treated in the usual way, it would have been considered as a matter of course, and a report might have been made, so as to have given general satisfaction.

If there was the slightest tendency by the commitment to break in upon the Constitution, he would object to it; but he did not see upon what ground such an event was to be apprehended.  The petition prayed, in general terms, for the interference of Congress, so far as they were constitutionally authorized; but even if its prayer was, in some degree, unconstitutional, it might be committed, as was the case on Mr. Churchman’s petition, one part of which was supposed to apply for an unconstitutional interference by the general government.

He admitted that Congress was restricted by the Constitution from taking measures to abolish the slave trade; yet there were a variety of ways by which they could countenance the abolition, and they might make some regulations respecting the introduction of them into the new States, to be formed out of the Western Territory, different from what they could in the old settled States.  He thought the object well worthy of consideration.