SLAVERY AS A POLITICAL AND LEGAL PROBLEM.

1775-1800.

BRITISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA DECLARE THEIR INDEPENDENCE.—­A NEW GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED.—­SLAVERY THE BANE OF AMERICAS CIVILIZATION.—­THE TORY PARTY ACCEPT THE DOCTRINE OF PROPERTY IN MAN.—­THE DOCTRINE OF THE LOCAL CONSTITUTION IN THE SOUTH.—­THE WAR PARTY THE DOMINANT POLITICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE NORTHERN STATES.—­SLAVERY RECOGNIZED UNDER THE NEW GOVERNMENT.—­ANTI SLAVERY AGITATION IN THE STATES.—­ATTEMPTED LEGISLATION AGAINST SLAVERY.—­ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.—­THEIR ADOPTION IN 1778.—­DISCUSSION CONCERNING THE DISPOSAL OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY.—­MR. JEFFERSON’S RECOMMENDATION—­AMENDMENT OF MR. SPAIGHT.—­CONGRESS IN NEW YORK IN 1787.—­DISCUSSION RESPECTING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY.—­CONVENTION AT PHILADELPHIA TO FRAME THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.—­PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION.—­THE SOUTHERN STATES STILL ADVOCATE SLAVERY.—­SPEECHES ON THE SLAVERY QUESTION BY LEADING STATESMEN.—­CONSTITUTION ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION IN 1787.—­FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS UNDER THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION HELD IN NEW YORK IN 1789.—­THE INTRODUCTION OF A TARIFF BILL.—­AN ATTEMPT TO AMEND IT BY INSERTING A CLAUSE LEVYING A TAX ON SLAVES BROUGHT BY WATER.—­EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS.—­A CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC OPINION OF THE MIDDLE AND EASTERN STATES ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.—­DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.—­MEMORIAL TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS.—­CONGRESS IN 1790.—­BITTER DISCUSSION ON THE RESTRICTION OF THE SLAVE TRADE.—­SLAVE POPULATION.—­VERMONT AND KENTUCKY ADMITTED INTO THE UNION.—­A LAW PROVIDING FOR THE RETURN OF FUGITIVES FROM ’LABOR AND SERVICE.—­CONVENTION OF FRIENDS HELD IN PHILADELPHIA.—­AN ACT AGAINST THE FOREIGN SLAVE TRADE.—­MISSOURI TERRITORY.—­CONSTITUTION OF GEORGIA REVISED.—­NEW YORK PASSES A BILL FOR THE GRADUAL EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY.—­CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY REVISED.—­SLAVERY AS AN INSTITUTION FIRMLY ESTABLISHED.

The charge that the mother-country forced slavery upon the British colonies in North America held good until the colonies threw off the yoke, declared their independence, and built a new government, on the 4th of July, 1776.  After the promulgation of the gospel of human liberty, the United States of America could no longer point to England as the “first man Adam” of the accursed sin of slavery.  Henceforth the American government, under the new dispensation of peace and the equality of all men, was responsible for the continuance of slavery, both as a political and legal problem

Slavery did not escheat to the English government upon the expiration of its authority in North America.  It became the dreadful inheritance of the new government, and the eyesore of American civilization.  Instead of expelling it from the political institutions of the country, it gradually became a factor of great power.  Instead of ruling it out of the courts, it was clothed with the ample garments of judicial respectability.