The debate on the above was exciting and interesting, as the subject of slavery was examined in all its bearings.  Finally the Constitution was submitted to Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, to receive the finishing touches of his facile pen.  On the 8th of August, 1787, during the debate, he delivered the following speech:—­

“He never would concur in upholding domestic slavery.  It was a nefarious institution.  It was the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed.  Compare the free regions of the Middle States, where a rich and noble cultivation marks the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty which overspread the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other States having slaves.  Travel through the whole continent, and you behold the prospect continually varying with the appearance and disappearance of slavery.  The moment you leave the Eastern States, and enter New York, the effects of the institution become visible.  Passing through the Jerseys, and entering Pennsylvania, every criterion of superior improvement witnesses the change.  Proceed southwardly, and every step you take through the great regions of slaves presents a desert, increasing with the increasing proportion of these wretched beings.  Upon what principle it is that the slaves shall be computed in the representation?  Are they men?  Then make them citizens, and let them vote.  Are they property?  Why, then, is no other property included?  The houses in this city (Philadelphia) are worth more than all the wretched slaves who cover the rice-swamps of South Carolina.  The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly explained, comes to this,—­that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa, and, in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, tears away his fellow-creatures from their dearest connections, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who views with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice.  He would add, that domestic slavery is the most prominent feature in the aristocratic countenance of the proposed Constitution.  The vassalage of the poor has ever been the favorite offspring of aristocracy.  And what is the proposed compensation to the Northern States for a sacrifice of every principle of right, of every impulse of humanity?  They are to bind themselves to march their militia for the defence of the Southern States, for their defence against those very slaves of whom they complain.  They must supply vessels and seamen in case of foreign attack.  The Legislature will have indefinite power to tax them by excises and duties on imports, both of which will fall heavier on them than on the Southern inhabitants; for the bohea tea used by a Northern