"2. Congress shall also have the power to prohibit the
introduction of slaves from any state not a member of, or
Territory not belonging to, this Confederacy."
In the case of the United States, the only prohibition is against any
interference by Congress with the slave-trade for a term of years, and
it was further legitimized by the authority given to impose a duty upon
it. The term of years, it is true, had long since expired, but there was
still no prohibition of the trade by the Constitution; it was after 1808
entirely within the discretion of Congress either to encourage,
tolerate, or prohibit it.
Under the Confederate Constitution, on the contrary, the African
slave-trade was "_hereby forbidden_," positively and unconditionally,
from the beginning. Neither the Confederate Government nor that of any
of the States could permit it, and the Congress was expressly "required"
to enforce the prohibition. The only discretion in the matter intrusted
to the Congress was, whether or not to permit the introduction of slaves
from any of the United States or their Territories.
Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural address, had said: "I have no purpose,
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in
the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so,
and I have no inclination to do so." Now, if there was no purpose on the
part of the Government of the United States to interfere with the
institution of slavery within its already existing limits--a proposition
which permitted its propagation within those limits by natural
increase--and inasmuch as the Confederate Constitution precluded any
other than the same natural increase, we may plainly perceive the
disingenuousness and absurdity of the pretension by which a factitious
sympathy has been obtained in certain quarters for the war upon the
South, on the ground that it was a war in behalf of freedom against
slavery.
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