As the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Collamer] looks somewhat
surprised at my statement, I will refer to the authority. Mr. Rutledge
said:
"Religion and humanity had nothing to do with this question. Interest
alone is the governing principle with nations. The true question at
present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not be parties to
the Union. If the Northern States consult their interest, they will not
oppose the increase of slaves, which will increase the commodities of
which they will become the carriers."[200]
Mr. Pinckney: "South Carolina can never receive the plan if it prohibits
the slave-trade. In every proposed extension of the powers of Congress,
that State has expressly and watchfully excepted that of meddling with
the importation of negroes. If the States be all left at liberty on this
subject, South Carolina may, perhaps, by degrees, do of herself what is
wished, as Virginia and Maryland already have done."[201]
"Mr. Sherman was for leaving the clause as it stands. He disapproved of
the slave-trade; yet, as the States were now possessed of the right to
import slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from
them, and as it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to
the proposed scheme of government, he thought it best to leave the
matter as we find it."[202]
"Mr. Baldwin had conceived national objects alone to be before the
Convention: not such as, like the present, were of a local nature.
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