第 2 节
作者:冷如冰      更新:2021-02-24 23:31      字数:9322
  titution。 The cause of emancipation was already advocated by the Society of Friends and some other sects。 A majority of the States adopted measures for the gradual abolition of slavery; but in other cases there proved to be industrial barriers to emancipation。 Slaves were found to be profitably employed in clearing away the forests; they were not profitably employed in general agriculture。 A marked exception was found in small districts in the Carolinas and Georgia where indigo and rice were produced; and though cotton later became a profitable crop for slave labor; it was the producers of rice and indigo who furnished the original barrier to the immediate extension of the policy of emancipation。 Representatives from their States secured the introduction of a clause into the Constitution which delayed for twenty years the execution of the will of the country against the African slave…trade。 It is said that a slave imported from Africa paid for himself in a single year in the production of rice。 There were thus a few planters in Georgia and the Carolinas who had an obvious interest in the prolongation of the institution of slavery and who had influence enough; to secure constitutional recognition for both slavery and the slave…trade。 The principles involved were not seriously debated。 In theory all were abolitionists; in practice slavery extended to all the States。 In some; actual abolition was comparatively easy; in others; it was difficult。 By the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century; actual abolition had extended to the line separating Pennsylvania from Maryland。 Of the original thirteen States seven became free and six remained slave。 The absence of ardent or prolonged debate upon this issue in the early history of the United States is easily accounted for。 No principle of importance was drawn into the controversy; few presumed to defend slavery as a just or righteous institution。 As to conduct; each individual; each neighborhood enjoyed the freedom of a large; roomy country。 Even within state lines there was liberty enough。 No keen sense of responsibility for a uniform state policy existed。 It was therefore not difficult for those who were growing wealthy by the use of imported negroes to maintain their privileges in the State。 If the sense of active responsibility was wanting within the separate States; much more was this true of the citizens of different States。 Slavery was regarded as strictly a domestic institution。 Families bought and owned slaves as a matter of individual preference。 None of the original colonies or States adopted slavery by law。 The citizens of the various colonies became slaveholders simply because there was no law against it。* The abolition of slavery was at first an individual matter or a church or a state policy。 When the Constitution was formulated; the separate States had been accustomed to regard themselves as possessed of sovereign powers; hence there was no occasion for the citizens of one State to have a sense of responsibility on account of the domestic institutions of other States。 The consciousness of national responsibility was of slow growth; and the conditions did not then exist which favored a general crusade against slavery or a prolonged acrimonious debate on the subject; such as arose forty years later。 * In the case of Georgia there was a prohibitory law; which was disregarded。 In many of the States; however; there were organized abolition societies; whose object was to promote the cause of emancipation already in progress and to protect the rights of free negroes。 The Friends; or Quakers; were especially active in the promotion of a propaganda for universal emancipation。 A petition which was presented to the first Congress in February; 1790; with the signature of Benjamin Franklin as President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society; contained this concluding paragraph 〃From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally; and is still; the birthright of all men; and influenced by the strong ties of humanity and the principles of their institutions; your memorialists conceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bonds of slavery; and to promote the general enjoyment of the blessings of freedom。 Under these impressions they earnestly entreat your attention to the subject of slavery; that you will be pleased to countenance the restoration to liberty of those unhappy men; who; alone; in this land of freemen; are groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise means for removing this inconsistency of character from the American people; that you will promote mercy and justice towards this distressed race; and that you will step to the very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellowmen。〃* * William Goodell; 〃Slavery and Anti…Slavery;〃 p。 99。 The memorialists were treated with profound respect。 Cordial support and encouragement came from representatives from Virginia and other slave States。 Opposition was expressed by members from South Carolina and Georgia。 These for the most part relied upon their constitutional guaranties。 But for these guaranties; said Smith; of South Carolina; his State would not have entered the Union。 In the extreme utterances in opposition to the petition there is a suggestion of the revolution which was to occur forty years later。 Active abolitionists who gave time and money to the promotion of the cause were always few in numbers。 Previous to 1830 abolition societies resembled associations for the prevention of cruelty to animalsin fact; in one instance at least this was made one of the professed objects。 These societies labored to induce men to act in harmony with generally acknowledged obligations; and they had no occasion for violence or persecution。 Abolitionists were distinguished for their benevolence and their unselfish devotion to the interests of the needy and the unfortunate。 It was only when the ruling classes resorted to mob violence and began to defend slavery as a divinely ordained institution that there was a radical change in the spirit of the controversy。 The irrepressible conflict between liberty and despotism which has persisted in all ages became manifest when slave…masters substituted the Greek doctrine of inequality and slavery for the previously accepted Christian doctrine of equality and universal brotherhood。
  CHAPTER II。 THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE CRUSADE It was a mere accident that the line drawn by Mason and Dixon between Pennsylvania and Maryland became known in later years as the dividing line between slavery and freedom。 The six States south of that line ultimately neglected or refused to abolish slavery; while the seven Northern States became free。 Vermont became a State in 1791 and Kentucky in 1792。 The third State to be added to the original thirteen was Tennessee in 1796。 At that time; counting the States as they were finally classified; eight were destined to be slave and eight free。 Ohio entered the Union as a State in 1802; thus giving to the free States a majority of one。 The balance; however; was restored in 1812 by the admission of Louisiana as a slave State。 The admission of Indiana in 1816 on the one side and of Mississippi in 1817 on the other still maintained the balance: ten free States stood against ten slave States。 During the next two years Illinois and Alabama were admitted; making twenty…two States in all; still evenly divided。 The ordinance for the government of the territory north of the Ohio River; passed in 1787 and reenacted by Congress after the adoption of the Constitution; proved to be an act of great significance in its relation to the limitation of slavery。 By this ordinance slavery was forever prohibited in the Northwest Territory。 In the territory south of the Ohio River slavery became permanently established。 The river; therefore; became an extension of the original Mason and Dixon's Line with the new meaning attached: it became a division between free and slave territory。 It was apparently at first a mere matter of chance that a balance was struck between the two losses of States。 While Virginia remained a slave State; it was natural that slavery should extend into Kentucky; which had been a part of Virginia。 Likewise Tennessee; being a part of North Carolina; became slave territory。 When these two Territories became slave States; the equal division began。 There was yet an abundance of territory both north and south to be taken into the Union and; without any special plan or agitation; States were admitted in pairs; one free and the other slave。 In the meantime there was distinctly developed the idea of the possible or probable permanence of slavery in the South and of a rivalry or even a future conflict between the two sections。 When in 1819 Missouri applied for admission to the Union with a state constitution permitting slavery; there was a prolonged debate over the whole question; not only in Congress but throughout the entire country。 North and South were distinctly pitted against each other with rival systems of labor。 The following year Congress passed a law providing for the admission of Missouri; but; to restore the balance; Maine was separated from Massachusetts and was admitted to the Union as a St