States voting against it, their proposition was lost. Notwithstanding all this, Mr. Wilson, in his history of the "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," says that there is no doubt that at the time of the Declaration of Independence a general desire prevailed amongst conscientious and enlightened people—including most of the leaders of the revolution—to put an end to the African slave trade, believing it inconsistent with the doctrines they were proclaiming and the civil institutions they were founding.
But slavery, fostered for so many years, was so bound up with the habits of the people, especially in the south, that, to quote Mr. Wilson's own words, it had "a tenacity of life not dreamed of by friend or foe."
When the Independence of the thirteen colonies was acknowledged, in 1782, there was a large and fertile piece of land conceded to belong to the new Republic, portions of which were claimed by several of the States under their respective charters. In 1784, Virginia ceded all lands claimed by her north-west of the Ohio river. A committee was appointed by Congress, and reported a plan for the government of these lands, wherein it was provided that "involuntary servitude" should cease after 1800. This clause was opposed by the Southern States, and ultimately struck out through their influence. The next year Rufus King moved for the immediate prohibition of slavery in the North-West territory, but his motion failed. In 1787, however, a committee of Congress, presided over by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, reported an ordinance in which it was provided that there should be neither involuntary servitude nor slavery in the lands north-west of the Ohio, and this was passed almost unanimously. The only vote against it was from New York.
In 1787 a Convention was called to frame the Constitution of the United States. When the basis of representation in Congress came on for discussion it was determined that all the States should be equally represented in the Senate. For the second chamber—the House of Representatives—Virginia proposed one representative for every 40,000 inhabitants, slaves to be counted in the ratio of three-fifths. A very heated discussion ensued, the Free States justly objecting to the slaves having votes at all, since they would not be allowed to use the votes, which would be used by their masters for their injury. The long and bitter discussion was only brought to a close by North Carolina declaring that she would not confederate unless slaves were counted as three-fifths at least. This Southern menace of "no Union" induced the Committee of Detail to make further concessions. No prohibition, no tax was put upon the importation of slaves, and no tax was laid upon the products of slave labor—rice, tobacco and indigo. When these points were debated Mr.
