negro, was a social institution of the colonies before the Revolution, and at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, while it was general through the States, its strong hold was in the States of the South, where the climate and products rendered it most profitable. The traffic in negroes, however, called the slave trade, was carried on almost exclusively by the maritime States of the North, and was continued by some of them after they had become free States. The trade added largely to the wealth of those States, connected as it was with the manufacture of rum, which was shipped to Africa in exchange for negroes. It is said, when negroes were scarce and held high, the agents were instructed to " water the rum and give short measure." This traffic in slaves was practiced by nearly all civilized nations, and was a source of wealth to Great Britain, who fastened it up on the American colonies. The ethno logical status of the negro, compared with others of the human family, was so low, and his nature in an unenlightened state so servile (he being often found enslaved to his own race), that he was not regarded as hav ing any rights that civilized people were bound to respect. He was purchased and sold as an animal of labor by nearly all nations. His condition was so greatly ameliorated by mild servitude in this coun try, and his character so improved under its restraints, that slavery did not offend the consciences of our forefathers a hundred years ago. But the mind of Christendom in the fifty years next following experienced material changes. The point is made in his " Reminiscences," by the venerable Richard Wilmer, Bishop of Alabama, which I repeat from memory, that " under the fostering, uplifting influ ences of Southern slavery, the negroes at the close of the War were found in the esti mation of northern statesmen prepared for full American citizenship, and were invested
with it, an elevation denied to the ever free Indian." This is sufficient answer to those who hold that slavery degraded the negro. It re ceived him a savage, — it delivered him an American citizen. The institution of slavery, opposed as it was to the spirit of the age, even had it sur vived the War, could not have lived much longer into the nineteenth century. But slavery as related to the Constitution only, and not to morals, herein concerns us. The anti-slavery sentiment in the North was indulged by some to the degree of fanati cism. Uninformed of the institution except through unfriendly and sensational sources, the better judgment of many surrendered to morbid sentiment concerning it. A propa ganda was organized whose purpose was to limit and finally abolish slavery as an Amer ican institution. Professing to be moved by a " quickened conscience " owing allegiance to a " higher law " than the American Con stitution, they declared that sacred compact, in sanctioning and providing for slavery, to be " a league with death and a covenant with hell." This abolition propaganda soon began to influence legislation, both State and na tional. In Congress its efforts were bent to prevent the extension of slavery to the terri tories, notwithstanding the territories were the common property of the country. A number of the New England States also deliberately nullified the Constitution as to the clause in the fourth article, which required the rendition of fugitive slaves. This was done by enactments called " Per sonal Liberty Bills," which made it a crim inal offense for anyone within those States to arrest and return a fugitive slave to his master. The effect was that a slave escap ing into any of these States became lost property to the owner. Both the restrictive legislation of Con gress and those personal liberty bills were
