1790] The First Slavery Debates 269 of Philadelphia as the site of the temporary capital, and this bill came to a sudden stop. Schouler's It was at this time that Jefferson lent his aid to the suc- Hamilton's cessful prosecution of a scheme, the recollection of which compromise. annoyed him ever after: he yielded to a suggestion of United Hamilton's that they should bring about a compromise, States, I, and induced enough Southern members to vote for assump154-156. tion to carry that measure, while Hamilton, on his part, procured enough Northern votes to pass the PotomacPhiladelphia bill. The Assumption Act, in its final form, was a much less satisfactory measure than Hamilton's original plan. The latter had provided for the assumption of balances of the debt of each state after the sum due by the states to the United States had been ascertained; the law, as passed, provided, however, for the assumption of a certain part of state debts mentioned in the act; in some cases it turned out that the amount thus assumed was much too large. 1789-90. Schouler's United States, I, 156-163. 197. The First Slavery Debates, 1789, 1790. -The years Slavery between the close of the Revolutionary War and the forma- debates, tion of the government under the Constitution saw the abolition of slavery in several Northern states and the formation of plans for gradual emancipation in others (p. 227); it may truthfully be said that the Northerners were opposed to the perpetuation of slavery, although it should also be stated that the intensity of this feeling varied greatly in different parts of the North. Many of the leaders of Virginia as Washington, Jefferson, and Mason-shared in this opinion. South of the Old Dominion, the case was widely different. The South Carolinians had threatened to stay out of the Union unless their demands as to slavery and the slave trade were complied with (p. 239), and the North Carolinians, in ceding their claims to western lands to the United States (1790), stipulated that Congress should make no laws affecting slavery in the territory thus ceded. The first slavery debate in Congress arose on the motion of a representative from Virginia that the constitutional tax Proposal to tax imported slaves, 1789. Antislavery petitions, 1790. of ten dollars per head should be levied on all slaves imported into the country. The representatives of the states farther south defended slavery in the abstract, and accused the Virginians of selfishness in advocating the proposed tax, the effect of which would be to raise the price of Virginia slaves, as they would be in demand in the South and would be purchased of the Virginians by the Carolinian and Georgian planters. The proposal was dropped at that time in consideration of Southern votes for the protective tariff, and, as a matter of fact, no tax was ever levied on slaves imported. The next year the question again came before Congress, this time in a form much more objectionable to the slave owners. In February, 1790, memorials were presented from the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends and from the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, whose president was Benjamin Franklin. These petitioners prayed Congress to use its constitutional powers to "promote mercy and justice" toward the negro, and to "remove every obstruction to public righteousness," especially in respect to slavery. The Southerners assailed the memorialists with immense energy; they scented danger from afar, and the matter came up when their passions were thoroughly aroused by the debates on assumption and on the site of the new capital. The most violent of the Southern spokesmen was William Jackson of Georgia, an immigrant from England, whose vehemence in harangue has probably never been exceeded in American deliberative assemblies. The MacDonald's House referred the memorials to a committee, and upon Documents, their report another debate occurred. Ultimately a few very mild statements were entered on the journal of the House; among them was a declaration to the effect that Congress had no authority to interfere with slavery within the states. The subject was then dropped. No. 7. First Slave act, 1793. Three years later (1793) the slaveholders secured the passage of an act to carry out the provision of the Constitution (Art. iv) that persons "held to service or labor in ... 271 one state... escaping into another . . . shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." Fugitive slaves had already been restored to their masters; but this act aroused the resentment of many persons in the North, and the first case which arose under it showed how difficult it is to carry out national laws when they are contrary to the sentiment of the people of a state. In this instance, Massachusetts, where the fugitives were found, did not nullify an act of Congress in public meeting; but it proved to be practically impossible to execute an undoubtedly constitutional law within her borders. year Dixon's line in the West. In 1792 Kentucky was admitted to the Union as a slave Mason and state; Vermont had been admitted as a free state the before. The northern boundary of Virginia and Kentucky, from the Pennsylvania line to the Mississippi, was the Ohio River, which in this way served as a boundary between the free states and territories of the North and the slaveholding states and territories of the South. The Ohio forms practically a continuation of Mason and Dixon's line; indeed, the latter term was frequently used to designate simply the line between the free and the slave states. 198. The Excise and the Bank, 1791. The third and last session of the First Congress was held at Philadelphia. Two measures then passed were of exceeding interest: a bill for raising revenue from an internal revenue tax or excise, and a bill establishing a national bank. It will be remembered that Hamilton had valued the plan for the assumption of state debts because it would necessitate the extension of the government's taxing power to other sources of revenue than taxes on goods imported from foreign countries, and thus would bring into the hands of the federal government the great sources of public income. When the assumption scheme was passed, he proposed that an excise tax of twenty-five cents per gallon should be levied on all whiskey manufactured in the United States. This rate was very low, and the tax would not bring in much The Excise United States, I, 173-177. First Bank of the United States. revenue; but its enforcement would accustom the western frontiersmen to federal taxation and to the presence of federal officials, and it would make the levying of heavier taxes in the future much easier. The bill was stubbornly fought in the House; it was passed against the protests of several state legislatures, and it produced a rebellion,the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794. Hamilton's principal object was accomplished, however; the federal government had exerted its powers to levy internal taxes and had shown its power to suppress rebellion. Hamilton had long favored the establishment of a national bank. Indeed, during the Revolutionary War, he had written to Robert Morris proposing such an institution on the ground that it would enlist in that movement the influence and interest of men of means and position. He now laid before Congress the plan of a national bank, resemConstitution- bling in many ways the Bank of England. An establishality of the ment of this description would make easier the collection and disbursement of the public funds. He therefore maintained that it would be constitutional under the clause which authorized Congress "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers," among which was the power "to lay and collect taxes measure. Schouler's Attamelion to pay the debts" of the federal government. This view of the force When the bill came be of the words " necessary and proper" was disputed in 1791] Rise of the Republican Party 273 the Constitution. After some hesitation, Washington approved the bill, and twenty-five years afterward Madison, as President, signed a similar bill. The capital of the new bank thus brought into existence was ten millions, and was all subscribed for within two hours. Two parties had been formed in the cabinet, however, and from this time on, Jefferson and Hamilton, to use the words of the former, were "pitted against each other every day in the cabinet, like two fighting cocks." Jefferson placed himself at the head of the elements of opposition, and with marvelous skill welded them into a powerful party. founds Republican party. United 217-233. 199. Rise of the Republican Party. Jefferson main- Jefferson tained that Hamilton had under his orders in Congress "a corrupt squadron" of members, who were willing to do his bidding and were well paid for their complacency. There Schouler's were also dark stories in circulation of swift sailing vessels dispatched by Hamilton's friends to Southern ports, bearing agents who bought up the certificates of indebtedness at 234-237. a low rate, before the news of the funding of the debt could reach those far-off regions. Whether these stories were true or false, it is undoubtedly true that the shrewd men of business in the North, who were mostly of Hamilton's party, made large profits out of the funding operations, at the expense, to a considerable extent, of the Southern people. The financial measures of the new government were very successful, and their success alarmed and irritated many persons besides Jefferson. They all led to a great increase in the power of the central government and to a corresponding diminution in the power of the state governments. The latter organizations were familiar to the great mass of the people, who understood little of the problems of finance, which had been so admirably solved by the Secretary of the Treasury. They felt a distrust toward the growing power of the federal government, and were disposed to insist on an interpretation of the Constitution which should be favorable to the continued authority of the states. Distrust of the government. |