Jefferson. may perhaps have given them! To our reproach it must be said, Thomas that, though for a century and a half we have had under our eyes the races of black and of red men, they have never yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history. I advance it, therefore, as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind." -Jefferson's Works, vol. viii. p. 386. Alluding to these opinions several years afterwards, the author, in a letter addressed to "M. Grégoire, Evêque et Sénateur," says, so. "My doubts were the result of personal observation on the limited sphere of my own State, where the opportunities for the development of their genius were not favorable, and those of exercising it still less I expressed them, therefore, with great hesitation; but, whatever be their degree of talent, it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not, therefore, lord of the person or property of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the human family. I pray you, therefore, to accept my thanks for the many instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief." - Jefferson's Works, vol. v. p. 429. How slavery was regarded at the time is clearly stated in the instructions prepared by Mr. Jefferson for the first delegation of Virginia to Congress, in August, 1774, and printed in a pamphlet form, under the title of "A Summary View of the Rights of British America." I have Italicized a few lines as worthy of particular attention: "For the most trifling reasons, and sometimes for no conceivable reason at all, his Majesty has rejected laws of the most salutary tendency. The abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those Colonies, where it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state. But, previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is Thomas Passage omitted necessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our repeated attempts to effect this by prohibitions, and by imposing duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto defeated by his Majesty's negative; thus preferring the immediate advantages of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the American States, and to the rights of human nature, deeply wounded by this infamous practice."-Jefferson's Works, vol. i. p. 135. It is well known that some passages in the original draught of the Declaration of Independence were omitted when the paper was finally adopted by Congress. One of these passages shows so strikingly the feelings of the author on this subject, that it may well be cited here: "He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him; captivating and carrying them into Independ- slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their from the Declaration of ence. transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of Infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And, that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another." Jefferson's Works, vol. i. pp. 23, 24. John Adams, who was associated with Jefferson on the sub-committee for framing the Declaration, thus expresses his feelings on seeing Mr. Jefferson's first draught: "I was delighted with its high tone, and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning negro slavery; which, though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly would never oppose." Works, ii. 514. The foresight of Mr. Adams, concerning the rejection of the passage, relating to slavery, was not founded on a belief that the sentiments contained in it were at variance with the general views of the people both at the South and at the North (for the history of the times is full of evidence to the contrary), but from his knowledge that a few bold and persevering pro-slavery men would be able then as they have been ever since—to induce timid and time-serving, and even honest but less strong-willed, public servants, to concede to them, for the sake of peace and harmony, all they demanded. Mahon's Lord Mahon asserts that the rejected clause, "it was found, Lord would displease the Southern Colonies, who had never sought error. to prohibit the importation of slaves, but, on the contrary, desired to continue it." Our worthy Corresponding Member, the Hon. Peter Force, of Washington, (in two communications to the "National Intelligencer," January 16th and 18th, 1855,—republished in London in the form of a pamphlet,) has completely refuted this error; and has produced abundant evidence that the "Southern Colonies, jointly with all the others, and separately each for itself, did agree to prohibit the importation of slaves, voluntarily and in good faith." He calls attention to the Continental Association, adopted and signed by all the members of the Congress on the 20th of October, 1774. "The second Article of the Association is in these words: Associa “That we will neither import nor purchase any slave imported Continent after the first day of December next; after which we will wholly dis- tion. continue the slave-trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it.' "This was signed by all the Delegates of the twelve Colonies represented in it. Provincial Congress "As Georgia was not represented in the Congress of 1774, the Association could have no signatures from that Colony. But the people of Georgia, as soon as they could speak by their Representatives, expressed themselves as distinctly on this point as any of their brethren of the Southern Colonies. The following are among the resolutions adopted by the Provincial Congress of Georgia, on Thursday, July 6th, 1775: "1. Resolved, That this Congress will adopt, and carry into of Georgia. execution, all and singular the measures and recommendations of the late Continental Congress. 4. Resolved, That we will neither import or purchase any slave imported from Africa or elsewhere after this day.' "The Continental Association was also adopted by the Maryland Convention on the 8th of December, 1774; by the South-Carolina Provincial Congress on the 11th of January, 1775; by the Virginia Convention on the 22d of March,.1775; and by the North-Carolina Provincial Congress on the 23d of August, 1775. The Assembly of Delaware, on the 25th of March, 1775, passed a bill to prohibit the importation of slaves into that Government; but this was returned by the governor, John Penn, who refused to give it his assent. "Thus the Southern Colonies, as far as was possible, besides giving their assent to the Association of the Congress by the signatures of their delegates to that compact, each, in their several Congresses and Conventions, separately expressed their approval of it, and their determination to support it." The articles of the Continental Association were not allowed to remain a dead letter. The enforcement of the rules was intrusted to committees in the several Colonies. The action of one of these committees, in the case of the violation of the second article by Mr. John Brown, a merchant of Norfolk, in Virginia, is seen in the following address: "TO THE FREEMEN OF VIRGINIA : ""COMMITTEE CHAMBER, NORFOLK, March 6, 1775. Continental "Trusting to your sure resentment against the enemies of your Associacountry, we, the committee, elected by ballot for the Borough of Nor- tion. folk, hold up for your just indignation Mr. John Brown, merchant of this place. “On Thursday, the 2d of March, this committee were informed of the arrival of the brig Fanny, Capt. Watson, with a number of slaves for Mr. Brown; and, upon inquiry, it appeared they were shipped from Jamaica as his property, and on his account; that he had taken great pains to conceal their arrival from the knowledge of the committee; and that the shipper of the slaves, Mr. Brown's correspondent, and the captain of the vessel, were all fully apprised of the Continental prohibition against that article. "From the whole of this transaction, therefore, we, the committee for Norfolk Borough, do give it as our unanimous opinion, that the said John Brown has wilfully and perversely violated the Continental Association to which he had with his own hand subscribed obedience; and that, agreeable to the eleventh article, we are bound forthwith to publish the truth of the case, to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publicly known and universally contemned as the enemies of American liberty, and that every person may henceforth break off all dealings with him.' "This decision of the Norfolk Committee," continues Mr. Force, "on the importation of the slaves by Mr. Brown, in violation of the Continental Association, told the whole story as to who were, and who were not, in favor of continuing it. The importers of the negroes were the supporters of the Crown; the importation was opposed by the friends of the Colonies." Notes on Lord Mahon's History of the American Declaration of Independence, pp. 43–46. Mahon's Lord Mahon's error arose from applying to "the Southern Lord Colonies" in general the remarks of Mr. Jefferson ("Writ- error. ings," vol. i. p. 19) relating to the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia. In the same passage in which these Colonies are mentioned with discredit, the pro-slavery men at the North, whose mercenary spirit was to be met, are |