George W. Williams, the negro historian, avers that,
"Thus, by an understanding or, as Gouverneur Morris called it, 'a
bargain' between the commercial representatives of the Northern
States and the delegates of South Carolina and Georgia, and in spite
of the opposition of Maryland and Virginia, the unrestricted power
of Congress to enact Navigation Laws was conceded to the Northern
merchants; and to the Carolina rice planters, as an equivalent,
twenty years' continuance of the African slave trade."[34]
Continuing, Mr. Fiske says, "This compromise was carried against the
sturdy opposition of Virginia." George Mason spoke the sentiments of
the Mother-Commonwealth when in a speech against this provision of the
constitution, which reads like prophecy and judgment, he said:
"This infernal traffic originated in the avarice of British
merchants. The British Government constantly checked the attempts of
Virginia to put a stop to it. The present question concerns, not the
importing states alone, but the whole Union.... Maryland and
Virginia, he said, had already prohibited the importation of slaves
expressly. North Carolina had done the same in substance. All this
would be in vain if South Carolina and Georgia be at liberty to
import. The Western people are already calling out for slaves for
their new lands; and will fill that country with slaves if they can
be got through South Carolina and Georgia. Slavery discourages arts
and manufactures. The poor despise labor when performed by slaves.
They prevent the emigration of whites, who really enrich and
strengthen a country. They produce the most pernicious effect on
manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring
the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded
or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an
inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes National
sins by National calamities. He lamented that some of our Eastern
brethren had, from a lust of gain, embarked in this nefarious
traffic. As to the states being in possession of the right to
import, this was the case with many other rights, now to be properly
given up. He held it essential, in every point of view, that the
General Government should have power to prevent the increase of
slavery."
"But these prophetic words of George Mason," adds Mr. Fiske, "were
powerless against the combination of New England and the far
South."[35]
Some seven decades later, Virginia erected under the shadow of her
Capitol a bronze statue to commemorate the fame of this illustrious
son.
Governor Randolph and Mr. Madison earnestly supported their colleague,
the former declaring that this feature rendered the constitution so
odious as to make doubtful his ability to support it; and the latter
asserting, "Twenty years will produce all the mischief that can be
apprehended from the liberty to import slaves. So long a term will be
more dishonorable to the American character than to say nothing about
it in the constitution."[36]