If all the States had been willing to adopt this regulation, I should
as an individual most heartily have approved of it, because even if the
importation of slaves in fact rendered us stronger, less vulnerable and
more capable of defence, I should rejoice in the prohibition of it,
as putting an end to a trade which has already continued too long for
the honor and humanity of those concerned in it. But as it was well
known that South Carolina and Georgia thought a further continuance of
such importations useful to them, and would not perhaps otherwise have
agreed to the new constitution, those States which had been importing
till they were satisfied, could not with decency have insisted upon
their relinquishing advantages themselves had already enjoyed. Our
situation makes it necessary to bear the evil as it is. It will be
left to the future legislatures to allow such importations or not.
If any, in violation of their clear conviction of the injustice of
this trade, persist in pursuing it, this is a matter between God and
their own consciences. The interests of humanity will, however, have
gained something by the prohibition of this inhuman trade, though at a
distance of twenty odd years.