CHAPTER II
Following Gillon’s unsuccessful attempt in 1788, to repeal the existing law, the State of South Carolina, by successive enactments, in spite of the implied sanction of the Constitution until 1808, prohibited the importation of slaves[16] up to the year 1803. In that year Governor James B. Richardson, in his annual message to the General Assembly, indirectly suggested the repeal of such legislation.
The language of this message is so involved that, considered without reference to its effect, it seems to indicate some sympathy with the prohibition of the importation; but carefully considered, the secret sympathy of this official with those he condemns is obvious. The promptness with which it was seized upon by the opponents of prohibition, and the arguments culled from it, indicate that it was the opening wedge by which the defence against the black flood, was split, to admit it in such volume, as to make subsequent efforts to stop the flow almost useless.
That portion of the message which dealt with the importation of Negro slaves reads as follows:
“All possible diligence and my best efforts have been used to carry effectually into operation the law prohibiting the importation of Negroes into the State, but it is with concern that I have here to state to you, that it has been without success; whether it must be attributed principally to the ill consequences that are apprehended would result from carrying the law into operation by emancipating the Negroes so brought in (a remedy deemed more mischievous than the evil of their introduction in servitude) or whether the interests of the citizens is so interwoven with that species of property, that it prevents their aiding the law in answering the salutary purposes, I will not presume to determine; but I am inclined to believe both causes operate as preventatives; for those people are continued to be brought into the State beyond the possibility of prevention. In all laws intended for the general benefit, they should be so calculated that their operation should be found equal in every part of the State; where this is not the case it means that there is some radical defect therein, or it is inimical to the interest of the citizens; with this law such is the situation; for in the present state of things, the citizens in the frontier and sea coast districts do accumulate this property without the possibility of being detected, while those of the interior and middle districts only experience the operation of that law from their remote situation, etc.... This indeed is a circumstance to be lamented, but such is the true state of our situation and therefore becomes a subject worthy of your consideration and one that I trust will engage your endeavors to render equally energetic in every part of the State that law which experience has proved partial in its operation and is oppressive upon such citizens in the interior districts as hold it the object of desire to augment their capital in the accumulation of such property.”[17]
This expression of opinion from the Governor brought up in the House the appointment of “a committee to inquire whether any and what amendments are necessary, to the Act entitled, ‘An Act to prevent Negro slaves from being brought into or entering this State’[18]; in the Senate a bill to permit their importation.”[19]
The leading opponent in the Senate of the bill to permit importation was State Senator Robert Barnwell, at that time in his forty-second year. He had served with credit in the Revolutionary war, in the course of which he had been seriously wounded; had been a delegate to the Continental Congress; and later a member of Congress from the 2nd Congressional district of South Carolina, later still he had been elected Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives.[20] He is described by Edward Hooker as “a tall, portly, well-built man of about sixty years—a man of singular gravity, and possessed of great influence in the Senate. Said to be an eminent orator and very religious character.”[21]
A synopsis of Mr. Barnwell’s remarks on this occasion has been preserved, although, as became more and more the custom with regard to all utterances concerning slavery, in any way critical, much was suppressed. The account reads as follows: “He maintained that by the immense influx of these persons into the State, the value of this species of property would be considerably diminished, insomuch that he did believe Negroes would be soon not worth one half of what they might be sold for. The value of the produce raised by their labor would be in like manner depreciated. * * * The permission given by the bill would lead to ruinous speculation. Everyone would purchase Negroes. It was well known that those who dealt in this property would sell it at a very long credit. Our citizens would purchase at all hazards and trust to fortunate crops and favorable markets for making their payments and it would be found that South Carolina would in a few years, if this trade continued open, be in the same situation of debt, and subject to all the misfortunes which that situation had produced as at the conclusion of the Revolutionary war. The honorable member adduced in support of his opinion other arguments still more cogent and impressive, which from reasons very obvious, we decline making public.”[22]
The most prominent advocate of the bill was State Senator William Smith, the schoolmate of Andrew Jackson, later judge, and, later still, United States Senator, the most determined of Calhoun’s political opponents in after years. He was a native of North Carolina, of somewhat indefinite age, a reformed drunkard; but a man of firmness and power, and also of pleasing appearance.[23]
The report of his remarks upon this occasion is brevity itself, but sufficient to condemn him, as it is apparent that in a spirit of pessimism he voted against his convictions. The report is: “Mr. Smith said he would agree to put a stop to the importation of Negroes but he believed it to be impossible. For this reason he would vote for the bill.”[24] The House had meantime reported that “the laws prohibiting the importation of Negroes can be so amended as to prevent their introduction among us,” but a strong faction were for action on the Senate bill. “Mr. Drayton was of the opinion that the committee should proceed to consider the bill from the Senate rather than the report of the committee of this House. He confessed that he was a friend to that bill in its utmost latitude. Many of the planters had cash which they could not so well dispose of as in purchasing Negroes, and he did not see why they should not be allowed to improve their estates in the best manner they were able, as well as merchants or any other class of persons.”[25]
The House was not, however, swayed from its course. It proceeded to consider the report of the committee, and a bill in accordance therewith was arranged to be brought before the House on the 12th. On that date, upon a motion to postpone the second reading to February 1, 1804, the same was lost by a vote of 41 to 63; and upon the following day the bill from the Senate came up, and, by a vote of 55 to 46, became a law.[26] With the majority appears only one great name, Langdon Cheves. With the minority is recorded the name of a new member, Joseph Alston, destined to something of a career, who on this occasion, in opposition to the bill permitting importation, made a notable speech.[27]
From the achievement of her independence in 1783, South Carolina had legislated against the importation of Negro slaves with greater and greater severity. The indications are all that this reversal of her past policy was the result of the matter having been sprung as a surprise by Governor Richardson in the second year of his term of office, when the Senate was two to one in favor of such action as he suggested, and even in the more popular branch of the Legislature a majority of nine in one hundred and one votes could be secured. Under these conditions, that a strong effort should have been at once inaugurated by those who opposed the importation, to repeal the Act permitting same was natural, and, upon the reassembling of the Legislature in the fall of 1804, a bill having such for its purpose was introduced, pressed to a vote in the Senate, and lost by only one vote, the record being 16 for, 17 against repeal of Act permitting importation, and two absent.[28]
Four days later the House went into committee on the following resolution: “Resolved, that in the opinion of this House, it is inexpedient and impolitic to permit the importation of slaves into this State, and that a committee of five be appointed to bring in a bill for that purpose.”[29] The resolution was adopted by a vote of 69 to 39, and among the names of the majority appears that of William Lowndes. Thus the two Houses being unable to agree before adjournment, it was to be inferred, from the heavy majority in the House, against importation and the extremely narrow margin by which it had been sustained in the Senate, the fight would again be made, at the convening of the Legislature, in the fall of 1805. And so it was, for upon its reassembling Governor Paul Hamilton at once and pointedly referred to the subject in his message: “I should be wanting in my endeavors towards the public good were I to omit soliciting you to legislate on the importation of slaves. Abstractedly from other considerations of it, on which indeed much may be said, I feel myself bound to represent its continuance as productive of effects the most injurious, in draining us of our specie, thereby embarrassing our commercial men and naturally lessening the sales of our produce; that viewed with reference to population it increases our weakness not our strength; for it must be admitted that in proportion as you add to the number of slaves, you prevent the influx of those men who would increase the means of defence and security. I will add, that an immediate stop to this traffic is, in my judgment, on every principle of sound policy, indispensable.”[30]
The message at once engaged the attention of the newly elected House, to the Speakership of which Joseph Alston had been elected. The young Speaker was a most interesting personality. His father, with perhaps one exception, was the largest slave-owner in the State, and of the latter, we are informed, that “in his opinion the true interests of the planter were in exact accord with the dictates of an enlightened humanity. The consequence was that his numerous plantations were models of neatness and order and his slaves always exhibited an appearance of health and comfort, which spoke well for their treatment.”[31]
This election to the Speakership was the beginning of a political career for Joseph Alston, which soon led to the Governorship and might well have extended into national fields, had it not been for the tragedy which cut it short. He had just married Theodosia Burr, the fascinating and accomplished daughter of Aaron Burr. But the death of his only son in 1812 and almost immediately after, the loss of his wife at sea, seemed literally to destroy all his interest in life and take it from him. This debate in 1805, in which he was the foremost figure, is alluded to in the diary of Edward Hooker, by whom we are informed that the principle speakers in the House were Simons, Alston, Miles, Taylor and Wright. The resolution under consideration, as drawn up by Joseph Alston, was prefaced with several considerations, such as the inconsistency of the slave trade with the precepts of Christianity—with justice, humanity, etc., and later with the true interests of the State. In the argument of Mr. Miles, of Richland, appear the extraordinary insinuations of Governor Richardson, as to the injustice of the law with regard to those who found it difficult to violate it, and whom it did prohibit from importing slaves. Of the members of the House and Senate who sufficiently struck the attention of Hooker to draw from him something like a pen portrait, Barnwell, Lowndes and Alston stand out the clearest. He estimated Alston to be about twenty-eight years of age. He was not quite twenty-seven. He describes him thus: “Mr. Alston is a short man and rather thick. Of a dark complexion, with thick black hair and a formidable pair of whiskers, that cover a great part of his face, and nearly meet at the chin. His dress and demeanor are well deserving the name buckish. When not in the legislative hall, he may be seen as often as anywhere, about the stables, looking at fine horses, dressed in a short jockey-like surtout or frock, and laced and tossled boots, with a segar in his mouth, and much more of the ‘gig and tandem’ levity than the austere virtues of a senatorial leader. Indeed he is one of the last persons that I should have picked out from the crowd of people in town for a president of one branch of the Legislature.”
Of the speech he says: “Alston’s speech appears to me more like an extemporaneous one, though it is said by such as are acquainted with him that he always, without exception, writes his speeches. He like Simons, used notes, but did not recur to them so often; nor did he confine himself so much to method, nor avoid so scrupulously every expression not stamped with elegance, yet his arrangement was not bad, nor his language undignified. He did not at first speak with uncommon fluency, indeed he stammered a little, but when he became once fairly engaged his words appeared to flow with great ease. His figures and allusions were eminently striking and beautiful, and his speech abounded with them. He dropped some excellent moral and political sentiments, quoted two or three texts of sublime morality from the Scriptures, and with great vehemence and apparent sincerity urged the House to consult the dictates of justice and humanity, in opposition to sordid interest. His manner of delivery was extremely good and his gestures forcible and expressive. He labored some time, and with success, to show that the increase of slaves tends to destroy that equality which is the basis of our republican institutions and insists that it is not only unjust to bring them in, but demonstrably injurious to the real interests of the State. In his argument was a fund of good sense and useful information. The utmost silence pervaded the House while he spoke thirty-five or forty minutes.”[32]
The resolution was adopted, and the bill prohibiting importation was sent to the Senate by a vote of 56 to 28.[33]
Later, by the same pen, we have a brief description of the last speech upon this bill of that Senator, who in opposition to it, may be said to have cast the most important vote he was ever called upon to give.
Allusion has been before made to the brief reason given by Senator William Smith for his vote, for opening the ports to importation of slaves, which he declared himself not in favor of, but thought it impossible to prevent, in 1803, when he, constituting one of the majority of two to one in that branch of the General Assembly, voted to open them. Public opinion had swept away that great majority, and from the House, with just such a vote, two to one, the bill to prohibit came to the Senate. The following is Hooker’s description of the situation, and the part played by Smith:
“The bill having passed the lower House, the public feeling is excited about its event here. Mr. Smith, a lawyer from York District, made a long and rather tedious speech against it. He is not fluent, nor does he use the handsomest language, but in the course of his argument gets out considerable that is to the purpose.”[34]
Smith’s vote was sufficient to kill the bill. It failed of passage by 15 to 16 in the Senate.[35] He thus, by his vote alone made impossible, what he claimed to favor, but declined to support, because he asserted he believed to be impossible. Later in the United States Senate he disclosed, that in the four years he thus secured for the slave trade to pour its flood upon South Carolina, in 202 vessels, 39,075 slaves were brought into the port of Charleston[36] for which he had the effrontery to hold almost everybody but himself responsible. This disastrous piece of legislation increased the Negro population of South Carolina in that decade 41 per cent, against an increase of only 9 per cent whites, and checked almost entirely the remarkable increase of whites, which had marked the previous decade. As to the effect upon the business of Charleston, in the reminiscence of one of the editors of the daily press, we have an illuminating illustration of the truth of Senator Barnwell’s prophecy. Says Mr. Thomas: “In November 1803, I returned from my fourth voyage with a printed catalogue of fifty thousand volumes of books in every branch of literature, arts and sciences, being by far the largest importation ever made into the United States. I had only got them opened and arranged for sale three days when news arrived from Columbia that the Legislature then in session had opened the port for the importation of slaves from Africa. The news had not been five hours in the city before two large British Guineamen that had been laying off and on the port for several days, expecting it, came up to town, and from that day my business began to decline, although then in a situation to carry it on to three times the extent I had ever done before. Previous to this the planters had large sums of money laying idle in the banks, which they liberally expended not only for their actual, but supposed wants. A great change at once took place in everything. Vessels were fitted out in numbers for the coast of Africa, and as fast as they returned their cargoes were bought up with avidity, not only consuming the large funds which had been accumulating, but all that could be procured, and finally exhausting credit and mortgaging the slaves for payment, many of whom were not redeemed for ten years afterwards to my knowledge.”[37]
On the other hand the State of Ohio, which had been admitted in 1800 with 45,628 whites and only 336 colored, was so disturbed by the growth of its colored population that before they reached in number two thousand, that State passed the notorious Black Laws of January 9, 1805, of which Section 4 reads as follows: “That no black or mulatto person shall hereafter be permitted to be sworn or give evidence in any Court of record or elsewhere in the State in any cause depending or matter of controversy, where either party to the same is a white person, or in any prosecution which shall be instituted in behalf of this State against any white person.”[38]
While South Carolina did not permit the full sweep of such in her Courts,[39] holding a free person of color born of a free white woman an admissible witness yet, with such legislation in Ohio, and Indiana, it is not surprising, Fiske, of New York, six years later failed to establish his contention that “color was a mere matter of accident * * * All men were born free and equal”; and that his attempt to reject the Senate amendment to the Orleans bill, i. e. the insertion of the word “white” before the words “free male inhabitants,” in defining the electorate, should have been brushed aside by Sheffey, of Virginia, with the simple declaration that “such doctrines would prostrate the civil institutions of Virginia.”[40] It was one thing to protest as Col. Mason did against the slave trade; but, with some four hundred thousand slaves, double what any other State possessed, Virginia was prepared to contend for her property rights, and the position seems to have been met with acquiescence by Congress.