It is a remarkable fact, also, that of the slaves imported into the United States during a period of eighteen years, from 1790 to 1808, not less than nine-tenths were imported for and by account of citizens of the Northern States and subjects of Great Britain—imported in Northern and British vessels, by Northern and British men, and delivered to Northern born and British born consignees.
The trade was thus carried on, with all its historic inhumanity, by the sires and grandsires of the very men and women, who, for thirty years, have been denouncing slavery as a sin against God, and slaveholders as the vilest class of men and tyrants who ever disgraced a civilised community; and the very wealth in which, in a large degree, these agitators now revel, has descended to them as the fruit of the slave trade in which their fathers grew fat.
The following statistics of the port of Charleston, S. C., from the year 1804 to 1808, will more plainly illustrate this remark:—
| Imported | into Charleston from Jan. 1, 1804, to Jan. 1, 1808, slaves | 39,075 | |
| By | British subjects | 19,649 | |
| " | French subjects | 1,078 | |
| " | Foreigners in Charleston | 5,107 | |
| " | Rhode Islanders | 8,238 | |
| " | Bostonians | 200 | |
| " | Philadelphians | 200 | |
| " | Hartford, citizens of | 250 | |
| " | Charlestonians | 2,006 | |
| " | Baltimoreans | 750 | |
| " | Savannah, citizens of | 300 | |
| " | Norfolk, citizens of | 587 | |
| " | New Orleans, citizens of | 100 | |
| 39,075 | |||
| " | British, French and Northern people | 35,532 | |
| " | Southern people | 3,543 | |
| 39,075 | |||
| CONSIGNEES OF THESE SLAVES. | |||
| Natives of Charleston | 13 | ||
| Natives of Rhode Island | 88 | ||
| Natives of Great Britain | 91 | ||
| Natives of France | 10 | ||
| Total | 202 | ||
It is related, that during the debate on the Missouri question, a Senator from South Carolina introduced in the Senate of the United States a document from the Custom House of Charleston, exhibiting the names and owners of vessels engaged in the African slave trade. In reading the document the name of De Wolfe was repeatedly called. De Wolfe, who was the Senator elect from Rhode Island, was present, but had not been qualified. The Carolina Senator was called to order. “Order!” “Order!” echoed through the Senate Chamber. “It is contrary to order to call the name of a Senator,” said a distinguished gentleman. The Senator contended he was not out of order, for the Senator from Rhode Island had not been qualified, and consequently was not entitled to a seat. He appealed to the Chair. The Chair replied, “You are correct, sir; proceed;” and proceed he did, calling the name of De Wolfe so often, that before he had finished the document, he had proved the honorable gentleman the importer of three-fourths of the “poor Africans” brought to the Charleston market, and the Rhode Island abolitionist bolted, amid the sympathies of his comrades and the sneers of the auditors.
Such was the aspect of affairs with reference to this question at the time of the adoption of the Constitution. The spirit of affection created and fostered by the revolution—the cords binding together a common country in a common struggle and a common destiny—were too strong in the breasts of our revolutionary fathers for them to countenance the feeble efforts even of those prompted by motives of humanity for the immediate emancipation of the slaves, and by almost the entire North of that period they were regarded with general disfavor, as an unwarrantable interference with an already established institution of the country. The consequence was that they sank into disrepute, and the country was blessed with and prospered under their comparative cessation for a number of years. This hostile feeling long lay dormant, and it was not until the year 1818, when Missouri applied for admission into the Union as a State, that the period of quiet was interrupted, and the little streams of abolitionism that had been quietly forming, merged into the foul and noisome current which is now devastating the land, has undermined and destroyed the Union, and is exerting its blighting influence upon every department of the political and social fabric.
SECOND EPOCH.
CHAPTER III.