Advocating the abolition of the slave-trade, Mr. Madison said:—
“The dictates of humanity, the principles of the people, the national safety and happiness, and prudent policy, require it of us. It is to be hoped, that by expressing a national disapprobation of the trade, we may destroy it, and save our country from reproaches, and our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled with slaves.”
Again, he says:—
“It is wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that there can be property in man.”
In the 39th No. of “The Federalist,” he says:—
“The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly Republican. It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the people of America, and with the fundamental principles of the Revolution, or with that honorable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.”
In the Federal Convention, he said:—
“And in the third place, where slavery exists, the Republican theory becomes still more fallacious.”
On another occasion, he says:—
“We have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.”