[14] Jervey, Robert Y. Hayne and His Times, p. 130.
[15] Calhoun’s Correspondence, p. 369.
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]