The question was then taken on Mr. Dana’s amendment, to substitute persons in the room of slaves, and passed in the negative, only 32 members rising in favor of it.
Mr. Early.—I wish for the attention of the committee while I submit a very few observations on the resolution under consideration, which are intended to go to a single point which has been but slightly noticed by the honorable speaker, but which may be placed in some points of view that are important. I mean to consider the subject as a matter of feeling, in relation to the State on which it is about to bear. To her it is not unimportant. The object of the resolution certainly is either to point the disapprobation of this nation at the practice in question, or to raise a revenue from that practice. It is either one, or a union of both these ends. If the object be to point the disapprobation of the nation against South Carolina, I pray gentlemen to pause and reflect on the consequences of such a policy; and I beg all to recollect that they are interested as well as South Carolina with regard to such policy. Those who regard either the feelings of one State, or the peace and harmony of the whole nation, will do well to reflect before they adopt a policy bottomed on such a principle.
As it may be, that the measure is entertained as a source of revenue, if this is the object, I will ask one question. Is the price they are to get worth the evil they create? Is the petty sum of $40,000 or $50,000 of so much moment? Is it a sufficient object to this Government to induce them to adopt a measure, which will irritate and wound the feelings of a respectable member of the confederacy? Forty or fifty thousand dollars is a petty sum to this Government; but it is not so to a State; it is not so to South Carolina. Let gentlemen, if they please, attempt to get round the question, by saying that this resolution is not exclusively confined to South Carolina—the evasion is unworthy of them. The whole nation knows, South Carolina knows, and we know, what is intended by it; and it is the same as if South Carolina was on the face of it. The sum, though trifling to the United States, is not so to South Carolina. The revenue intended by this resolution to be drawn from South Carolina, will equal, if it does not exceed, the whole expense of her government. What, then, will be the situation of the people of that State, in case this resolution is adopted? It will be the situation of a people who pay a double tax. They will pay a tax for the support of their own government; revenue will be drawn from them for national purposes, as from the other parts of the Union; and they will be burdened with an additional tax, equal to the whole expense of their State Government. I will ask now, whether the evils attending such an imposition, and the reflections arising from it, will not necessarily irritate, wound, and offend the feelings of the people of that State? Whether, then, we consider it as a measure to evince the disapprobation of the nation, or as a source of revenue, it flows from a policy equally questionable. The people, sir, of South Carolina cannot avoid the reflection, that the finger of scorn is pointed at them; that a double tax is imposed on them. What will be the consequence? That which every gentleman must foresee. It is not difficult to foresee it, because it is a natural consequence, such as must follow whenever the common feelings of human nature are entertained. The consequence will be, an alienation of attachment to, and respect for this Government. I ask gentlemen to put the question home to themselves, whether the revenue they expect is worth the sacrifice? This is a question which ought never to be stirred in our national councils. Though older men than myself might better tell the committee than I can do, the effect which introducing this subject in any shape invariably has had on the feelings of the Government, or on the representatives of the nation, I will undertake to give my opinion of it. Sir, I have always understood that this subject was found most difficult to be adjusted in the Federal Convention. I have always understood that, when brought before the councils of the nation, in any period or in any shape, a fervor of feeling and warmth of sentiment never failed to disturb the public harmony. Every man knows the effect of the first application to Congress on this subject, by a man at the head of a noted body of men in Pennsylvania or Delaware, of the name, I believe, of Warner Mifflin. All know the effects of an application of a more recent date, in the other branch of the Legislature, from some friendly people northwardly. All know the effects of the celebrated resolution laid on our table the last session, by the same gentleman who has favored us with the resolution under consideration, to make free all persons born of a mother in the Territory of Columbia, after a certain period. All will recollect the height to which the feelings of men were wrought on those occasions. It is because the agitation of this subject always had and always will have the same effect, that I think it ought never to be introduced into this House.
Mr. Broom.—I agree with the gentleman from Georgia in expressing the wish that this resolution had never been brought forward, inasmuch as I wish that the State of South Carolina, in imitation of her sister States, had never given occasion for it. It is said that this is a question which has always produced agitation in this House whenever it came before it. If this be any argument at all, it is in favor of bringing the discussion to a close, by extinguishing the cause which produces it; for, until this shall be the case, there will always be found men in this House to offer a similar resolution, the result of which may be a like agitation. The question is not now whether this resolution shall be introduced, but, as it is introduced, whether it shall not be put to sleep for ever, by exercising at once our constitutional powers.
I need not dwell on the great number of slaves concentrated in the Southern States. At the time of taking the census they amounted to 832,000. In the State of South Carolina there were 146,000 slaves, and 199,000 whites. I need not expatiate on the greatness of this evil. Not only South Carolina may suffer, but all the other neighboring States may share the evil. Those States who are ashamed to avow a participation in the trade, may be indebted to her for an augmentation of their slaves; and the evil may extend to those States who now believe themselves secure. If these people were to rise on their masters, I ask if the whole Union would not be bound to assist in putting them down? It is not, therefore, South Carolina alone, but all the members of this confederacy, that may be disturbed by the accumulation of this evil. It is from these considerations—because I wish this traffic to be checked, and because, as an object of revenue, I am for making the most of the evil, and because we may be enabled thereby to exempt articles of the first necessity from at least a part of the duties imposed upon them—that I am of opinion that we ought not, in justice, to exempt this article any longer from duty.
Mr. Early said that he was far from intending to charge the mover of the resolution with a disposition to wound the feelings of any member of the House. He had said nothing to that effect. He would, on the contrary, observe that he considered the manner of the gentleman mild, and such as had not rendered him in the least obnoxious to such a charge. He had said that the feelings of South Carolina would be probably wounded by the measure. He had no disposition, however, to charge the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Sloan) with, such an intention. The task of wounding the feelings of South Carolina (if the observations of a gentleman on this floor could wound her feelings) had been reserved for the gentleman’s friend from Delaware, (Mr. Broom,) who had taken occasion to heap on her head, so far as related to the importation of slaves, every term of reproach which his imagination could bring to his aid. If he expected he would be imitated in such a procedure, he would be mistaken. One word in reply to an observation which he had applied to the State of Georgia. He had said that the evil was not confined to South Carolina, but that it extended to the neighboring States—that it extended to the State of Georgia, who, though ashamed to avow her approbation of it, participated, notwithstanding, with South Carolina in it. Give me leave to say, said Mr. E., so far as relates to the State of Georgia, that she has not been—that she never will be—ashamed to avow what she does; and that, so far from approving this trade, she took a step six or eight years back, that had not then been taken by any other State: she prohibited the traffic by an express injunction of her constitution. Let the gentleman from Delaware show any thing in his own constitution like this. On this occasion the opponents of the resolution were disposed to treat the subject with temper. Heretofore, the temper which had been displayed had originated with them, but now it has proceeded from a different quarter.
The debate here closed for this day. The committee rose about four o’clock, and obtained leave to sit again.
Wednesday, January 22.
Importation of Slaves.
The House again went into a Committee of the Whole on Mr. Sloan’s resolution for imposing a tax of ten dollars upon every slave imported into the United States.