"The Continental Congress on the 20th of October, 1774, passed a preamble and resolutions solemnly pledging themselves, "under the sacred ties of virtue, honor and love of our country, that we will neither import nor purchase any Slave imported after the first day of December next: --after which time we will wholly discontinue the Slave-trade, and will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor will we hire our vessels nor sell our commodities or manufactures to those who are concerned in it." (Henry Raymond in rebuttal to Southerner William Yancey--the spiritual godfather of secession)
This was the tone and the temper of the people at the outset of our national career. It was the policy which the framers of the Constitution desired to adopt.
In the 1787 Constitutional Convention neither Massachusetts, nor any Northern State, "insisted" that the Slave-trade should not be prohibited by Congress until 1808; that on the contrary, they demanded that the general Government should have power to prohibit it at once; and that they yielded their consent to its continuance for twenty years, only to threats of secession on the part of South Carolina and Georgia, and for the purpose of securing the adhesion of those States to the Union. (Henry Raymond in rebuttal to Southerner William Yancey) New York Times, November 24, 1860
http://www.civilwar-online.com/2010/11/november-24-1860-slave-trade-and.html
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