2127. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, Slavery clause.—
The clause
[in the draft] reprobating the enslaving the
inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance
to South Carolina and Georgia, who
had never attempted to restrain the importation
of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still
wished to continue it. Our northern brethren
also, I believe, felt a little tender under those
censures, for though their people had very
few slaves themselves, yet they had been
pretty considerable carriers of them to others.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 19.
Ford ed., i, 28.
(1821)
