7959. SLAVES, Importation of.—
During
the regal government we had, at one time,
obtained a law which imposed such a duty on
the importation of slaves as amounted nearly
to a prohibition, when one inconsiderate assembly,
placed under a peculiarity of circumstance,
repealed the law. This repeal met a
joyful sanction from the then reigning sovereign,
and no devices, no expedients which
could ever be attempted by subsequent assemblies
(and they seldom met without attempting
them) could succeed in getting the royal assent
to a renewal of the duty. In the very first session
held under the republican government,
the assembly passed a law for the perpetual
prohibition of the importation of slaves. This
will, in some measure, stop the increase of this
great political and moral evil, while the minds
of our citizens may be ripening for a complete
emancipation of human nature.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 334.
Ford ed., iii, 192.
(1782)
