prohibiting the African
slave trade, ought to be repealed."_ Two minority reports accompanied
this resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the
futility of the attempt at that time; the other report recommended that,
since repeal of the national laws was improbable, nullification by the
States impracticable, and action by the Supreme Court unlikely,
therefore the States should bring in the Africans as apprentices, a
system the legality of which "is incontrovertible." "The only difficult
question," it was said, "is the future status of the apprentices after
the expiration of their term of servitude."[9] Debate on these
propositions began in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the
resumption of the importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, "was
listened to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously. Those
of us who rose in opposition were looked upon by the excited assemblage
present as _traitors_ to the best interests of the South, and only
worthy of expulsion from the body. The excitement at last grew so high
that personal violence was menaced, and some dozen of the more
conservative members of the convention withdrew from the hall in which
it was holding its sittings."[10] "It was clear," adds De Bow, "that the
people of Vicksburg looked upon it [i.e., the convention] with some
distrust."[11] When at last a ballot was taken, the first resolution
passed by a vote of 40 to 19.[12] Finally, the 8th Article of the Treaty
of Washington was again condemned; and it was also suggested, in the
newspaper which was the official organ of the meeting, that "the
Convention raise a fund to be dispensed in premiums for the best
sermons in favor of reopening the African Slave Trade."[13]

84. ~Public Opinion in the South.~ This record of the Commercial
Conventions probably gives a true reflection of the development of
extreme opinion on the question of reopening the slave-trade. First, it
is noticeable that on this point there was a distinct divergence of
opinion and interest between the Gulf and the Border States, and it was
this more than any moral repugnance that checked the radicals. The whole
movement represented the economic revolt of the slave-consuming
cotton-belt against their base of labor supply. This revolt was only
prevented from gaining its ultimate end by the fact that the Gulf States
could not get on without the active political co-operation of the Border
States. Thus, although su