It was increasing the indebtedness of the citizens to foreign
merchants, and augmenting the balance of trade against the colonies. But
there was no settled policy in reference to the future disposition of
the colored population. Feelings of pity were manifested toward them,
and some expressed themselves in favor of emancipation. The Continental
Congress, in addition to its action in the Non-Intercourse Agreement,
_Resolved_, April 6, 1776, "That no slaves be imported into any of the
thirteen United Colonies."[128] The Delaware Convention, August 27,
1776, adopted, as the 26th article of its Constitution, that "No person
hereafter imported into this State from Africa, ought to be held in
slavery on any pretense whatever; and no negro, Indian, or mulatto slave
ought to be brought into this State, for sale, from any part of the
world."[129]

There was more of meaning in this action, than the resolution, standing
alone, would seem to indicate. On the 11th of July, preceding, Gen.
Washington wrote to the Massachusetts Assembly, that the enemy had
excited the slaves and savages to arms against him;[130] and on November
7th, 1775, Lord Dunmore had issued a proclamation, declaring the
emancipation of all slaves "that were able and willing to bear arms,
they joining his Majesty's troops, as soon as may be, for the more
speedy reducing the colonists to their duty to his Majesty's crown and
dignity."[131]

Previous to the commencement of hostilities, the resolutions of the
colonists, adverse to the slave trade and slavery, were designed to
operate against British commerce; but, after that event, the measures
adopted had reference, mainly, to the prevention of the increase of a
population that had been, and might continue to be, employed against the
liberties of the colonies. That such a course formed a part of the
policy of Great Britain, is beyond dispute; and that she considered the
prosecution of the slave trade as necessary to her purposes, was clearly
indicated by the Earl of Dartmouth, who declared, as a sufficient reason
for turning a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the colonists against the
further importation of slaves, that "Negroes cannot become
republicans--they will be a power in our hands to restrain the unruly
colonists." That such motives prompted England to prosecute the
introduction of slaves into the colonies, was fully believed by American
statesmen; and their views were expressed, by Mr. Jefferson, in a clau