o stop the cultivation of sugar and cotton, for export,
and force them to commence the growing of provisions for food--thus
producing ruinous consequences to British manufactures and commerce.[5]
But, in the opposition thus made to the slave trade, there is no act
warranting the conclusion that the negroes were to be admitted to a
position of equality with the whites. The sentiments expressed, with a
single exception,[6] are the reverse, and their increase viewed as an
evil. South Carolina and Georgia did not follow the example of Virginia
and North Carolina in resolving against the slave trade, but acquiesced
in the non-intercourse policy, until the grievances complained of should
be remedied. Another reason existed for opposing the slave trade; this
was the importance of preventing the increase of a population that might
be employed against the liberties of the colonies. That negroes were
thus employed, during the Revolution, is a matter of history; and that
the British hoped to use that population for their own advantage, is
clearly indicated by the language of 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."

And, now, will any one say, that the fathers of the Revolution ever
intended to declare the negro the equal of the white man, in the sense
that he was entitled to an equality of political privileges under the
constitution of the United States!

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. page 370.

[3] Randall's Life of Jefferson, vol. i. page 370, Note.

[4] That Mr. Jefferson was considered as having no settled plans or
views in relation to the disposal of the blacks, and that he was
disinclined to risk the disturbance of the harmony of the country for
the sake of the negro, appears evident from the opinions entertained of
him and his schemes by John Quincy Adams. After speaking of the zeal of
Mr. Jefferson, and the strong manner in which, at times, he had spoken
against slavery, Mr. Adams says: "But Jefferson had not the spirit of
martyrdom. He would have introduced a flaming denunciation of slavery
into the Declaration of Independence, but the discretion of his
colleagues struck it out. He did insert a most eloquent and impassioned
argument against it in his Notes on Virgi