passed except by
a two-thirds vote. By depriving Congress of the power of giving any
preference to American over foreign shipping, it was designed to secure
cheap transportation to Southern exports. As the shipping was
principally owned in the Eastern States, their delegates were equally
anxious to prevent any restriction of the power of Congress to pass
navigation laws. All the States, except North Carolina, South Carolina,
and Georgia, had prohibited the importation of slaves; and North
Carolina had proceeded so far as to discourage the importation by heavy
duties. The prohibition of duties on the importation of slaves was
demanded by the delegates from South Carolina and Georgia, who declared
that, without a provision of this kind, the Constitution would not
receive the assent of these States. The support which the proposed
restriction received from other States was given to it from a
disposition to compromise, rather than from an approval of the measure
itself. The proposition not only gave rise to a discussion of its own
merits, but revived the opposition to the apportionment of
representatives according to the three-fifths ratio, and called forth
some severe denunciations of slavery.

Rufus King, in reference to the admission of slaves as a part of the
representative population, remarked: "He had not made a strenuous
opposition to it heretofore because he had hoped that this concession
would have produced a readiness, which had not been manifested, to
strengthen the General Government. The report of the committee put an
end to all these hopes. The importation of slaves could not be
prohibited; exports could not be taxed. If slaves are to be imported,
shall not the exports produced by their labor supply a revenue to help
the government defend their masters? There was so much inequality and
unreasonableness in all this that the people of the Northern States
could never be reconciled to it. He had hoped that some accommodation
would have taken place on the subject; that at least a time would have
been limited for the importation of slaves. He could never agree to let
them be imported without limitation, and then be represented in the
National Legislature. Either slaves should not be represented, or
exports should be taxable."

Gouverneur Morris pronounced slavery "a nefarious institution. It was
the curse of Heaven on the States where it prevailed. Compare the free
regions of the Middle States, where a rich and nob