ery pernicious a commerce_." Journals of the House of Burgesses,
page 131.

This petition produced no effect, as appears from the first clause of
our CONSTITUTION, where among other acts of misrule, "the inhuman use of
the royal negative" in refusing us permission to exclude slaves from
among us by law, is enumerated, among the reasons for _separating from
Great Britain_.]

In the course of this enquiry it is easy to trace the desire of the
legislature to put a stop to the further importation of slaves; and had
not this desire been uniformly opposed on the part of the crown, it is
highly probable that event would have taken effect at a much earlier
period than it did. A duty of five per cent. to be paid by the buyers,
at first, with difficulty obtained the royal assent. Requisitions from
the crown for aids, on particular occasions, afforded a pretext from
time to time for increasing the duty from five, to ten, and finally to
twenty per cent. with which the _buyer_ was uniformly made chargeable.
The wishes of the people of this colony, were not sufficient to
counterbalance the interest of the English merchants, trading to Africa,
and it is probable, that however disposed to put a stop to so infamous a
traffic by law, we should never have been able to effect it, so long as
we might have continued dependant on the British government: an object
sufficient of itself to justify a revolution. That the legislature of
Virginia were _sincerely_ disposed to put a stop to it, cannot be
doubted; for even during the tumult and confusion of the revolution, we
have seen that they availed themselves of the earliest opportunity, to
crush for ever so pernicious and infamous a commerce, by an act passed
in October 1778, the penalties of which, though apparently lessened by
the act of 1792, are still equal to the value of the slave; being two
hundred dollars upon the importer, and one hundred dollars upon every
person buying or selling an imported slave.

A system uniformly persisted in for nearly a whole century, and finally
carried into effect, so soon as the legislature was unrestrained by "the
inhuman exercise of the royal negative," evinces the sincerity of that
disposition which the legislature had shewn during so long a period, to
put a check to the growing evil. From the time that the duty was raised
above five per cent. it is probable that the importation of slaves into
this colony decreased. The demand for them in the more south