n of the Constitution, on various grounds, was
fiercely opposed by many patriotic men, Patrick Henry among the
number. Some thought it did not contain sufficient guarantees for
individual freedom, others that private rights of property were
not adequately secured, and still others that States were curtailed
or abridged of their governmental authority and too much power was
taken from the people and centered in the Federal Government.
Mason, of Virginia, a member of the Convention that framed it, led
a party who opposed it on the ground, among others, that it authorized
Congress to levy duties on imports and to thus encourage home
industries and manufactories, promotive of free labor, inimical
and dangerous to human slavery. The best efforts and influence of
Washington and other friends of the Constitution would not have
been sufficient to secure its ratification had they not placated
many of its enemies by promising to adopt, promptly on its going
into effect, the amendments numbered one to ten inclusive. (The
First Congress, September 25, 1789, submitted those ten amendments
according to the agreement, and they were shortly thereafter ratified
and became a part of the Constitution.)

By a resolution of the Old Congress, of September 13, 1788, March
4, 1789, was fixed as the time for commencing proceedings under
the Constitution. At the date of this resolution eleven of the
thirteen States had ratified it. North Carolina ratified it November
21, 1789, and Rhode Island, the last, on May 29, 1790.

Vermont, not of the original thirteen States, ratified the Constitution
January 10, 1791, over a month prior to her admission into the
Union. This latter event occurred February 18, 1791.

Thus fourteen States became, almost at the same time, members of
the Union under the Constitution, and each and all of which then
held or had theretofore held slaves.

Notwithstanding all this, there were many of the framers of the
Constitution and its warmest friends who sincerely desired to
provide for the early abolition of slavery, some by gradual
emancipation, others by heroic measures; and there were many from
the South who favored emancipation, while by no means all the
leading and influential citizens of the Northern States desired it.

It may, however, be assumed, in the light of authentic history,
that the majority of the framers of the Constitution, and a majority
of its friends in the States, hoped and believed that sla