The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the statesmen and
soldiers of the Revolution were no friends of negro slavery. In fact,
the very principles of the Declaration of Independence sounded the
deathknell of slavery forever. No stronger utterances against this
national sin are to be found anywhere than in the letters and
published writings of Jefferson, Washington, Hamilton, and Patrick
Henry. "Jefferson encountered difficulties greater than he could
overcome, and after vain wrestlings the words that broke from him, 'I
tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his
justice cannot sleep forever,' were the words of despair."
"It was the desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove
slavery by a public act; and as the prospects of a general
emancipation grew more and more dim . . . he did all that he could by
bequeathing freedom to his own slaves." [Footnote: Bancroft's funeral
oration on Lincoln.]
Hamilton was one of the founders of the Manumission Society, the
object of which was the abolition of slaves in the State of New York.
Patrick Henry, speaking of slavery, said: "A serious view of this
subject gives a gloomy prospect to future times." Slavery was thought
by the founders of our Republic to be a dying institution, and all the
provisions of the Constitution touching slavery looked towards gradual
emancipation as an inevitable result of the growth of the democracy.
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