He asked pardon even for the
supposition. The Slave Trade was an evil of such magnitude, that there
must be a common wish in the committee at once to put an end to it, if
there were no great and serious obstacles. It was a trade, by which
multitudes of unoffending nations were deprived of the blessings of
civilization, and had their peace and happiness invaded. It ought,
therefore, to be no common expediency, it ought to be nothing less than
the utter ruin of our islands, which it became those to plead, who took
upon them to defend the continuance of it.
He could not help thinking that the West India gentlemen had manifested
an over great degree of sensibility as to the point in question; and
that their alarms had been unreasonably excited upon it. He had examined
the subject carefully for himself: and he would now detail those
reasons, which had induced him firmly to believe, not only that no
permanent mischief would follow from the abolition, but not even any
such temporary inconvenience as could be stated to be a reason for
preventing the House from agreeing to the motion before them; on the
contrary, that the abolition itself would lay the foundation for the
more solid improvement of all the various interests of those colonies.
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