The
abolition, as a political question, was a difficult one. The year 1796
had been once fixed upon by the House, as the period when the trade was
to cease; but, when the time arrived, the resolution was not executed.
This was a proof, either that the House did not wish for the event, or
that they judged it impracticable. It would be impossible, he said, to
get other nations to concur in the measure; and even if they were to
concur, it could not be effected. We might restrain the subjects of the
parent-state from following the trade; but we could not those in our
colonies. A hundred frauds would be committed by these, which we could
not detect. He did not mean by this, that the evil was to go on for
ever. Had a wise plan been proposed at first, it might have been
half-cured by this time. The present resolution would do no good. It was
vague, indefinite, and unintelligible. Such resolutions were only the
slave-merchants' harvests. They would go for more slaves than usual in
the interim. He should have advised a system of duties on fresh
importations of slaves, progressively increasing to a certain extent;
and that the amount of these duties should be given to the planters, as
a bounty to encourage the Negro population upon their estates.
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