He said that the extinction of slavery in New England was not because
the institution was deemed to be immoral or sinful, but from other
considerations and circumstances. It was abolished in Massachusetts,
without doubt, by a clause, in the bill of rights, copied from the
Declaration of Independence. In Berkshire, one township, he believed,
sued another for the support and maintenance of a pauper slave, and the
Supreme Court decided that the bill of rights abolished slavery. The
question was as incidental, he said, as was the question in the Dred
Scott case which the United States Supreme Court decided. This
Massachusetts case was previous to any reports of decisions, and he had
some doubt as to the form in which the suit was brought, but was sure as
to the decision. The question as to abolishing slavery was not submitted
to the people, nor to a Convention, nor to the Legislature.
"I was specially interested in his account of the way in which the
slave-trade was prohibited by our excellent sister, Connecticut. It was
done by a section prohibiting the importation of slaves by sea or land,
preceded by the following preamble:--'And whereas the increase of slaves
in this state is injurious to the poor, and inconvenient, Be it
therefore enacted.
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