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Browsing named entities in a specific section of George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10. Search the whole document.

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August 8th, 1779 AD (search for this): chapter 18
hapter 17: The rise of free commonwealths. 1780. freedom is of all races and of all nationalities. It Chap. XVII.} 1780. is in them all older than bondage, and ever rises again from the enslavements laid on by the hand of violence or custom or abuse of power; for the rights of man spring from eternal law, are kept alive by the persistent energy of constant nature, and by their own indestructibility prove their lineage as the children of omnipotence. In an edict of the eighth of August, 1779, Louis 1779. the Sixteenth announced his regret that many of his subjects were still without personal liberty and the prerogatives of property, attached to the glebe, and, so to say, confounded with it. To all serfs on the estates of the crown he therefore gave back personal liberty, security in the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, with the rights of family and inheritance. It was his wish to do away, as 1780. with torture, so with every vestige of a rigorous feudalis
August, 1781 AD (search for this): chapter 18
y member except Jay and Gerry. The rigid assertion of the sovereignty of each state 1780. fostered mutual jealousy. Luzerne, the French envoy who succeeded Gerard, soon came to the conclusion that the confederacy would run the risk of an early dissolution if it should give itself up to the hatred which began to show itself between the north and south. Vermont, whose laws from the first never bore with slavery, knocked steadily at the door of congress to be taken in as a state. In August, 1781, its envoys 1781. were present in Philadelphia, entreating admission. Their papers were in order; the statesmen of New York gave up their opposition; and congress seemed well disposed to admit the applicant: but resistance developed itself in the states of the south; for it was held by them that the admission of Vermont would destroy the balance of power between the two sections of the confederacy, and give the preponder- Chap. XVII.} 1781. ance to the north. The idea was then starte
October 25th, 1780 AD (search for this): chapter 18
egates explained the grounds on which their decisions rested, and called on them in their several towns and plantations to judge whether they had raised their superstructure upon the principles of a free common-wealth. Reassembling on the first Wednesday in June, they found that the male inhabitants of twenty-one years and upwards had ratified the new constitution, and they chose the last Wednesday in October for the day on which it should take effect. At the coming in of the twenty-fifth of October, 1780, Massachusetts became in truth a free common-wealth. Its people shook slavery from its garments as something that had never belonged to it. The colored inhabitants, about six thousand in number, or one in seventy of the population, equally became fellow-citizens; and, if any of them possessed the required qualifications of age, residence, and property, their right to vote admitted of no question. As to the rights of conscience, it was agreed that religion must at all times be
1789 AD (search for this): chapter 18
ffect was given to his permission by M. Mignet, who at that time was superintendent of the French archives; and to whom I am under the greatest obligations for efficient aid in furthering my inquiries. The French archives are rich in materials for every branch of history. In one they are unique. The despatches of the French envoys at Philadelphia to their government contain the most complete reports which exist of the discussions in congress from 1778 to the adoption of the constitution in 1789. Congress sat, it is true, with closed doors; but the French ministers knew how to obtain information on every proceeding that interested their country. In August, 1778, soon after the reception at Philadelphia of Chap. XVII.} 1778. an envoy from France, he reported to Vergennes The states of the south and of the north under existing subjects of division and estrangement, are two distinct parties, which at present count but few deserters. The division is attributed to moral and philosophi
July, 1778 AD (search for this): chapter 18
s like a harvest cut before it is ripe; the grain has shrunk; and he lamented the want of a clause against the continuance of domestic slavery. Still the declaration of independence was incorporated into the constitution of New York; and all its great statesmen were abolitionists. It has already been narrated that, in 1777, the 1777. people of Vermont, in separating themselves formally and finally from the jurisdiction of New York, framed a constitution which prohibited slavery. In July, 1778, William Livingston, the governor of 1778. New Jersey, invited the assembly to lay the foundation for the manumission of the negroes. At the request of the house, which thought the situation too critical for the immediate discussion of the measure, the message was withdrawn. But I am determined, wrote the governor, as far as my influence extends, to push the matter till it is effected, being convinced that the practice is utterly inconsistent with the principles of Christianity and huma
November 9th, 1778 AD (search for this): chapter 18
Massachusetts, and being in proportion to the whole population much less than in New York or in New Jersey. In 1777, in the heads of a bill proposed by the council, a suggestion was made for ridding the state of slavery. The retreat of the British from Philadelphia, and the restoration to Pennsylvania of peace within its borders, called forth in its people a sentiment of devout gratitude. Under its influence, George Bryan, then vice-president, in a message to the assembly of the ninth of November, 1778, pressed upon their attention the bill proposed in the former year for manumitting infant negroes born of slaves, and thus in an easy mode abrogating slavery, the opprobrium of America. In divesting the state of slaves, said Bryan, you will equally serve the cause of humanity and policy, and offer to God one of the most proper and best returns of gratitude for his great deliverance of us and our posterity from thraldom; you will also set your character for justice and benevolence in
1799 AD (search for this): chapter 18
he state, and some mitigation of the power of the master to divide families by partial sales. Burke for himself inclined to a gradual emancipation; yet his code for the negroes was founded on the conviction that slavery was an incurable evil. Overborne by the opinion of those around him, he sought only to make it as small an evil as possible, and to draw out of it some collateral good. George the Third was the fast friend of the slavetrade; and Thurlow, one of his chancellors, so late as 1799 insisted that slavery was sanctioned by Scripture, and that the bill to terminate the slave-trade was altogether miserable and contemptible. Yet the quality of our kind is such that a government cannot degrade a race without marring the nobleness of human nature. So long as the legislation of the several English colonies in America remained subject to the veto of the king, all hope of forbidding or even limiting Chap. XVII.} 1780. the bringing of negro slaves into them was withstood by
June 17th, 1779 AD (search for this): chapter 18
if the resolution should be adopted, they would Chap. XVII.} 1779. withdraw from the confederation. Above, 218. In the assertion of the sovereignty of each separate state, there was no distinction between north and south. Massachusetts expressed itself as absolutely as South Carolina. As a consequence, the confederation could contain no interdict of the slave-trade, and the importation of slaves would therefore remain open to any state according to its choice. When on the seventeenth of June, 1779, a renunciation of the power to engage in the slave-trade was proposed as an article to be inserted in the treaty of peace, all the states, Georgia alone being absent, refused the concession by the votes of every member except Jay and Gerry. The rigid assertion of the sovereignty of each state 1780. fostered mutual jealousy. Luzerne, the French envoy who succeeded Gerard, soon came to the conclusion that the confederacy would run the risk of an early dissolution if it should gi
January, 1773 AD (search for this): chapter 18
ment, stood as mediator between the two. Many of her statesmen—George Mason, Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Wythe, Pendleton, Richard Henry Lee—emulated each other in their confession of the iniquity and inexpediency of holding men in bondage. We have seen the legislature of colonial Virginia in 1772, in their fruitless battle 1772. with the king respecting the slave-trade, of which he was the great champion, demand its abolition as needful for their happiness and their very existence. In January, 1773, Patrick Henry threw ridicule and con- 1773. tempt on the clergy of Virginia for their opposition to emancipation. In that same year, George Mason, demanding improvements in the constitution of the Old Dominion, addressed to its legislature these memorable words: Mean and sordid, but extremely short-sighted and foolish, is thatself-interest which, in political questions, opposeth itself to the public good: a wise man can no other way so effectually consult the permanent welfare o
October 28th (search for this): chapter 18
no means of distributing its parts to their several authors with certainty. No one was more determined for two branches of the legislature with a veto in the governor than John Adams. To him also more than to any other may be ascribed the complete separation of both branches from appointments to office. The provisions for the total abolition of slavery mark the influence of John Lowell. To Bowdoin was due the form of some of its most admired sections. On the afternoon of the twenty-eighth of October, the committee appointed to prepare a form of government reported a draft of a constitution; and on the next day the convention adopted the first article of a declaration of rights, which was couched in the spirit and almost in the language of George Mason and Virginia: All men are born free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing,
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