"[8] They claimed that even the indenturing of the ignorant
barbarian for life was better than slavery; and Sloan declared that the
Northern States would receive the freed Negroes willingly rather than
have them enslaved.[9]
The argument of those who insisted that the Negroes should be sold was
tersely put by Macon: "In adopting our measures on this subject, we must
pass such a law as can be executed."[10] Early expanded this: "It is a
principle in legislation, as correct as any which has ever prevailed,
that to give effect to laws you must not make them repugnant to the
passions and wishes of the people among whom they are to operate. How
then, in this instance, stands the fact? Do not gentlemen from every
quarter of the Union prove, on the discussion of every question that has
ever arisen in the House, having the most remote bearing on the giving
freedom to the Africans in the bosom of our country, that it has excited
the deepest sensibility in the breasts of those where slavery exists?
And why is this so? It is, because those who, from experience, know the
extent of the evil, believe that the most formidable aspect in which it
can present itself, is by making these people free among them. Yes, sir,
though slavery is an evil, regretted by every man in the country, to
have among us in any considerable quantity persons of this description,
is an evil far greater than slavery itself.
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