The profit from the sale of illegally
imported Negroes was declared to be the only sufficient "inducement to
give information of their importation."[12] "Give up the idea of
forfeiture, and I challenge the gentleman to invent fines, penalties, or
punishments of any sort, sufficient to restrain the slave trade."[13]
If such Negroes be freed, "I tell you that slaves will continue to be
imported as heretofore.... You cannot get hold of the ships employed in
this traffic. Besides, slaves will be brought into Georgia from East
Florida. They will be brought into the Mississippi Territory from the
bay of Mobile. You cannot inflict any other penalty, or devise any other
adequate means of prevention, than a forfeiture of the Africans in whose
possession they may be found after importation."[14] Then, too, when
foreigners smuggled in Negroes, "who then ... could be operated on, but
the purchasers? There was the rub--it was their interest alone which, by
being operated on, would produce a check. Snap their purse-strings,
break open their strong box, deprive them of their slaves, and by
destroying the temptation to buy, you put an end to the trade, ...
nothing short of a forfeiture of the slave would afford an effectual
remedy."[15] Again, it was argued that it was impossible to prevent
imported Negroes from becoming slaves, or, what was just as bad, from
being sold as vagabonds or indentured for life.
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