Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasions, and
watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened rather than
suppressed by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped to their
very mouths (I can hardly use too bold a figure) in this stream of
iniquity."[128] The following year, 1820, brought some significant
statements from various members of Congress. Said Smith of South
Carolina: "Pharaoh was, for his temerity, drowned in the Red Sea, in
pursuing them [the Israelites] contrary to God's express will; but our
Northern friends have not been afraid even of that, in their zeal to
furnish the Southern States with Africans. They are better seamen than
Pharaoh, and calculate by that means to elude the vigilance of Heaven;
which they seem to disregard, if they can but elude the violated laws of
their country."[129] As late as May he saw little hope of suppressing
the traffic.[130] Sergeant of Pennsylvania declared: "It is notorious
that, in spite of the utmost vigilance that can be employed, African
negroes are clandestinely brought in and sold as slaves."[131] Plumer of
New Hampshire stated that "of the unhappy beings, thus in violation of
all laws transported to our shores, and thrown by force into the mass of
our black population, scarcely one in a hundred is ever detected by the
officers of the General Government, in a part of the country, where, if
we are to believe the statement of Governor Rabun, 'an officer who would
perform his duty, by attempting to enforce the law [against the slave
trade] is, by many, considered as an officious meddler, and treated with
derision and contempt;' .
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