Finally the convention passed a resolution:--
That it is inexpedient for any State, or its citizens, to
attempt to re-open the African slave-trade while that State is
one of the United States of America.[8]
83. ~Commercial Convention of 1859.~ The Convention of 1859 met at
Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 9-19, and the slave-trade party came ready
for a fray. On the second day Spratt called up his resolutions, and the
next day the Committee on Resolutions recommended that, _"in the opinion
of this Convention, all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting the African
slave trade, ought to be repealed."_ Two minority reports accompanied
this resolution: one proposed to postpone action, on account of the
futility of the attempt at that time; the other report recommended that,
since repeal of the national laws was improbable, nullification by the
States impracticable, and action by the Supreme Court unlikely,
therefore the States should bring in the Africans as apprentices, a
system the legality of which "is incontrovertible." "The only difficult
question," it was said, "is the future status of the apprentices after
the expiration of their term of servitude."[9] Debate on these
propositions began in the afternoon. A brilliant speech on the
resumption of the importation of slaves, says Foote of Mississippi, "was
listened to with breathless attention and applauded vociferously.
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