94. ~The Political Movement.~ The political efforts to limit the
slave-trade were the outcome partly of moral reprobation of the trade,
partly of motives of expediency. This legislation was never such as wise
and powerful rulers may make for a nation, with the ulterior purpose of
calling in the respect which the nation has for law to aid in raising
its standard of right. The colonial and national laws on the slave-trade
merely registered, from time to time, the average public opinion
concerning this traffic, and are therefore to be regarded as negative
signs rather than as positive efforts. These signs were, from one point
of view, evidences of moral awakening; they indicated slow, steady
development of the idea that to steal even Negroes was wrong. From
another point of view, these laws showed the fear of servile
insurrection and the desire to ward off danger from the State; again,
they often indicated a desire to appear well before the civilized world,
and to rid the "land of the free" of the paradox of slavery.
Representing such motives, the laws varied all the way from mere
regulating acts to absolute prohibitions. On the whole, these acts were
poorly conceived, loosely drawn, and wretchedly enforced. The systematic
violation of the provisions of many of them led to a widespread belief
that enforcement was, in the nature of the case, impossible; and thus,
instead of marking ground already won, they were too often sources of
distinct moral deterioration.
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