...principle. But Sherman maintained the high road. He "disapproved of the slave trade... it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of Government. ..the abolition of slavery seemed to be 39. James Madison, The Debates in the Federal Convention Of...

...principle. But Sherman maintained the high road. He "disapproved of the slave trade... it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of Government...the abolition of slavery seemed to be 39. James Madison, The Debates in the Federal Convention...

...Connecticut colleague, Roger Sherman, agreed. He disapproved of slavery, Sherman said, but it was "expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of government." Sherman argued that it was "best to leave the matter as we find it." The subject was too emotional...

...constitutional protections for human bondage because "the abolition of slavery seemed to be going on in the US & that the good sense of the several states would probably by degrees compleat it." "Let us not intermeddle," Ellsworth agreed. "As population increases," he claimed, "poor...

...objections to the Constitution. The abolition of slavery had already begun, and he reassured the convention "that the good sense of the several states would probably by degrees compleat it." Mason responded with a bitter attack on the institution of slavery itself, the most bitter...

...to import slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from them, & as it was expedient , to the said territorial line, and by the said territorial...Pennsylvania, and the said territorial line: Provided, US & that the good sense of the several States would probably by degrees compleat it. He urged on the...

...Carolinians was that they believed that slavery was slowly, but inevitably, dying out. Roger Sherman believed that "the abolition of slavery seemed to be going on in the US & that the good sense of the several States would probably by degrees compleat it."45 With the increase...

...import slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from them, and as it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed...complete it. He urged on the convention the necessity of dispatching its business. One of the most surprising things in these debates is the hostility shown...

...import slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from them, and as it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed...complete it. He urged on the Convention the necessity of dispatching its business. Col. Mason ; (of Virginia, said,) this infernal traffic originated in the...

...Constitution the idea of property in men."* Roger Sherman expressed, no doubt, a general hope when he stated that "the abolition of slavery seemed to be going...several States would probably by degrees complete it." It seems clear, moreover, that in this early period the prevailing sentiment of the people — the...