"and damns them to the most cruel bondage . . . in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of mankind

    “The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly explained, comes to this,–that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa, and, in defiance of the most sacred Laws of humanity, tears away his fellow-creatures from their dearest connections, and damns them to the most cruel bondage, shall have more votes, in a government instituted for the protection of the rights of mankind, than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, who views, with a laudable horror, so nefarious a practice. He would add, that domestic slavery is the most prominent feature in the aristocratic countenance of the proposed Constitution. The vassalage of the poor has ever been the favorite offspring of aristocracy. And what is the proposed compensation to the Northern States, for a sacrifice of every principle of right, of every impulse of humanity?”–Mr. Gouverneur Morris, Aug. 8, 1787, Debates In The Federal Convention Of 1787, Held At Philadelphia. [Elliot’s Debates, Vol. V, Pg. 393]