" In
the face of this authentic evidence, reported by Mr. Madison, it is
difficult to see how the term "persons held to service" can be deemed to
express anything beyond the "obligations of free persons." Thus, in the
light of calm inquiry, does this exaggerated clause lose its importance.
The provision, showing itself thus tardily, and so slightly regarded in
the National Convention, was neglected in much of the contemporaneous
discussion before the people. In the Conventions of South Carolina,
North Carolina,and Virginia, it was commended as securing important
rights, though on this point there was difference of opinion. In the
Virginia Convention, an eminent character, Mr. George Mason, with
others, expressly declared that there was "no security of property
coming within this section." In the other Conventions it was
disregarded. Massachusetts, while exhibiting peculiar sensitiveness at
any responsibility for slavery, seemed to view it with unconcern. One
of her leading statesmen, General Heath, in the debates of the State
Convention, strenuously asserted, that, in ratifying the Constitution,
the people of Massachusetts "would do nothing to hold the blacks in
slavery.
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