commerce, and aroused some opposition. "Will, can, the people bear a
total interruption of the West India trade?" asked Low of New York; "Can
they live without rum, sugar, and molasses? Will not this impatience and
vexation defeat the measure?"[14]

The committee finally reported, October 12, 1774, and after three days'
discussion and amendment the proposal passed. This document, after a
recital of grievances, declared that, in the opinion of the colonists, a
non-importation agreement would best secure redress; goods from Great
Britain, Ireland, the East and West Indies, and Dominica were excluded;
and it was resolved that "We will neither import, nor purchase any Slave
imported after the First Day of _December_ next; after which Time, we
will wholly discontinue the Slave Trade, and will neither be concerned
in it ourselves, nor will we hire our Vessels, nor sell our Commodities
or Manufactures to those who are concerned in it."[15]

Strong and straightforward as this resolution was, time unfortunately
proved that it meant very little. Two years later, in this same
Congress, a decided opposition was manifested to branding the
slave-trade as inhuman, and it was thirteen years before South Carolina
stopped the slave-trade or Massachusetts prohibited her citizens from
engaging in it. The passing of so strong a resolution must be explained
by the motives before given, by the character of the drafting
committee, by the desire of America in this crisis to appear well
before the world, and by the natural moral enthusiasm aroused by the
imminence of a great national struggle.


28. ~Reception of the Slave-Trade Resolution.~ The unanimity with which
the colonists received this "Association" is not perhaps as remarkable