Walter Williams the economist once stated the Founders detested slavery:
” Patrick Henry acknowledged reality, saying, “As much as I deplore slavery, I see that prudence forbids its abolition.” With the union created, Congress at least had the power to abolish slave trade in 1808. James Wilson believed the anti-slave-trade clause laid “the foundation for banishing slavery out of this country.”
Other Founders condemned slavery. George Washington said, “There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it.” John Adams: “Every measure of prudence ... ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. ... I have, throughout my whole life, held the practice of slavery in ... abhorrence.” James Madison: “We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.” James Otis said, “The colonists are by the law of nature freeborn, as indeed all men are, white or black.” Benjamin Franklin: “Slavery is ... an atrocious debasement of human nature.” Franklin, after visiting a black school, also said, “I ... have conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race than I had ever before entertained.” Alexander Hamilton’s judgment was the same: “Their natural faculties are probably as good as ours.” John Jay wrote: “It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. The honour of the States, as well as justice and humanity, in my opinion, loudly call upon them to emancipate these unhappy people. To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.” “
Williams also stated slavery would have died an economic death being that no slave owner would have the ability to modernize ie, cotton gins, harvesters,weaving mills etc, and keep slaves, pay for their housing, food,medicine,education,etc.
Williams alos condemned Lincoln :
“History books have misled today’s Americans to believe the war was fought to free slaves.
Statements from the time suggest otherwise. In President Lincoln’s first inaugural address, he said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so.”
During the war, in an 1862 letter to the New York Daily Tribune editor Horace Greeley, Lincoln said, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or destroy slavery.” A recent article by Baltimore’s Loyola College Professor Thomas DiLorenzo titled “The Great Centralizer,” in The Independent Review (Fall 1998), cites quotation after quotation of similar northern sentiment about slavery.
Lincoln’s intentions, as well as that of many northern politicians, were summarized by Stephen Douglas during the presidential debates. Douglas accused Lincoln of wanting to “impose on the nation a uniformity of local laws and institutions and a moral homogeneity dictated by the central government” that “place at defiance the intentions of the republic’s founders.” Douglas was right, and Lincoln’s vision for our nation has now been accomplished beyond anything he could have possibly dreamed.
A precursor for a War Between the States came in 1832, when South Carolina called a convention to nullify tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, referred to as the “Tariffs of Abominations.” A compromise lowering the tariff was reached, averting secession and possibly war. The North favored protective tariffs for their manufacturing industry. The South, which exported agricultural products to and imported manufactured goods from Europe, favored free trade and was hurt by the tariffs. Plus, a northern-dominated Congress enacted laws similar to Britain’s Navigation Acts to protect northern shipping interests.
Shortly after Lincoln’s election, Congress passed the highly protectionist Morrill tariffs.
That’s when the South seceded, setting up a new government. Their constitution was nearly identical to the U.S. Constitution except that it outlawed protectionist tariffs, business handouts and mandated a two-thirds majority vote for all spending measures.”
http://lewrockwell.com/williams-w/w-williams87.1.html
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams120298.asp
Not chronologically correct.
The Morrill tariff passed the Senate on February 20, by a vote of 25 to 14. It was finally approved on March 2.
This was well after seven southern states, with 14 senators, had seceded and formed their new government on February 8.
I assume you are capable of doing the math that shows why the tariff passed in 1861 when it had failed in 1860?
You forgot the key difference between the confed constitution and the US Constitution: the confeds immortalized in perpetuity the institution of slavery.
Williams claims in this regard are silly and have not been backed up by any economic history. Slavers always find new, and often more profitable ways to employ slave labor.
I am speaking from experience: during the last three decades, American agriculture has been falling behind Europe in the mechanization and automation of farming, despite an enormous lead which we held and greatly expanded after WWII and well into the 1950's. Why? Because of the availability of what is essentially slave labor imported from Mexico which, like slavery, will need to be paid for for generations after all of us are dead. By contrast, European farmers have no access to such labor and their farms use more robots and more sophisticated computer systems than ours.
American laborers are the most productive in the world by far. Yet it is more profitable to relocate manufacturing to China. Why? Because no one is productive enough to complete with slave labor.
Jefferson Davis's great dream post Southern independence was to create a Slave Empire that would subjugate the inferior races of Central America and possibly extend into South America, an opinion he expressed publicly and on several occasions, and which was enshrined as a foundational principle in the Constitution of the "Confederate States of America." Does this really sound like the vision of a man who believed slavery was finished?
Please be serious.
The southern states pretended to secession before the Morill tariff was passed. In fact, if the south had not withdrawn its senators, the tariff could not have passed.
When you assert that secession occurred after the tariff you invert time, or lie.
The Tariff was signed into law by Buchanan, before Lincoln took office.