[DiogenesLamp]

I know exactly what it says. It dealt with more than... “persons held for service or labor” ...Compromising in the present does not mean the future would be the same. I also know that the section addressed other people than just them.

You know it means slaves. You are just whistling past the graveyard here. Lincoln even admitted it meant slaves, just as I have shown you his words.

Why do you think that the importation of slaves could be prohibited?

Because all the states agreed to it. That's why. They agreed to the other too, but then the Northern states one by one refused to honor it.

It is clear that the Founders were ashamed to even use the word “slavery”, most believed it would die a natural death as the nation evolved economically.

It would have done so but for the invention of the Cotton gin by that clever Massachusetts Yankee. :)

[arrogantsob]

I do not dispute that it was 20 years before an amendment could be passed which freed the slaves.

However, it is telling that they were too ashamed to use the word and it necessitated beating around the bush.

why did they not use the word instead of such an awkward substitution?