Michael Histand

“The Constitution guaranteed a republican form of government to the states—but didn’t its protections for slavery undermine republican government as well? The security for the slave trade in Article I, Section 9, he wrote, went against what other states had already done to purify themselves of slavery’s corruption, and “is especially scandalous and inconsistant in a people, who have asserted their own liberty by the sword, and which dangerously enfeebles the districts, wherein the laborers are bondsmen. The words are dark and ambiguous; such as no plain man of common sense would have used, [and] are evidently chosen to conceal from Europe, that in this enlightened country, the practice of slavery has its advocates among men in the highest stations.” The Constitution partook of propaganda. The corollary: don’t trust men in the highest stations.”
― David Waldstreicher, Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification

“The pass given the slave trade added insult to the injury, creating a political incentive to enslave more Africans.12”
― David Waldstreicher, Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification

“Slavery was “inconsistent with the genius of republicanism,” Martin insisted. “When our own liberties were at stake, we warmly felt for the common rights of man.” There was no logical reason why a government bound to protect the states against invasions and insurrections could not regulate the migration of slaves. Martin remained a states’ righter, but he still could not comprehend why the government could not be strong in interstate matters like slavery while leaving the states to themselves on domestic issues. The inconsistency suggested that within the structure of the Constitution, crucial liberties had been sacrificed, and not for the common good.”
― David Waldstreicher, Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification

“Will it not be said, that the greatest Sticklers for Liberty, are its worst Enemies?” Worst of all, in Hughes’s mind, was Benjamin Franklin, head of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, for helping “frame a Constitution which evidently has a Tendency not only to enslave all those whom it ought to protect; but avowedly encourages” the enslavement of others. As soon as it was adopted, politicians like Franklin would say it was “called for by the people,” Hughes observed, though really it was nothing but a specious deal between North and South: “If you will permit us to import Africans as Slaves, we will consent that you may export Americans, as soldiers.” The supremacy and treaty clauses meant that Americans, like Hessians during the war, could be “detached and transported to the West or East-indies.”
― David Waldstreicher, Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification