It must not be thought that the colonial period was without any development of opposition to slavery. The German Quakers of Pennsylvania in 1688 took a stand against the use of slaves in their community, and they subsequently became the most active opponents to slavery and the slave trade. Their efforts, however, had little effect except in Pennsylvania, but it is important to mark their action as the beginning of the abolition movement in this country. There are records in the Southern Colonies of taxes placed upon the importation of slaves prior to the decade before the Revolution, but it would appear that these taxes were more for revenue than as prohibitive means, and that they were of no value in diminishing the demand and the number of negroes imported. However, in 1769, a distinct sentiment crystallized in Virginia against the further importation of slaves, and the Legislature passed a law prohibiting it, but this was vetoed by the Royal Governor, acting under orders from the Crown; the same thing occurred in Massachusetts two years later. In 1772 Lord Mansfield proclaimed the law, "As soon as a slave sets foot on the soil of the British isles he becomes free." This decision had a marked influence on the anti-slavery sentiment, which was now strong in the Colonies, and the approach of the Revolution, with its spirit of national independence and of individual right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, seemed to promise freedom to a people who had already suffered three centuries of terrible bondage. CHAPTER IV. THE EARLY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. "The policy to sustain which Mr. Lincoln was elected President in 1860 was first definitely outlined by Jefferson in 1784. It was the policy of forbidding slavery in the National Territory." _John Fiske_. The history of slavery from the opening scenes of the Revolution to the meeting of the First Congress affords a curious example of the direct influence of self-interest upon the opinions of mankind. The opening of the Revolution saw an emphatic and unanimous expression against slavery and the slave trade, and a general spirit of emancipation was abroad. Two years later this had changed, for when the Declaration was promulgated there was no mention of anti-slavery sentiments in it, and as Independence became more and more assured, the feeling against slavery seems to have weakened, and finally, when a serious attempt to perfect the Union was made, the slave question was decided by expediency and not by principle.