Thus in spite of the spirit of our republican institutions, and the letter of our laws, a commerce in slaves is carried on to an alarming extent--a species of slavery peculiar in its form and character, and unlike that which was practised in ancient or modern Europe--a kind of servitude unheard of by the civilized world, until it was made known among the discoveries of the Portuguese along the western coast of that continent which reaches from Ceuta to the Cape of Good Hope. There it seems to have been extant from time immemorial, among the barbarous powers of a country who have eradicated all the tender relations of society, and established in their place the forceful and ferocious distinctions of MASTER and SLAVE. From those rude and uncivilized tribes, did Christian people learn the lessons of negro slavery. Under such instructors, and with such examples before them, have the Europeans and their descendants carried those savage customs of Africans into the New World, and most unfortunately tainted with them the manners and ordinances of a more refined race of men. For a delineation of this peculiar state of society, in its native regions, the world is much indebted to the undaunted enterprise of Mr. Parke; as, for its baneful effects upon the white nations who have adopted it, they will long remember the disclosures of Mr. Wilberforce, and the researches of Mr. Clarkson. This doleful traffic it was not in the power of Congress to prevent by any present regulations. By the 9th section of the first article of the constitution the power of admitting such persons as they please is reserved to the States, until the year 1808. South Carolina has authorized the importation of negro slaves from Africa. This Congress can neither prohibit nor punish. But the National Legislature can exercise the authority granted by the same paragraph of the constitution, “of imposing on such importation a tax or duty not exceeding ten dollars for each person.”