[4] A Summary View of the Rights of British America: American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. I. col. 696. Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies of Jefferson, Vol. I. p. 111; Writings, Vol. I. p. 135. Thus early and distinctly do we discern the Antislavery character of the founders, and their determination to place the National Government openly, actively, and perpetually on the side of Freedom. The National Constitution was adopted in 1788. And here we discern the same spirit. Express provision was made for the abolition of the slave-trade. The discreditable words _Slave_ and _Slavery_ were not allowed to find place in the instrument, while a clause was subsequently added, by way of amendment, and therefore, according to received rules of interpretation, specially revealing the sentiments of the founders, which is calculated, like the Declaration of Independence, if practically applied, to carry freedom everywhere within the sphere of its influence. It was specifically declared, that "no person shall be deprived of life, _liberty_, or property, without due process of law." From a perusal of the debates on the National Constitution, it is evident that Slavery, like the Slave-trade, was regarded as temporary; and it seems to have been supposed by many that they would disappear together. Nor do any words employed in our day denounce it with an indignation more burning than that which glowed on the lips of the fathers. Mr. Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, said in Convention, that "he never would concur in upholding domestic slavery: it was a nefarious institution."[5] In another mood, and with mild juridical phrase, Mr. Madison "thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."[6] And Washington, in a letter written near this period, says, with a frankness worthy of imitation, "There is only one proper and effectual mode by which the abolition of slavery can be accomplished, and that is by legislative authority; _and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting_."[7]