But he had a right
to infer, that as the planters purchased slaves at present, they would
still think it their interest to have them. The question then was, whether
they could get them by smuggling. Now it appeared by the evidence, that
many hundred slaves had been stolen from time to time from Jamaica, and
carried into Cuba. But if persons could smuggle slaves out of our colonies,
they could smuggle slaves into them; but particularly when the planters
might think it to their interest to assist them.
With respect to the slaves there, instances had been related of their
oppression, which shocked the feelings of all who heard them: But was it
fair to infer from these their general ill usage? Suppose a person were to
make a collection of the different abuses, which had happened for a series
of years under our own happy constitution, and use these as an argument of
its worthlessness; should we not say to him, that in the most perfect
system which the human intellect could form, some defects would exist; and
that it was unfair to draw inferences from such partial facts? In the same
manner he would argue relative to the alleged treatment of the slaves.
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