...into a virtual school of philosophy. "You know," he wrote to a friend in France in 1788, "that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition not only of the trade but of the conditions of slavery." More than once, Jefferson proposed that slaves be freed at birth, educated...

...heaven for a total emancipation." On another occasion, he said : " Nobody wishes more ardently than I to see an abolition not only of the trade but of the...willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object." Mr. Madison on the floor of the convention " thought it wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea...

...is forced by his peculiar position to decline, but he,takes pains to say, — " You know that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery." Here is no non-committalism, no wistful casting about for loop-holes, no sly putting out of hooks to...