James Madison Quotes About Slavery

Quotes about: Slavery

• Although all men are born free, slavery has been the general lot of the human race. Ignorant--they have been cheated; asleep--they have been surprised; divided--the yoke has been forced upon them. But what is the lesson...? The people ought to be enlightened, to be awakened, to be united, that after establishing a government they should watch over it.... It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently free.

  James Madison

  Men, Race, People

• The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it.

  James Madison

  Evil, Slavery, Merit

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

• If slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount consideration.

  James Madison

  Evil, Done, Slavery

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.135

• American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil.

  James Madison

  Country, Mean, Law

  James Madison, Robert Allen Rutland (1996). “The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series”

• It is due to justice; due to humanity; due to truth; due to the sympathies of our nature; in fine, to our character as a people, both abroad and at home, that they should be considered, as much as possible, in the light of human beings, and not as mere property. As such, they are acted on by our laws, and have an interest in our laws. They may be considered as making a part, though a degraded part, of the families to which they belong.

  James Madison

  Character, Home, Light

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

• Outlets for the freed blacks are alone wanted for the erasure of the blot from our Republican character.

  James Madison

  Character, Slavery, Republican

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.60

• In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal of such a number to so great a distance [freed slaves to Africa], my thoughts and hopes have long been turned to the rich fund presented in the western lands of the nation . . .

  James Madison

  Distance, Land, Numbers

• The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.

  James Madison

  Men, Ideas, Slavery

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”

• We have seen the mere distinction of color made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man.

  James Madison

  Men, Color, Slavery

  James Madison (1836). “The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution: As Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787. Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, Luther Martin's Letter, Yate's Minutes, Congressional Opinions, Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of '98-'99, and Other Illustrations of the Constitution”

• Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labour of slaves.

  James Madison

  Wish, Slavery, Littles

  James Madison (1867). “1769-1793”, p.161

• The real difference of interests, lay not between large and small, but between the Northern and Southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences formed a line of discrimination.

  James Madison

  Real, Differences, Southern

  Wendell Phillips, James Madison, American Anti-Slavery Society (1856). “The Constitution a pro-slavery compact, or, Extracts from the Madison papers, etc”, p.35

• Our opinions agree as to the evil, moral, political, and economical, of slavery.

  James Madison

  Evil, Political, Slavery

  James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.193

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