WRONG!!

Posted on: May 22, 2025 at 13:15:15 CT

"... All will admit, that, if the word migration were excluded from the clause, it would apply to slaves only. An unsuccessful attempt was made in the Convention to amend this clause by striking out the word migration, and thereby to make it apply to slaves exclusively. In the face of this fact, the debates in the Convention, certain numbers of the Federalist, together with Mr. Madison's report to the legislature of Virginia in 1799, — eleven years after the adoption of the Constitution, — are relied on to prove that the words migration and importation are synonymes, within the true intent and meaning of this clause. The acknowledged accuracy of language and clearness of diction in the Constitution would seem to forbid the imputation of so gross an error to the distinguished authors of that instrument.

I have been unable to find any thing in the debates of the Convention, in the Federalist, or the report of Mr. Madison, inconsistent with the construction here given. Were they, however, directly opposed to it, they could not, by any known rule of construction, control or modify the plain and unambiguous language of the clause in question. The conclusion, to my mind, is therefore irresistible, that there are two separate and distinct classes of persons intended to be provided for by this clause......"