HISTORY OF VERMONT. 2S5 



some contests about the matter. The house 

 appointed a committee upon this business, and 

 their report was that the goveriaor should be de- 

 sired to write to the president of the United 

 States on the subject. 



Political interests made a deeper impres- 

 sion on the minds of this assembly than the situ- 

 ation of their own boundaries^ The state of 

 Massachusetts had proposed an alteration in the 

 federal constitution, so as to have the represen- 

 tatives apportioned amon^^ the states, according 

 to the number of their free inhabitants, to the 

 exclusion of any representatives elected on ac- 

 count of tlic number of* slaves in any state. This 

 amendment would increase the influence of those 

 states in Which there were but few slaves, and 

 diminish the number of representatives in those 

 states in which the number was aTread5'' great,; 

 and constantly increasing ; and it was hoped 

 that an attempt to augment the importance and 

 Influence of freedom, and to discourage and dis- 

 arm slavery of all political importance, would 

 accord with the feelings, and engage the votes 

 of a popular assembly, who were always speak- 

 ing in the high tone of freedom, and tlie rights 

 ©f man. All parties however perfectly well un- 

 derstood the business. The federalists sup- 

 posed the amendment would give strength to' 

 (htiv claims and principles ; and the republicans 

 saw as clearly that the foundations of their pow- 

 er and influence were laid in Mr. JeflEerson's ad- 

 ministration, and their adherence to the princi- 

 ples of ^e southern states. The debates on tht 

 question were warm, and animated ; and it wasJ^^ 

 more popular to descant in' favor of freedom. 



