"[102] The general trend of public expressions laid emphasis upon the
need of safeguards but showed confidence that no great disasters were to be
feared. The revolts which occurred and the plots which were discovered were
sufficiently serious to produce a very palpable disquiet from time to time,
and the rumors were frequent enough to maintain a fairly constant undertone
of uneasiness. The net effect of this was to restrain that progress of
liberalism which the consideration of economic interest, the doctrines of
human rights and the spirit of kindliness all tended to promote.
[Footnote 102: H.A. Garland, _Life of John Randolph_, I, 295.]
CHAPTER XXIII
THE FORCE OF THE LAW
In many lawyers' briefs and court decisions it has been said that slavery
could exist only by force of positive legislation.[1] This is not
historically valid, for in virtually every American community where it
existed at all, the institution was first established by custom alone and
was merely recognized by statutes when these came to be enacted. Indeed the
chief purpose of the laws was to give sanction and assurance to the racial
and industrial adjustments already operative.
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