Quote of the day...

"Compare the free regions of the middle states, where a rich and noble cultivation marks the prosperity and happiness of the people, with the misery and poverty which overspreads the barren wastes of Virginia, Maryland, and the other states having slaves. Travel through the whole continent and you behold the prospect continually varying with the appearance and disappearance of slavery. The moment you leave the easter states and enter New York, the effects of the institution become visible, passing through the Jerseys and entering Pennsylvania, ever criterion of superior improvement witnesses the change. Proceed southwardly, and every step you take through the great region of slaves presents a desert increasing with the increasing proportion of these wretched beings."

Governour Morris, The Constitutional Convention, August 8, 1787 as recorded by James Madison in his Record of the Convention.