Even among the literary men of England,--if Boswell's gossip may be trusted,--Dr.
Johnson was peculiar in his hatred of the infamy--a hatred which is obsequious biographer mollifies to an "unfavorable notion," and officiously ascribes to "prejudice and imperfect or false information." The anti-slavery work of England was originally inspired from America, and the action of the British Parliament was really so directed as to make the prohibition of the slave-trade correspond in time with that prescribed in the Federal Constitution.

The American wits and critics of that day did not fail to note the significance of the date, and to appreciate the statesmanship and philosophy which led the British Parliament to terminate the trade at the precise moment when the American Congress closed the market.
The slaves in the United States numbered about seven hundred thousand when Washington's administration was organized.

They had increased to four millions when Lincoln was chosen President.

Their number in 1860 was less in proportion to the white population than it was in 1789.

The immigration of whites had changed the ratio.