Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson favoured it and, if one more vote had been obtained when the Constitution of the United States was drawn up in 1789, slavery would have been abolished then and there. But the times were not yet ripe. A representative from Pennsylvania voiced the almost general feeling when he said: "Nature has branded the blacks with an indelible mark. They are and must for ever remain different beings." The men who thought thus were not barbarians. They read the philosophers, and figured as poHtical emancipators. The great George Washington owned several himdred slaves on his planta- tions.