AP History homework question.?

Question

how accurate was George Washington's belief that "slavery was a cancer on the body of politic of America and could not at present be removed without killing the patient"? should the nations leaders have pressed harder given that "the farther one got from 1776, the lower the revolutionary fires burned and the less imperative the logic of the revolutionary ideology seemed"? What difference might it have made on the racial currents of contemporary American life if slavery had been abolished in the early days of the nation?

can anyone get me started on this question? im not even sure what those 2 quotations mean, if anyone can at least explain those, it would be greatly appreciated! thanks :)

Answer 1

The first part - what Washington stated - refers to the fact that as despicable as slavery might be, fighting over the issue with slave-holding colonies would probably destroy the union before it was ever created.  Many of the southern colonies were skeptical enough of the whole idea of forming the United States and signing the Declaration of Independence.  The added pressure of trying to tell them to eliminate slavery would most assuredly have prevented them from signing.

He knew it would be an issue sooner or later but was hoping the United States would be stronger and more unified when they had to debate it.  As it turned out, he was correct in that it nearly did destroy the Union and we wound up in civil war over the issue.  But at least we had broken well free of the British prior to that time.