Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

In reference to the actual condition of slaves in Virginia, it
may be confidently stated as better, beyond comparison, than it
was before the Revolution. The improvement strikes every one who
witnessed their former condition, and attends to their present.
They are better fed, better clad, better lodged, and better
treated in every respect; insomuch, that what was formerly deemed
a moderate treatment, would now be a rigid one, and what formerly
a rigid one, would now be denounced by the public feelings. With
respect to the great article of food particularly, it is a common
remark among those who have visited Europe, that it includes a
much greater proportion of the animal ingredient than is
attainable by the free labourers even in that quarter of the
Globe. As the two great causes of the melioration in the lot of
the slaves since the establishment of our Independence, I should
set down: 1. The sensibility to human rights, and sympathy with
human sufferings, excited and cherished by the discussions
preceding, and the spirit of the Institutions growing out of that
event. 2. The decreasing proportion which the slaves bear to the
individual holders of them; a consequence of the abolition of
entails and the rule of primogeniture; and of the equalizing
tendency of parental affection unfettered from all prejudices,
as well as from the restrictions of law.

With respect to the moral features of Virginia, it must be
observed, that pictures which have been given of them are, to say
the least, outrageous caricatures, even when taken from the state
of society previous to the Revolution; and that so far as there
was any ground or colour for them then, the same cannot be found
for them now.

Omitting more minute or less obvious causes, tainting the habits
and manners of the people under the Colonial Government, the
following offer themselves: 1. The negro slavery chargeable in so
great a degree on the very quarter which has furnished most of
the libellers. It is well known that during the Colonial
dependence of Virginia, repeated attempts were made to stop the
importation of slaves, each of which attempts was successively
defeated by the foreign negative on the laws, and that one of the
first offsprings of independent republican legislation was an act
of perpetual prohibition.

* * * * *

With the exception of slavery, these demoralizing causes have
ceased or are wearing out; and even that, as already noticed, has
lost no small share of its former character. On the whole, the
moral aspect of the State may, at present, be fairly said to bear
no unfavorable comparison with the average standard of the other
States. It certainly gives the lie to the foreign calumniators
whom you propose to arraign.[7]

TO ROBERT J. EVANS (AUTHOR OF THE PIECES PUBLISHED UNDER THE
NAME OF BENJAMIN RUSH).

MONTPELLIER, June 15, 1819.

_Sir_,--I have received your letter of the 3d instant, requesting
such hints as may have occurred to me on the subject of an
eventual extinguishment of slavery in the United States.

Not doubting the purity of your views, and relying on the
discretion by which they will be regulated, I cannot refuse such
a compliance as will, at least, manifest my respect for the
object of your undertaking.

A general emancipation of slaves ought to be--1. Gradual. 2.
Equitable, and satisfactory to the individual immediately
concerned. 3. Consistent with the existing and durable prejudices
of the nation.

That it ought, like remedies for other deep-rooted and widespread
evils, to be gradual, is so obvious, that there seems to be no
difference of opinion on that point.

To be equitable and satisfactory, the consent of both the master
and the slave should be obtained. That of the master will require
a provision in the plan for compensating a loss of what he held
as property, guaranteed by the laws, and recognised by the
Constitution. That of the slave, requires that his condition in a
state of freedom be preferable, in his own estimation, to his
actual one in a state of bondage.

To be consistent with existing and probably unalterable
prejudices in the United States, the freed blacks ought to be
permanently removed beyond the region occupied by, or allotted
to, a white population. The objections to a thorough
incorporation of the two people, are, with most of the whites,
insuperable; and are admitted by all of them to be very powerful.
If the blacks, strongly marked as they are by physical and
lasting peculiarities, be retained amid the whites, under the
degrading privation of equal rights, political or social, they
must be always dissatisfied with their condition, as a change
only from one to another species of oppression; always secretly
confederating against the ruling and privileged class; and always
uncontrolled by some of the most cogent motives to moral and
respectable conduct. The character of the free blacks even where
their legal condition is least affected by their color, seems to
put these truths beyond question. It is material, also, that the
removal of the blacks to be a distance precluding the jealousies
and hostilities to be apprehended from a neighboring people,
stimulated by the contempt known to be entertained for their
peculiar features; to say nothing of their vindictive
recollections, or the predatory propensities which their state of
society might foster. Nor is it fair, in estimating the danger of
collisions with the whites, to charge it wholly on the side of
the black. There would be reciprocal antipathies doubling the
danger.

The colonizing plan on foot has, as far as it extends, a due
regard to these requisites; with the additional object of
bestowing new blessings, civil and religious, on the quarter of
the Globe most in need of them. The Society proposes to
transport to the African coast all free and freed blacks who may
be willing to remove thither; to provide by fair means, and, it
is understood, with a prospect of success, a suitable territory
for their reception; and to initiate them into such an
establishment as may gradually and indefinitely expand itself.

The experiment, under this view of it, merits encouragement from
all who regard slavery as an evil, who wish to see it diminished
and abolished by peaceable and just means, and who have
themselves no better mode to propose. Those who have most doubted
the success of the experiment must, at least, have wished to find
themselves in an error.

But the views of the Society are limited to the case of blacks,
already free, or who may be _gratuitously_ emancipated. To
provide a commensurate remedy for the evil, the plan must be
extended to the great mass of blacks, and must embrace a fund
sufficient to induce the master, as well as the slave, to concur
in it. Without the concurrence of the master, the benefit will be
very limited as it relates to the negroes, and essentially
defective as it relates to the United States; and the concurrence
of masters must, for the most part, be obtained by purchase.

Can it be hoped that voluntary contributions, however adequate to
an auspicious commencement, will supply the sums necessary to
such an enlargement of the remedy? May not another question be
asked? Would it be reasonable to throw so great a burden on the
individuals distinguished by their philanthropy and patriotism?

The object to be obtained, as an object of humanity, appeals
alike to all; as a national object, it claims the interposition
of the nation. It is the nation which is to reap the benefit. The
nation, therefore, ought to bear the burden.

Must, then, the enormous sums required to pay for, to transport,
and to establish in a foreign land, all the slaves in the United
States, as their masters may be willing to part with them, be
taxed on the good people of the United States, or be obtained by
loans, swelling the public debt to a size pregnant with evils
next in degree to those of slavery itself?

Happily, it is not necessary to answer this question by
remarking, that if slavery, as a national evil, is to be
abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national
expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount
consideration. It is the peculiar fortune, or, rather, a
providential blessing of the United States, to possess a resource
commensurate to this great object, without taxes on the people,
or even an increase of the public debt.

I allude to the vacant territory, the extent of which is so vast,
and the vendible value of which is so well ascertained.

Supposing the number of slaves to be 1,500,000, and their price
to average 400 dollars, the cost of the whole would be 600
millions of dollars. These estimates are probably beyond the
fact; and from the number of slaves should be deducted; 1. Those
whom their masters would not part with. 2. Those who may be
gratuitously set free by their masters. 3. Those acquiring
freedom under emancipating regulations of the States. 4. Those
preferring slavery where they are to freedom in an African
settlement. On the other hand, it is to be noted that the expense
of removal and settlement is not included in the estimated sum;
and that an increase of the slaves will be going on during the
period required for the execution of the plan.

On the whole, the aggregate sum needed may be stated at about six
hundred millions of dollars.

This will require 200 millions of acres, at three dollars per
acre; or 300 millions at two dollars per acre; a quantity which,
though great in itself, is perhaps not a third part of the
disposable territory belonging to the United States. And to what
object so good, so great, and so glorious, could that peculiar
fund of wealth be appropriated? Whilst the sale of territory
would, on one hand, be planting one desert with a free and
civilized people, it would, on the other, be giving freedom to
another people, and filling with them another desert. And if in
any instance wrong has been done by our forefathers to people of
one colour, by dispossessing them of their soil, what better
atonement is now in our power than that of making what is
rightfully acquired a source of justice and of blessings to a
people of another colour?

As the revolution to be produced in the condition of the negroes
must be gradual, it will suffice if the sale of territory keep
pace with its progress. For a time, at least, the proceeds would
be in advance. In this case, it might be best, after deducting
the expense incident to the surveys and sales, to place the
surplus in a situation where its increase might correspond with
the natural increase of the unpurchased slaves. Should the
proceeds at any time fall short of the calls for their
application, anticipations might be made by temporary loans, to
be discharged as the land should find a market.

But it is probable that for a considerable period the sales would
exceed the calls. Masters would not be willing to strip their
plantations and farms of their labourers so rapidly. The slaves
themselves connected, as they generally are, by tender ties with
others under other masters, would be kept from the list of
emigrants by the want of the multiplied consents to be obtained.
It is probable, indeed, that for a long time a certain portion of
the proceeds might safely continue applicable to the discharge of
the debts or to other purposes of the nation, or it might be most
convenient, in the outset, to appropriate a certain proportion
only of the income from sales to the object in view, leaving the
residue otherwise applicable.

Should any plan similar to that I have sketched be deemed
eligible in itself, no particular difficulty is foreseen from
that portion of the nation, which, with a common interest in the
vacant territory, has no interest in slave property. They are too
just to wish that a partial sacrifice should be made for the
general good, and too well aware that whatever may be the
intrinsic character of that description of property, it is one
known to the Constitution, and, as such could not be
constitutionally taken away without just compensation. That part
of the nation has, indeed, shewn a meritorious alacrity in
promoting, by pecuniary contributions, the limited scheme for
colonizing the blacks, and freeing the nation from the
unfortunate stain on it, which justifies the belief that any
enlargement of the scheme, if founded on just principles, would
find among them its earliest and warmest patrons. It ought to
have great weight that the vacant lands in question have, for the
most part, been derived from grants of the States holding the
slaves to be redeemed and removed by the sale of them.

It is evident, however, that in effectuating a general
emancipation of slaves in the mode which has been hinted,
difficulties of other sorts would be encountered. The provision
for ascertaining the joint consent of the masters and slaves; for
guarding against unreasonable valuations of the latter; and for
the discrimination of those not proper to be conveyed to a
foreign residence, or who ought to remain a charge on masters in
whose service they had been disabled or worn out, and for the
annual transportation of such numbers, would require the mature
deliberations of the national councils. The measure implies
also, the practicability of procuring in Africa an enlargement of
the district or districts for receiving the exiles sufficient for
so great an augmentation of their numbers.

Perhaps the Legislative provision best adapted to the case would
be an incorporation of the Colonizing Society, or the
establishment of a similar one, with proper powers, under the
appointment and superintendence of the National Executive.

In estimating the difficulties, however, incident to any plan of
general emancipation, they ought to be brought into comparison
with those inseparable from other plans, and be yielded to or not
accordingly to the result of the comparison.

One difficulty presents itself which will probably attend every
plan which is to go into effect under the Legislative provisions
of the National Government. But whatever may be the effect of
existing powers of Congress, the Constitution has pointed out the
way in which it can be supplied. And it can hardly be doubted
that the requisite powers might readily be procured for attaining
the great object in question, in any mode whatever approved by
the nation.

If these thoughts can be of any aid in your search of a remedy
for the great evil under which the nation labors, you are very
welcome to them.[8]

TO TENCH COXE.

MONTPELIER, March 20, 1820.

I am glad to find you still sparing moments for subjects
interesting to the public welfare. The remarks on the thorny one
to which you refer in the "National Recorder," seem to present
the best arrangement for the unfortunate part of our population
whose case has enlisted the anxiety of so many benevolent minds,
next to that which provides a foreign outlet and location for
them. I have long thought that our vacant territory was the
resource which, in some mode or other, was most applicable and
adequate as a gradual cure for the portentous evil; without,
however, being unaware that even that would encounter serious
difficulties of different sorts.[9]

TO GENERAL LAFAYETTE.

MONTPELIER, NOV. 25, 1820.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The subject which ruffles the surface of public affairs most, at
present, is furnished by the transmission of the "Territory" of
Missouri from a state of nonage to a maturity for
self-Government, and for a membership in the Union. Among the
questions involved in it, the one most immediately interesting to
humanity is the question whether a toleration or prohibition of
slavery Westward of the Mississippi would most extend its evils.
The human part of the argument against the prohibition turns on
the position, that whilst the importation of slaves from abroad
is precluded, a diffusion of those in the Country tends at once
to meliorate their actual condition, and to facilitate their
eventual emancipation. Unfortunately, the subject, which was
settled at the last session of Congress by a mutual concession of
the parties, is reproduced on the arena by a clause in the
Constitution of Missouri, distinguishing between free persons of
colour and white persons, and providing that the Legislature of
the new State shall exclude from it the former. What will be the
issue of the revived discussion is yet to be seen. The case opens
the wider field, as the Constitution and laws of the different
States are much at variance in the civic character giving to free
persons of colour; those of most of the States, not excepting
such as have abolished slavery, imposing various
disqualifications, which degrade them from the rank and rights of
white persons. All these perplexities develope more and more the
dreadful fruitfulness of the original sin of the African
trade.[10]

TO F. CORBIN

November 26, 1820.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I do not mean to discuss the question how far _slavery_ and
_farming_ are incompatible. Our opinions agree as to the evil,
moral, political, and economical, of the former. I still think,
notwithstanding, that under all the disadvantages of slave
cultivation, much improvement in it is practicable. Proofs are
annually taking place within my own sphere of observation;
particularly where slaves are held in small numbers, by good
masters and managers. As to the very wealthy proprietors, much
less is to be said. But after all, (protesting against any
inference of a disposition to undertake the evil of slavery,) is
it certain that in giving to your wealth a new investment, you
would be altogether freed from the cares and vexations incident
to the shape it now has? If converted into paper, you already
feel some of the contingencies belonging to it; if into
commercial stock, look at the wrecks every where giving warning
of the danger. If into large landed property, where there are no
slaves, will you cultivate it yourself? Then beware of the
difficulty of procuring faithful or complying labourers. Will you
dispose of it in leases? Ask those who have made the experiment
what sort of tenants are to be found where an ownership of the
soil is so attainable. It has been said that America is a country
for the poor, not for the rich. There would be more correctness
in saying it is the country for both, where the latter have a
relish for free government; but, proportionally, more for the
former than for the latter.[11]

TO GENERAL LA FAYETTE.

1821.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The negro slavery is, as you justly complain, a sad blot on our
free country, though a very ungracious subject of reproaches from
the quarter which has been most lavish of them. No satisfactory
plan has yet been devised for taking out the stain. If an asylum
could be found in Africa, that would be the appropriate
destination for the unhappy race among us. Some are sanguine that
the efforts of an existing Colonization Society will accomplish
such a provision; but a very partial success seems the most that
can be expected. Some other region must, therefore, be found for
them as they become free and willing to emigrate. The repugnance
of the whites to their continuance among them is founded on
prejudices, themselves founded on physical distinctions, which
are not likely soon, if ever, to be eradicated. Even in States,
Massachusetts for example, which displayed most sympathy with the
people of colour on the Missouri question, prohibitions are
taking place against their becoming residents. They are every
where regarded as a nuisance, and must really be such as long as
they are under the degradation which public sentiment inflicts on
them. They are at the same time rapidly increasing from
manumissions and from offspring, and of course lessening the
general disproportion between the slaves and the whites. This
tendency is favorable to the cause of a universal
emancipation."[12]

TO DR. MORSE

March 28, 1823

_Queries._

1. Do the planters generally live on their own estates?

2. Does a planter with ten or fifteen slaves employ an
overlooker, or does he overlook his slaves himself?

3. Obtain estimates of the culture of Sugar and Cotton, to show
what difference it makes where the planter resides on his estate,
or where he employs attorneys, overlookers, &c.

4. Is it a common or general practice to mortgage slave estates?

5. Are sales of slave estates very frequent under execution for
debt and what proportion of the whole may be thus sold annually?

6. Does the Planter possess the power of selling the different
branches of a family separate?

7. When the prices of produce, Cotton Sugar, &c., are high, do
the Planters purchase, instead of raising, their corn and other
provisions?

8. When the prices of produce are low, do they then raise their
own corn and other provisions?

9. Do the negroes fare better when the Corn, &c., is raised upon
their master's estate or when he buys it?

10. Do the tobacco planters in America ever buy their own Corn or
other food, or do they always raise it?

11. If they always, or mostly, raise it, can any other reason be
given for the differences of the system pursued by them and that
pursued by the Sugar and Cotton planters than that cultivation of
tobacco is less profitable than that of Cotton or Sugar?

12. Do any of the Planters manufacture the packages for their
product, or the clothing for their negroes and if they do, are
their negroes better clothed than when clothing is purchased?

13. Where, and by whom, is the Cotton bagging of the Brazils
made? is it principally made by free men or slaves?

14. Is it the general system to employ the negroes in task work,
or by the day?

15. How many hours are they generally at work in the former case?
how many in the latter? Which system is generally preferred by
the master? which by the slaves?

16. Is it common to allow them a certain portion of time instead
of their allowance of provisions? In this case, how much is
allowed? Where the slaves have the option, which do they
generally choose? On which system do the slaves look the best,
and acquire the most comforts?

17. Are there many small plantations where the owners possess
only a few slaves? What proportion of the whole may be supposed
to be held in this way?

18. In such cases, are the slaves treated or almost considered a
part of the family?

19. Do the slaves fare best when their situations and that of the
master are brought nearest together?

20. In what state are the slaves as to religion or religious
instruction?

21. Is it common for the slaves to be regularly married?

22. If a man forms an attachment to a woman on a different or
distant plantation, is it the general practice for some
accommodation to take place between the owners of the man and
woman, so that they may live together?

23. In the United States of America, the slaves are found to
increase at about the rate of 3 P cent. P annum. Does the same
take place in other places? Give a census, if such is taken. Show
what cause contributes to this increase, or what prevents it
where it does not take place.

24. Obtain a variety of estimates from the Planters of the cost
of bringing up a child, and at what age it becomes a clear gain
to its owner.

25. Obtain information respecting the comparative cheapness of
cultivation by slaves or by free men.

26. Is it common for the free blacks to labour in the field?

27. Where the labourers consist of free blacks and of white men,
what are the relative prices of their labour when employed about
the same work?

28. What is the proportion of free blacks and slaves?

29. Is it considered that the increase in the proportion of free
blacks to slaves increases or diminishes the danger of
insurrection?

30. Are the free blacks employed in the defence of the Country,
and do they and the Creoles preclude the necessity of European
troops?

31. Do the free blacks appear to consider themselves as more
closely connected with the slaves or with the white population?
and in cases of insurrection, with which have they generally
taken part?

32. What is their general character with respect to industry and
order, as compared with that of the slaves?

33. Are there any instances of emancipation in particular
estates, and what is the result?

34. Is there any general plan of emancipation in progress, and
what?

35. What was the mode and progress of emancipation in those
States in America where slavery has ceased to exist?

Hon. James Madison, Esq.

New Haven, Mar. 14, 1823.

Sir.--The foregoing was transmitted to me from a respectable
correspondent in Liverpool, deeply engaged in the abolition of
the slave trade, and the amelioration of the condition of slaves.
If, sir, your leisure will allow you, and it is agreeable to you
to furnish brief answers to these questions, you will, I
conceive, essentially serve the cause of humanity, and gratify
and oblige the Society above named, and, Sir, with high
consideration and esteem, your most obt servt,

JED'H MORSE.

_Answers_

1. Yes.

2. Employs an overseer for that number of slaves, with few
exceptions.

3. ----

4. Not uncommonly the land; sometimes the slaves; very rarely
both together.

5. The common law, as in England, governs the relation between
land and debts; slaves are often sold under execution for debt;
the proportion to the whole cannot be great within a year, and
varies, of course, with the amount of debt and the urgency of
creditors.

6. Yes.

7-10. Instances are rare where the tobacco planters do not raise
their own provisions.

11. The proper comparison, not between the culture of tobacco and
that of sugar and cotton, but between each of these cultures and
that of provisions. The tobacco planter finds it cheaper to make
them a part of his crop than to buy them. The cotton and sugar
planters to buy them, where this is the case, than to raise them.
The term, cheaper, embraces the comparative facility and
certainty of procuring the supplies.

12. Generally best clothed when from the household manufactures,
which are increasing.

14, 15. Slaves seldom employed in regular task work. They prefer
it only when rewarded with the surplus time gained by their
industry.

16. Not the practice to substitute an allowance of time for the
allowance of provisions.

17. Very many, and increasing with the progressive subdivisions
of property; the proportion cannot be stated.

18, 19. The fewer the slaves, and the fewer the holders of
slaves, the greater the indulgence and familiarity. In districts
composing (comprising?) large masses of slaves there is no
difference in their condition, whether held in small or large
numbers, beyond the difference in the dispositions of the owners,
and the greater strictness of attention where the number is
greater.

20. There is no general system of religious instruction. There
are few spots where religious worship is not within reach, and to
which they do not resort. Many are regular members of
Congregations, chiefly Baptist; and some Preachers also, though
rarely able to read.

21. Not common; but the instances are increasing.

22. The accommodation not unfrequent where the plantations are
very distant. The slaves prefer wives on a different plantation,
as affording occasions and pretexts for going abroad, and
exempting them on holidays from a share of the little calls to
which those at home are liable.

23. The remarkable increase of slaves, as shown by the census,
results from the comparative defect of moral and prudential
restraint on the sexual connexion; and from the absence, at the
same time, of that counteracting licentiousness of intercourse,
of which the worst examples are to be traced where the African
trade, as in the West Indies, kept the number of females less
than of the males.

24. The annual expense of food and raiment in rearing a child may
be stated at about 8, 9, or 10 dollars; and the age at which it
begins to be gainful to its owner about 9 or 10 years.

25. The practice here does not furnish data for a comparison of
cheapness between these two modes of cultivation.

26. They are sometimes hired for field labour in time of harvest,
and on other particular occasions.

27. The examples are too few to have established any such
relative prices.

28. See the census.

29. Rather increases.

30. ----------

31. More closely with the slaves, and more likely to side with
them in a case of insurrection.

32. Generally idle and depraved; appearing to retain the bad
qualities of the slaves, with whom they continue to associate,
without acquiring any of the good ones of the whites, from whom
(they) continued separated by prejudices against their colour,
and other peculiarities.

33. There are occasional instances in the present legal condition
of leaving the State.

34. None.

35. ----------[13]

TO MISS FRANCES WRIGHT

MONTPELLIER, Sept. 1, 1825.

_Dear Madam_,--Your letter to Mrs. Madison, containing
observations addressed to my attention also, came duly to hand,
as you will learn from her, with a printed copy of your plan for
the gradual abolition of slavery in the United States.

The magnitude of this evil among us is so deeply felt, and so
universally acknowledged, that no merit could be greater than
that of devising a satisfactory remedy for it. Unfortunately the
task, not easy under other circumstances, is vastly augmented by
the physical peculiarities[14] of those held in bondage, which
preclude their incorporation with the white population; and by
the blank in the general field of labour to be occasioned by
their exile; a blank into which there would not be an influx of
white labourers, successively taking the place of the exiles, and
which, without such an influx, would have an effect distressing
in prospect to the proprietors of the soil.

The remedy for the evil which you have planned is certainly
recommended to favorable attention by the two characteristics: 1.
That it requires the voluntary concurrence of the holders of the
slaves, with or without pecuniary compensation. 2. That it
contemplates the removal of those emancipated, either to a
foreign or distant region. And it will still further obviate
objections, if the experimental establishments should avoid the
neighborhood of settlements where there are slaves.

Supposing these conditions to be duly provided for, particularly
the removal of the emancipated blacks, the remaining questions
relate to the attitude and adequacy of the process by which the
slaves are at the same time to earn the funds, entire or
supplemental, required for their emancipation and removal; and to
be sufficiently educated for a life of freedom and of social
order.

With respect to a proper course of education, no serious
difficulties present themselves. And as they are to continue in a
state of bondage during the preparatory period, and to be within
the jurisdiction of States recognizing ample authority over them,
a competent discipline cannot be impracticable. The degree in
which this discipline will enforce the needed labour, and in
which a voluntary industry will supply the defect of compulsory
labour, are vital points, on which it may not be safe to be very
positive without some light from actual experiment.

Considering the probable composition of the labourers, and the
known fact that, where the labour is compulsory the greater the
number of labourers brought together (unless, indeed, where
cooperation of many hands is rendered essential by a particular
kind of work, or of machinery) the less are the proportional
profits, it may be doubted whether the surplus from that source
merely, beyond the support of the establishment would
sufficiently accumulate in five, or even more years, for the
objects in view. And candor obliges me to say that I am not
satisfied either that the prospect of emancipation at a future
day will sufficiently overcome the natural and habitual
repugnance to labour, or that there is such an advantage of
united over individual labour as is taken for granted.

In cases where portions of time have been allowed to slaves, as
among the Spaniards, with a view to their working out their
freedom, it is believed that but few have availed themselves of
the opportunity by a voluntary industry; and such a result could
be less relied on in a case where each individual would feel that
the fruit of his exertions would be shared by others, whether
equally or unequally making them, and that the exertions of
others would equally avail him, notwithstanding a deficiency in
his own. Skilful arrangements might palliate this tendency, but
it would be difficult to counteract it effectually.[15]

The examples of the Moravians, the Harmonites, and the Shakers,
in which the united labours of many for a common object have been
successful have, no doubt, an imposing character. But it must be
recollected that in all these establishments there is a religious
impulse in the members of a religious authority in the head, for
which there will be no substitutes of equivalent efficacy in the
emancipating establishment. The code of rules by which Mr. Rapp
manages his conscientious and devoted flock, and enriches a
common treasury, must be little applicable to the dissimilar
assemblage in question. His experience may afford valuable aid in
its general organization, and in the distribution and details of
the work to be performed. But an efficient administration must,
as is judiciously proposed, be in hands practically acquainted
with the propensities and habits of the members of the new
community.

With reference to this dissimilarity, and to the doubt as to the
advantages of associated labour, it may deserve consideration
whether the experiment would not be better commenced on a scale
smaller than that assumed in the prospectus. A less expensive
outfit would suffice; labourers in the proper proportions of sex
and age would be more attainable; the necessary discipline and
the direction of their labours could be more simple and
manageable; and but little time would be lost; or, perhaps, time
gained; as success, for which the chance would, according to my
calculation, be increased, would give an encouraging aspect, to
the plan, and probably suggest improvements better qualifying it
for the larger scale proposed.

Such, Madam, are the general ideas suggested by your interesting
communication. If they do not coincide with yours, and imply less
of confidence than may be due to the plan you have formed, I hope
you will not question either my admiration of the generous
philanthropy which dictated it, or my sense of the special regard
it evinces for the honor and welfare of our expanding, and, I
trust, rising Republic.

As it is not certain what construction would be put on the view
I have taken of the subject, I leave it with your discretion to
withhold it altogether, or to disclose it within the limits you
allude to; intimating only that it will be most agreeable to me,
on all occasions, not to be brought before the public where there
is no obvious call for it.

Writing to General Lafayette in 1826, Madison commented thus on the proposal of Miss Frances Wright for the uplift of Negroes.

You possess, notwithstanding your distance, better information
concerning Miss Wright, and her experiment, than we do here. We
learn only that she has chosen for it a remote spot in the
western part of Tennessee, and has commenced her enterprise; but
with what prospects we know not. Her plan contemplated a
provision for the expatriation of her Elèves, but without
specifying it; from which I infer the difficulty felt in devising
a satisfactory one. Could this part of the plan be ensured, the
other essential part would come about of itself. Manumissions now
more than keep pace with the outlets provided, and the increase
of them is checked only by their remaining in the Country. This
obstacle removed, and all others would yield to the emancipating
disposition. To say nothing of partial modes, what would be more
simple, with the requisite grant of power to Congress, than to
purchase all female infants at their birth, leaving them in the
service of the holder to a reasonable age, on condition of their
receiving an elementary education? The annual number of female
births may be stated at twenty thousand, and the cost at less
than one hundred dollars each, at the most; a sum which would not
be felt by the nation, and be even within the compass of State
resources. But no such effort would be listened to, whilst the
impression remains, and it seems to be indelible, that the two
races cannot co-exist, both being free and equal. The great _sine
qua non_, therefore, is some external asylum for the coloured
race. In the mean time, the taunts to which this misfortune
exposes us in Europe are the more to be deplored, because it
impairs the influence of our political example; though they come
with an ill grace from the quarter most lavish of them, the
quarter which obtruded the evil, and which has but lately become
a penitent, under suspicious appearances.[16]

TO JOSEPH C. CABELL

MONTPELLIER, January 5, 1829.

_Dear Sir_,--I have received yours of December 28, in which you
wish me to say something of the agitated subject of the basis of
representation in the contemplated convention for revising the
State Constitution. In a case depending so much on local views
and feelings, and perhaps on the opinions of leading individuals,
and in which a mixture of compromises with abstract principles
may be resorted to, your judgment, formed on the theatre
affording the best means of information, must be more capable of
aiding mine than mine yours.

What occurs to me is, that the great principle "that man cannot
be justly bound by laws, in making which they have no share,"
consecrated as it is by our Revolution and the Bill of Rights,
and sanctioned by examples around us, is so engraven on the
public mind here, that it ought to have a preponderating
influence in all questions involved in the mode of forming a
convention, and in discharging the trust committed to it when
formed. It is said that west of the Blue Ridge the votes of
non-freeholders are often connived at, the candidates finding it
unpopular to object to them.

With respect to the slaves, they cannot be admitted _as persons_
into the representation, and probably will not be allowed any
claim as _a privileged_ property. As the difficulty and
disquietude on that subject arise mainly from the great
inequality of slaves in the geographical division of the country,
it is fortunate that the cause will abate as they become more
diffused, which is already taking place; transfers of them from
the quarters where they abound, to those where labourers are more
wanted being a matter of course.

Is there, then, to be no constitutional provision for the rights
of property, when added to the personal rights of the holders,
against the will of a majority having little or no direct
interest in the rights of property? If any such provision be
attainable beyond the moral influence which property adds to
political rights, it will be most secure and permanent if made by
a convention chosen by a general suffrage, and more likely to be
so made now than at a future stage of population. If made by a
freehold convention in favour of freeholders, it would be less
likely to be acquiesced in permanently.[17]

TO GENERAL LA FAYETTE

Feb. 1, 1830.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Your anticipation with regard to the slavery among us were the
natural offspring of your just principles and laudable
sympathies; but I am sorry to say that the occasion which led to
them proved to be little fitted for the slightest interposition
on that subject. A sensibility, morbid in the highest degree, was
never more awakened among those who have the largest stake in
that species of interest, and the most violent against any
governmental movement in relation to it. The excitability at the
moment, happened, also, to be not a little augmented by party
questions between the South and the North, and the efforts used
to make the circumstance common to the former a sympathetic bond
of co-operation. I scarcely express myself too strongly in saying
that any allusion in the Convention to the subject you have so
much at heart would have been a spark to a mass of gunpowder. It
is certain, nevertheless, that time, the great "Innovator," is
not idle in its salutary preparations. The Colonization Society
are becoming more and more one of its agents. Outlets for the
freed blacks are alone wanted for a rapid erasure of the blot
from our Republican character.[18]

TO ---- ----

June 28, 1831.

But the title in the people of the United States rests on a
foundation too just and solid to be shaken by any technical or
metaphysical arguments whatever. The known and acknowledged
intentions of the parties at the time, with a prescriptive
sanction of so many years consecrated by the intrinsic principles
of equity, would overrule even the most explicit declarations and
terms, as has been done without the aid of that principle in the
slaves, who remain such in spite of the declarations that all men
are born equally free.[19]

TO MATTHEW CAREY

MONTPELIER, July 7, 1831.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If the States cannot live together in harmony under the auspices
of such a Government as exists, and in the midst of blessings
such as have been the fruits of it, what is the prospect
threatened by the abolition of a common Government, with all the
rivalships, collisions and animosities inseparable from such an
event? The entanglements and conflicts of commercial regulations,
especially as affecting the inland and other non-importing
States, and a protection of fugitive slaves substituted for the
obligatory surrender of them, would, of themselves, quickly
kindle the passions which are the forerunners of war.[20]

To R. R. Gurley, a promoter of colonization, Madison wrote the following December 28, 1831:

_Dear Sir_,--I received in due time your letter of the 21 ultimo,
and with due sensibility to the subject of it. Such, however, has
been the effect of a painful rheumatism on my general condition,
as well as in disqualifying my fingers for the use of the pen,
that I could not do justice "to the principles and measures of
the Colonization Society, in all the great and various relations
they sustain in our country and to Africa." If my views of them
could have the value which your partiality supposes, I may
observe, in brief, that the Society had always my good wishes,
though with hopes of its success less sanguine than were
entertained by others found to have been the better judges; and
that I feel the greatest pleasure at the progress already made by
the Society, and the encouragement to encounter the remaining
difficulties afforded by the earlier and greater ones already
overcome. Many circumstances at the present moment seem to concur
in brightening the prospects of the Society, and cherishing the
hope that the time will come when the _dreadful calamity which
has so long afflicted our country, and filled so many with
despair, will be gradually removed, and by means consistent with
justice, peace, and the general satisfaction; thus giving to our
country the full enjoyment of the blessings of liberty, and to
the world the full benefit of its great example_. I have never
considered the main difficulty of the great work as lying in the
deficiency of emancipations, but in an inadequacy of asylums for
such a growing mass of population, and in the great expense of
removing it to its new home. The spirit of private maunmission,
as the laws may permit and the exiles may consent, is increasing,
and will increase, and there are sufficient indications that the
public authorities in slaveholding States are looking forward to
interpretations, in different forms, that must have a powerful
effect.

With respect to the new abode for the emigrants, all agree that
the choice made by the Society is rendered peculiarly appropriate
by considerations which need not be repeated, and if other
situations should not be found as eligible receptacles for a
portion of them, the prospect in Africa seems to be expanding in
a highly encouraging degree.

In contemplating the pecuniary resources needed for the removal
of such a number to so great a distance, my thought and hopes
have long been turned to the rich fund presented in the western
lands of the nation, which will soon entirely cease to be under a
pledge for another object. The great one in question is truly of
a national character, and it is known that distinguished patriots
not dwelling in slaveholding States have viewed the object in
that light, and would be willing to let the national domain be a
resource in effectuating it.

Should it be remarked that the States, although all may be
interested in relieving our country from the coloured population,
are not equally so, it is but fair to recollect that the sections
most to be benefited are those whose cessions created the fund to
be disposed of.

I am aware of the constitutional obstacle which has presented
itself; but if the general will be reconciled to an application
of the territorial fund to the removal of the coloured
population, a grant to Congress of the necessary authority could
be carried with little delay through the forms of the
Constitution.

Sincerely wishing increasing success to the labours of the
Society, I pray you to be assured of my esteem, and to accept my
friendly salutations.[21]

TO THOMAS R. DREW

MONTPELLIER, Feby 23, 1833

_Dear Sir_,--I received, in due time, your letter of the 15th
ult. with copies of the two pamphlets; one on the "Restrictive
System," the other on the "Slave Question."

The former I have not yet been able to look into, and in reading
the latter with the proper attention I have been much retarded by
many interruptions, as well as by the feebleness incident to my
great age, increased as it is by the effects of an acute fever,
preceded and followed by a chronic complaint under which I am
still labouring. This explanation of the delay in acknowledging
your favor will be an apology, also, for the brevity and
generality of the answer. For the freedom of it, none, I am sure,
will be required. In the views of the subject taken in the
pamphlet, I have found much valuable and interesting information,
with ample proof of the numerous obstacles to a removal of
slavery from our country, and everything that could be offered in
mitigation of its continuance; but I am obliged to say, that in
not a few of the data from which you reason, and in the
conclusion to which you are led, I cannot concur.

I am aware of the impracticability of an immediate or early
execution of any plan that combines deportation with
emancipation, and of the inadmissibility of emancipation without
deportation. But I have yielded to the expediency of attempting a
gradual remedy, by providing for the double operation.

If emancipation was the sole object, the extinguishment of
slavery would be easy, cheap, and complete. The purchase by the
public of all female children, at their birth, leaving them in
bondage till it would defray the charge of rearing them, would,
within a limited period, be a radical resort.

With the condition of deportation it has appeared to me, that the
great difficulty does not lie either in the expense of
emancipation, or in the expense or the means of deportation, but
in the attainment--1, of the requisite asylums; 2, the consent of
the individuals to be removed; 3, the labour for the vacuum to be
created.

With regard to the expense--1, much will be saved by voluntary
emancipations, increasing under the influence of example, and the
prospect of bettering the lot of the slaves; 2, much may be
expected in gifts and legacies from the opulent, the
philanthropic, and the conscientious; 3, more still from
legislative grants by the States, of which encouraging examples
and indications have already appeared; 4, nor is there any room
for despair of aid from the indirect or direct proceeds of the
public lands held in trust by Congress. With a sufficiency of
pecuniary means, the facility of providing a naval transportation
of the exiles is shewn by the present amount of our tonnage and
the promptitude with which it can be enlarged; by the number of
emigrants brought from Europe to N. America within the last
year, and by the greater number of slaves which have been, within
single years, brought from the coast of Africa across the
Atlantic.

In the attainment of adequate asylums, the difficulty, though it
may be considerable, is far from being discouraging. Africa is
justly the favorite choice of the patrons of colonization; and
the prospect there is flattering--1, in the territory already
acquired; 2, in the extent of coast yet to be explored, and which
may be equally convenient; 3, the adjacent interior into which
the littoral settlements can be expanded under the auspices of
physical affinities between the new comers and the natives, and
of the moral superiorities of the former; 4, the great inland
regions now ascertained to be accessible by navigable waters, and
opening new fields for colonizing enterprises.

But Africa, though the primary, is not the sole asylum within
contemplation; an auxiliary one presents itself in the islands
adjoining this continent, where the coloured population is
already dominant, and where the wheel of revolution may from time
to time produce the like result.

Nor ought another contingent receptable for emancipated slaves to
be altogether overlooked. It exists within the territory under
the control of the United States, and is not too distant to be
out of reach, whilst sufficiently distant to avoid, for an
indefinite period, the collisions to be apprehended from the
vicinity of people distinguished from each other by physical as
well as other characteristics.

The consent of the individuals is another pre-requisite in the
plan of removal. At present there is a known repugnance in those
already in a state of freedom to leave their native homes, and
among the slaves there is an almost universal preference of their
present condition to freedom in a distant and unknown land. But
in both classes, particularly that of the slaves, the prejudices
arise from a distrust of the favorable accounts coming to them
through white channels. By degrees truth will find its way to
them from sources in which they will confide, and their aversion
to removal may be overcome as fast as the means of effectuating
it shall accrue.

The difficulty of replacing the labour withdrawn by a removal of
the slaves, seems to be urged as of itself an insuperable
objection to the attempt. The answer to it is--1, that
notwithstanding the emigrations of the whites, there will be an
annual and by degrees an increasing surplus of the remaining
mass; 2, that there will be an attraction of whites from without,
increasing with the demand, and, as the population elsewhere will
be yielding a surplus to be attracted; 3, that as the culture of
tobacco declines with the contraction of the space within which
it is profitable and still more from the successful competition
in the West, and as the farming system takes the place of
planting, a portion of labour can be spared without impairing the
requisite stock; 4, that although the process must be slow, be
attended with much inconvenience, and be not even certain in its
result, is it not preferable to a torpid acquiescence in a
perpetuation of slavery, or an extinguishment of it by
convulsions more disastrous in their character and consequences
than slavery itself?

In my estimate of the experiment instituted by the Colonization
Society, I may indulge too much my wishes and hopes, to be safe
from errors. But a partial success will have its virtue, and an
entire failure will leave behind a consciousness of the laudable
intentions with which relief from the greatest of our calamities
was attempted in the only mode presenting a chance of effecting
it.

I hope I shall be pardoned for remarking, that in accounting for
the depressed condition of Virginia, you seem to allow too little
to the existence of slavery, ascribe too much to the tariff laws,
and not to have sufficiently taken into view the effect of the
rapid settlement of the Western and Southwestern country.