1370. COLONIZATION (Negro), Expenses of.—
From what fund are these expenses
to be furnished? Why not from that
of the lands which have been ceded by the
very States now needing this relief? And
ceded on no consideration, for the most part,
but that of the general good of the whole.
These cessions already constitute one-fourth
of the States of the Union. It may be said
that these lands have been sold; are now the
property of the citizens composing those
States; and the money long ago received and
expended. But an equivalent of lands in
the territories since acquired may be appropriated
to that object, or so much, at least, as
may be sufficient; and the object, although
more important to the slave States, is highly
so to the others also, if they were serious in
their arguments on the Missouri question.
The slave States, too, if more interested,
would also contribute more by their gratuitous
liberation, thus taking on themselves
alone the first and heaviest item of expense.—
To Jared Sparks. Washington ed. vii, 334.
Ford ed., x, 291.
(M.
1824)
