7971. SLAVES, San Domingo insurrection.—[continued].
As to the mode of
emancipation, I am satisfied that that must be
a matter of compromise between the passions,
the prejudices, and the real difficulties which
will each have its weight in that operation.
Perhaps the first chapter of this history, which
has begun in St. Domingo, and the next succeeding
ones, will recount how all the whites
were driven from all the other islands, may prepare
our minds for a peaceable accommodation
between justice, policy and necessity; and furnish
an answer to the difficult question, whither
shall the colored emigrants go? and the sooner
we put some plan under way, the greater hope
there is that it may be permitted to proceed
peaceably to its ultimate effect.—
To St. George Tucker. Washington ed. iv, 196.
Ford ed., vii, 167.
(M.
1797)
