7988. SLAVES (Emancipation), Total.—
It is impossible to be temperate and to
pursue this subject through the various considerations
of policy, of morals, of history, natural
and civil. We must be contented to hope they
will force their way into every one's mind.
* * * The way, I hope, is preparing, under
the auspices of heaven, for a total emancipation,
and that this is disposed, in the order of
events, to be with the consent of the masters,
rather than by their extirpation.—
Notes on Virginia. Washington ed. viii, 404.
Ford ed., iii, 267.
(1782)
