9083. WEST INDIES, Negroes in.—
What are you doing for your colonies? They will be lost if not more effectually succored.
Indeed, no future efforts you can make will
ever be able to reduce the blacks. All that can
be done, in my opinion, will be to compound
with them, as has been done formerly in Jamaica.
We have been less zealous in aiding
them, lest your government should feel any
jealousy on our account. But, in truth, we as
sincerely wish their restoration and their connection
with you, as you do yourselves. We
are satisfied that neither your justice nor their
distresses will ever again permit their being
forced to seek at dear and distant markets those
first necessaries of life which they may have at
cheaper markets, placed by nature at their door,
and formed by her for their support.—
To General Lafayette. Washington ed. iii, 450.
Ford ed., vi, 78.
(Pa.,
1792)
