University of Virginia Library

TO ROBERT J. EVANS.

Sir,—I have recd. your letter of the 3d instant,[153]
requesting such hints as may have occurred to me
on the subject of an eventual extinguishment of
slavery in the U. S.

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 & satisfactory to the
individuals immediately concerned. 3. consistent
with the existing & durable prejudices of the nation.

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

To be equitable & satisfactory, the consent of
both the Master & 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 guarantied 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 U. S. 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
& 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 confederated
agst. the ruling & privileged class; and always uncontroulled
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 colour, seems to put these
truths beyond question. It is material also that
the removal of the blacks be to a distance precluding
the jealousies & 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 Blacks. 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
& religious on the quarter of the Globe most in need
of them. The Society proposes to transport to the
African Coast all free & freed blacks who may be
willing to remove thither; to provide by fair means,
&, 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 & 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
U. 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 U. S. as their Masters may be
willg. to part with them, be taxed on the good people
of the U. S. 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 expence, the amount of the expence is
not a paramount consideration. It is the peculiar
fortune, or, rather a providential blessing of the
U. S. 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 drs, the cost of the
whole would be 600 millions of dollrs. These
estimates are probably beyond the fact; and from
the no. 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 expence of removal & 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 600 Mils. of dollars.

This will require 200 mils. of Acres at 3 dolrs. per
Acre; or 300 mils. at 2 dollrs. per Acre a quantity
which tho' great in itself, is perhaps not a third part
of the disposable territory belonging to the U. S.
And to what object so good so great & 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 & civilized people,
it would on the other, be giving freedom to another
people, and filling with them another desert. And
if in any instances, 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 & 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 wd. be in advance. In
this case it might be best, after deducting the
expence incident to the surveys & 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 & farms of their
laborers too 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 shd. 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, & 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 & 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 & 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 & slaves; for guarding agst.
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 & 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
according 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 Govt.
But whatever may be the defect 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. You

will allow me however to add that it will be most
agreeable to me, not to be publickly referred to in
any use you may make of them.