University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS R. DEW.

I am aware of the impracticability of an immediate or
early execution of any plan, that combines deportation, with
emancipation; and of the inadmissibility of emancipation without
deportation. But I have yielded to the expediency of
attempting a gradual remedy by providing for the double
operation.

If emancipation was the sole object, the extinguishment of
slavery, would be easy, cheap & compleat. The purchase by
the public of all female children at their birth, leaving them in
bondage, till it Wd. defray the charge of rearing them, would
within a limited period be a radical resort.

With the condition of deportation, it has appeared to me,
that the great difficulty does not lie either in the expence of
emancipation, or in the expence or the means of deportation,
but in the attainment 1 of the requisite Asylums, 2, the consent
of the individuals to be removed, 3, the labor for the
vacuum to be created.

With regard to the expence. 1, much will be saved by
voluntary emancipations, increasing under the influence of
example, and the prospect of bettering the lot of the slaves.
2, much may be expected in gifts & legacies from the opulent
the philanthropic and the conscientious, 3, more still from
Legislative grants by the States, of which encouraging examples
& indications have already appeared, 4, Nor is there

any room for despair of aid from the indirect or direct proceeds
of the public lands held in trust by Congress. With a
sufficiency of pecuniary means, the facility of providing a naval
transportation of the exiles is shewn by the present amount of
our tonnage and the promptitude with which it can be enlarged;
by the number of emigrants brought from Europe
to N. America within the last year; and by the greater number
of slaves, which have been within single years brought from
the Coast of Africa across the Atlantic.

In the attainment of adequate Asylums, the difficulty,
though it may be considerable, is far from being discouraging.
Africa is justly the favorite choice of the patrons of colonization;
and the prospect there is flattering, 1, in the territory
already acquired, 2 in the extent of Coast yet to be explored and
which may be equally convenient, 3, the adjacent interior
into which the littoral settlements can be expanded under the
auspices of physical affinities between the new comers and
the natives, and of the moral superiorities of the former, 4,
the great inland Regions now ascertained to be accessible by
navigable waters, & opening new fields for colonizing enterprises.

But Africa, tho' the primary, is not the sole asylum within
contemplation. An auxiliary one presents itself in the islands
adjoining this Continent where the colored population is
already dominant, and where the wheel of revolution may
from time to time produce the like result.

Nor ought another contingent receptacle for emancipated
slaves to be altogether overlooked. It exists within the territory
under the controul of the U. S. and is not too distant
to be out of reach, whilst sufficiently distant to avoid for
an indefinite period, the collisions to be apprehended from the
vicinity of people distinguished from each other by physical
as well as other characteristics.

The consent of the individuals is another pre-requisite in
the plan of removal. At present there is a known repugnance
in those already in a state of freedom to leave their native

homes; and among the slaves there is an almost universal
preference of their present condition to freedom in a distant
& unknown land. But in both classes particularly that of
the slaves the prejudices arise from a distrust of the favorable
accounts coming to them through white channels. By degrees
truth will find its way to them from sources in which they will
confide, and their aversion to removal may be overcome as
fast as the means of effectuating it shall accrue.

The difficulty of replacing the labour withdrawn by a removal
of the slaves, seems to be urged as of itself an insuperable
objection to the attempt. The answer to it is, 1, that
notwithstanding the emigrations of the whites, there will be an
annual and by degrees an increasing surplus of the remaining
mass. 2. That there will be an attraction of whites from
without, increasing with the demand, and, as the population
elsewhere will be yielding a surplus to be attracted, 3 that as
the culture of Tobacco declines with the contraction of the
space within which it is profitable, & still more from the
successful competition in the west, and as the farming system
takes place of the planting, a portion of labour can be spared,
without impairing the requisite stock, 4 that altho' the process
must be slow, be attended with much inconvenience, and be
not even certain in its result, is it not preferable to a torpid
acquiescence in a perpetuation of slavery, or an extinguishment
of it by convulsions more disastrous in their character
& consequences than slavery itself.

In my estimate of the experiment instituted by the Colonization
Society I may indulge too much my wishes & hopes, to
be safe from error. But a partial success will have its value,
and an entire failure will leave behind a consciousness of the
laudable intentions with which relief from the greatest of our
calamities was attempted in the only mode presenting a chance
of effecting it.

I hope I shall be pardoned for remarking that in accounting
lot the depressed condition of Virginia, you seem to allow too
little to the existence of slavery; ascribe too much to the tariff

laws, and not to have sufficiently taken into view the effect of
the rapid settlement of the W. & S. W. Country.

Previous to the Revolution, when, of these causes, slavery
alone was in operation, the face of Virga. was in every feature
of improvement & prosperity, a contrast to the Colonies where
slavery did not exist, or in a degree only, not worthy of notice.
Again, during the period of the tariff laws prior to the latter
state of them, the pressure was little if at all, regarded as a
source of the general suffering. And whatever may be the degree
in which the extravagant augmentation of the tariff may
have contributed to the depression the extent of this cannot
be explained by the extent of the cause. The great & adequate
cause of the evil is the cause last mentioned; if that be
indeed an evil which improves the condition of our migrating
citizens & adds more to the growth & prosperity of the whole
than it subtracts from a part of the community.

Nothing is more certain than that the actual and prospective
depression of Virginia, is to be referred to the fall in the value
of her landed property, and in that of the staple products of the
land. And it is not less certain that the fall in both cases, is
the inevitable effect of the redundancy in the market both of
land and of its products. The vast amount of fertile land
offered at 125 Cents per acre in the W. & S. W. could not
fail to have the effect already experienced of reducing the land
here to half its value; and when the labour that will here produce
one Hhd. of Tobo. and ten barrels of flour, will there
produce two Hhds. and twenty barrels, now so cheaply transportable
to the destined outlets, a like effect on these articles
must necessarily ensue. Already more Tobo. is sent to
N. Orleans, than is exported from Virginia to foreign markets;
Whilst the Article of flour exceeding for the most part the demand
for it, is in a course of rapid increase from new sources
as boundless as they are productive. The great staples of
Virga. have but a limited market which is easily glutted. They
have in fact sunk more in price, and have a more threatening
prospect, than the more Southern staples of Cotton & Rice.

The case is believed to be the same with her landed property.
That it is so with her slaves is proved by the purchases made
here for the market there. . . .