7933. SLAVERY, Abolition of.—[further continued] .
I can say with conscious
truth that there is not a man on earth who
would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us
from this heavy reproach in any practicable
way. The cession of that kind of property,
for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle which
would not cost me a second thought, if, in that
way, a general emancipation and expatriation
could be effected; and, gradually, and with
due sacrifices, I think it might be. But, as it is,
we have the wolf by the ears, and we can
neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice
is in one scale and self-preservation in the
other.—
To John Holmes. Washington ed. vii, 159.
Ford ed., x, 157.
(M.
1820)
