A general emancipation of slaves ought to be
— 1. Gradual. 2. Equitable, and satisfactory to the individuals
immediately concerned. 3. Consistent with the existing and durable
prejudices of the nation.
That it ought, like remedies for other deep-rooted
and widespread evils, to be gradual, is so obvious, that there
seems to be no difference of opinion on that point.
To be equitable and satisfactory, the consent
of both the master and 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 United States, 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 and 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 against the ruling
and privileged class; and always uncontrolled 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 and hostilities to be apprehended from
a neighbouring 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 collision 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 and religious, on the
quarter of the Globe most in need of them. The Society proposes
to transport to the African coast all free and freed blacks who
may be willing to remove thither; to provide by fair means, and,
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 and 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 United 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 United States, as their masters may be willing to
part with them, be taxed on the good people of the United States,
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 expense, the amount
of the expense is not a paramount consideration. It is the peculiar
fortune, or, rather, a providential blessing of the United States,
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 dollars, the cost of the whole
would be 600 millions of dollars. These estimates are probably
beyond the fact; and from the number 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 emancipation 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 expense of removal
and 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 six hundred millions of dollars.
This will require 200 millions of acres, at three
dollars per acre; or 300 millions at two dollars per acre; a quantity
which, though great in itself, is perhaps not a third part of
the disposable territory belonging to the United States. And to
what object so good, so great, and 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 and 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 and 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 would be in advance. In this case, it might be best,
after deducting the expense incident to the surveys and 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 and farms of their labourers 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 onset, 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 should 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, shown a meritorious alacrity in promoting, by pecuniary
contributions, the limited scheme for colonizing the blacks, and
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 and 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 and 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 and slaves;
for guarding against 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 and 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 Government. 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.
Letter to Robert J. Evans, author of the
pieces published under the name of Benjamin Rush, June 15, 1819
(Madison
1865, III, pages 133-138).
