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Show 30 FIRST llAV-I'!IORN'ING SESSION. tion from other, :md infinitely more rational plans of freedom. Half of the victory might have been achieved, during the twenty years that public interest has been employed, and public means squandered, in cherishing and bedizening this sickly and misbegotten orr~pring of an illicit alliance between the North and the South-this child of forty fathers, that ha.~ been christened colonization, which, practically rendered, signifies DEATH. Among its friends, however, there are many valuable·, though misguided men. VVe are bound to believe that their purposes are honest; their private and their public characters are ample vouchers for their sincerity. 13ut holy zeal, when manifested in an unholy cause, is more pernicious than the most iusidious, crafty, and destructive vice, as it enlists much of the might and majesty of virtue, beneath the banner of sacrilege and crime. There are others, no donbt, also honest, that are too wild and visionary for reasonable reliance. They start their game, and they hunt it to death, like true sportsmen, recldess of the pangs they inflict, not for the value of the prey, but for the pleasure of the chase. There is no limit to their delusion; and when you speak to them of discretion, of moderation, they talk to you of Columbus, of Saul of T arsus, of Moses and the pilgrim Israelites, and recklessly rush forward in the wild determination of founding a republic, on the basis of a yawning and devouring sepulchre. They say to us, you can never overcome slavery by the means you have adopted. Why, this is as good an argument in favor of slavery, as in behalf of the colonizationists, unless their superior merits be established. \Ve may not, it is true, succeed against the joint efforts of the South, and of Colonization, but we can try. \Ve may, at least, deserve success. though we cannot command it; and we shall, at all events, bear with tJS in defeat, should defeat ensue, the soothing consolation that, as men, we ventured to maintain the sacred rights of man-those rights for which our f:J.thcrs bledthose rights, which, however long and zealously dis.puted, must finally prevail. Still the question recurs, how is this great object to be accomplished? That its accomplishment will be altcndcd with difliculty is unquestionable. \Vith the consent of the slaveholders, and its influence upon legislative enactments, it would prove comparatively easy. Laws might be passed, similar in their character to those of the Spanish islands in the West Indies, providing, that some part of the day, or some day in the week, should be appropriated to the slave ; that he should be allowed payment for over~ work; and that his earnings should be placed with some public depositary, until they should amount to a sum sufficient to purchase his liberty. 'To aid in this, there might be a slave·fund, created by the nation and the respective states, to be annually appropriated to the same charitable purpose. This would be one measure, insuflicient in itself, it is true, but strongly conducive, with others, to the completion of this magnanimous and immor~ tal work! \Vhat a glory would it have been to the nation, had the superflux oi our treasury been applied to this philanthropic work. Then, indeed, it would have been converted into a blessing, instead of producing, as it has done, the heaviest of curses. Another plan would be, so as to meet all humors, co-operating with that referred to, to establish a national colony-having for its basis, not individual, but government security; and affording to the colored colonists who shall voluntarily embrace the design, the enjoyment of the same natural and political rights, within their own realm, a~ we ourselves possess. This might lay the foundation for future commercial advantages to both: and, at all events, would hold out inducements that could not be des pised, and, in no possible event, would be liable to be deploretl. DAVIO l'AUL BROWN1S OHATION. 31 A further auxiliary project would be, as preparatory or incidental to the success of the rest, that laws !lhonld be passed providing for the education of the slaves; that thus they might, in time, become fit subjects for govern· ment, and not he cast loose upon society, like so many wild beasts, to destroy themselves and others. Public schools should be established for their use, where they should, at leas t, be taught to read and write; for it must be borne in mind, that the chief argument now urged against them, is that which is supposed to arise from total ignorance, and the consequent absence of those moral, intellectual, and religious advantages, that they have never yet been taught to enjoy or to appreciate. There i$ still another measure that would be attended with beneficial effects, and which is in entire consistency with individual rights-and that is, the abrogation of laws prohibitory of manumission. T he moral sense of the community, if left to itself, would soon cure the evil of slavery; but Legislatures interfere, and prevent it, under the pretext that the evil of manumission is greater than that of slavery. In this respect, their conduct very much resembles that of a man, who, having the small· pox virus in his system, takes medicines to prevent its eruption upon his skin, and thereby drives it to his vitals. Slavery is increased by having its virus incorporated into the system, and driven to the vitals of the body-politic, by preventing its eruption in the form of manumitted slaves. Upon what principle, while these legislative bodies contend that the general government has no right to interfere with the privilege of property, they themselves can thus control it, it is not easy to imagine. They will tell us, that it is upon the principle of security against the mischiefs which will probably result from a re:3toration of slaves to freedom: still, if slaves are to be considered as absolute property, why should they control the disposition which masters may be inclined to make of them? If the national government cannot sway them for good purposes, why shall thPy sway them for pernicious purposes, from the mere anticipations of possible evil? H the rights of the owner are paramount to all public ronsiderations, those rights are just as mueh interfered with by unjust restraints, as they are by what is alleged to be an unconstitutional coercion. In truth, the laws of the slave states are calculated to perpetuate slavery-it is not the desire of the mass of the population, nor is it their interest nor policy, to pl'Omotc man~ cipation-it impoverishes the state in which it exists-it diminishes the increase of the whites-it augments that of the blacks : whereas, by emancipation, the increase of the black population wou1d be lessened by one per cent. per annum, and that of the whites would be enhanced in nearly the same proportion . " By reference," says a distinguished political philosopher, "to thE' censuses, it will be found, that slaves increase much faster than a free black population. By doing justice, therefore, to the slaves in manumiuing them, their rapid increase will be greatly restrained. This presents an easy, natural, and judicious method, by which the evil of an overwhelming colored population may, to a great extent, be prevented. It is a much more cfi'ectua\ mode of lessening the comparative numbers of the blacks, than colonization or emigration. The tliminution of the increase of blacks would be twenty-five thousand per anm1m ; and the co\onizationists in twenty years have not succeeded in removing one-tenth of that number. T here is also this important di(fcrence between an emigration of twenty-favc thousand a year, and a diminished increase of that number. In the former case, the power of the fountain that sends forth these bitter waters, is not in the least degree abated ; in the latter, the power of the fountain is weakened, and |