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Show 96 TUE LIBERTY B:Jo;LJ,, Eetter. PARIS, April 26, 1851. To M. Victor Schrelcher, Represmlalive of the People. MY DEAlt CoLLEAGUE, You have been so obliging as to ask for my views and impressions respecting one of the most important events of our epoch,- tho Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies. I know well that you have an almost paternal intcrc~t in this question. You have contributed more than any one to the emancipation of tho blacks, in our possessions beyond the seas, and you have enjoyed tho double LETTER. 97 pleasure of seeing the problem completely resolved, and resolved by tho Government of the Republic. At tho present time, wearied by controversy, the mind loves to r~poso upon certain and solid progress, which futUl'e events can neither alter nor destroy, and which are justly considered as tho true conquests of civilization and humanity. In examining tho Emancipation of the Slaves in the French Antilles, from the point of view of tho material interests of France, it may be various1y appreciated : but tho immense moral benefit of the act of Emancipation cannot be contested. In one day, and as by tho stroke of a wand, one hundred and fifty thousands of human beings were snatched from the degradation in which they had been bold by former legislation, and resumed their rank in tho great human family. And we should not omit to state, that this great event was accomplished without our witnessing any of those disorders and struggles, which had been threatened, in 9 |