2 Negro Slavery : Plan J'ur Us Abolition. [Jan. 



This is neither just nor liberal, and we cannot be surprized that the colo- 

 nists should require some guarantee before they deliver themselves and 

 their properties to the wild and visionary schemes of speculative indi- 

 viduals. If the measure is a public measure, let its consequences rest 

 upon public responsibility. As a great national work, every one must 

 admit that it is worthy of the age in which we live, and of the country 

 which it is our pride to call our own ; but as it is a measure surrounded 

 with difficulties it must be approached with caution. That it is prac- 

 ticable I firmly believe, and if undertaken by the Government, and con- 

 ducted with temperance and prudence, it is perfectly reconcileable 

 with the interests of the planters, and the security of the islands. That 

 colonial property, unhampered by the continual agitation of this ques- 

 tion, retains its tair value in the estimation of European capitalists, is 

 evident from the facility with which, we are told, the Commissioners of 

 Hay ti have negociated a loan for their government, to pay the indemnity 

 agreed upon to the ancient proprietors of the island for the recognition 

 of its independence. This payment denotes the feeling entertained by 

 the blacks — that indemnity was due. Now this feeling, which has been 

 acted upon, after a long lapse of j^ears, by self-emancipated slaves,- 

 should be the ground-work of our own proceedings in the manumission 

 of our negroes, and, before we commence any operations, we should 

 seek an ample guarantee for the property of the planters and the safety 

 of the colonies. The one is blended with the other. The dominion of 

 Great Britain would fall with the annihilation of the whites : and the 

 possession of our West-India Islands is now become of paramount im- 

 portance. The establishment of so many new governments in the 

 American hemisphere has rendered them absolutely necessary for the 

 protection of our commerce and the extension of our trade. The 

 United States of America have long felt the inconveniency of having no 

 harbour subject to their flag in the European seas, and frequent intrigues 

 have been afloat to obtain one of the islands in the ]\Jediterranean, but 

 hitherto without success. The same difficulties would attend our 

 American connnerce, if we suffered ourselves to lose our Trans- Atlantic 

 possessions, either by the dissaftection of the whites, or the insurrection 

 of the slaves. 



Experience has taught us the evils which arise from the present 

 mode of conducting this question. The blacks have been excited 

 to tumult, and the whites, no longer feeling the security of their pro- 

 perty, have resolved to vest no more where they are uncertain who may 

 reap. All confidence has been destroyed ; and though the markets are 

 favourable, and the prospects of future prices fair and cheering, yet 

 such is the panic arising from the injudicious and intemperate discus- 

 sions which are daily pressed upon the public, that estates are in vain 

 put to the hammer — no purchaser appears. In vain is application made 

 to the capitalist for the advance even of the necessary supplies. The 

 planter is referred to the speech of Mr. Buxton, or the pamphlet of Mr. 

 Cooper. To this lamentable pitch of ruin has the mistaken zeal of a 

 few, perhaps well-meaning individuals, brought the whole of our West- 

 India property ; and still unsatisfied, they continue to declaim, and yet 

 produce no settled plan for the completion of their object, no organized 

 system for its attenipt. It is in the absence of all other schemes, I ven- 

 ture to suggest one which, though it may at first appear gigantic and 

 chimerical, would be, I am persuaded, easy in its operation, and effec- 



