50 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



one subject, and at another time on something different. 

 At present there is no small feeling as to the Bank of the 

 United States. The United States deposits are, or are to 

 be, removed from it to some of the State banks, prepara- 

 . tory to the suppression of the institution, which the Presi 

 dent and some of his Cabinet appear to have much at 

 heart 



TO MR. WILLIAM MACLTJRE. 



NEW HAVEN, July 24, 1835. 



THE project for cheap books is an important 



one, and knowledge ought to be brought home as much to 

 the common people as possible ; much has been done in this 

 way, and is doing, as you observe, in England, and much 

 more might be done in this country. The great question 

 that now seems likely to agitate us in this country is slav 

 ery. The progress of moral sentiment on that subject, 

 and the increasing experience of the mischiefs of slavery, 

 are producing changes in the public mind ; and although 

 some people, as you may perceive by newspapers, are going 

 too fast and too far, I doubt whether the subject can stand 

 still even in the slaveholding States. Very recently there 

 has been in New York a meeting of persons from those 

 States, whose object seems to have been to oppose, by pub 

 lic speeches and resolutions, the movements in the non- 

 slaveholding States ; they have, however, manifested such 

 an entire aversion to approach the idea of freedom for the 

 colored race, in any event and under any circumstances, that 

 I fear the effect will recoil. The subject will not rest ; and I 

 am apprehensive that if nothing is done, the time will come 

 when scenes like those of Southampton, Va., may be re 

 newed. The example of the British "West Indies is fully 

 before us, and cannot be without its effects here for good 

 or for evil. I should like to know your views of the effects 

 of manumission in Mexico and Columbia, and whether the 

 condition of the colored races has been improved by it. . . 





