FARMERS' REGISTER— AGRICULTURAL REVIEW. 



41 



rich fund presented in the western lands of the nation, 

 which win soon entirely cease to be under a pledg'e for 

 another object. The great one in question is truly of a 

 national character, and it is known that distinguished 

 patriots not dwelling inslave-hokliiig states have viewed 

 the object in that light, and would be willing to let the 

 national domain be a resource in cflecting it. Should it 

 be remarked that the states, though all may be inte- 

 rested in relieving our country from the colored popu- 

 lation, are not equally so; it is butfair to recollect, that 

 the sections most to be benefitted are those whose ces- 

 sions created the fund to be disposed of. I am aware of 

 the constitutional obstacle which has presented itself; 

 but if the general will should bo reconciled to an appli- 

 cation of the territorial fund to the removal of the co- 

 lored population, a grant to Congress of the necessary 

 authority could be carried, with little delay, through the 

 forms of the constitution.' 



"Before any one condemns us for looseness of con- 

 struction of the constitution, we beg further that he will 

 read Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mr. Sparks, (vol. iv. pp. 

 3S3-391;) we adopt all the qualifications therein men- 

 tioned. 



" Judge Marshall most properly suggests that the 

 objection, in a political view, to the application of this 

 ample fund, is very much lessened, in his estimation, by 

 the fact that our lands are becoming an object for v.-hich 

 the states are to scramble, and which threatens to sow 

 the seeds of discord among us, instead of being what 

 they might be — a source of national wealth. 



" A great part of the proceeds of the jDublic domain 

 once appropriated to this object, there would soon be 

 found no insurmountable difficulty in the removal of the 

 necessary number in Virginia. But it is said that were 

 Congress disposed to give a million annually for the 

 specific object of the removal of the slaves, it would feel 

 bound Lo bestow it proportionally on all the slave-hold- 

 ing states, or if all be not inclined to receive it, then on 

 those which would be. We answer, that, if Congress 

 should consent to pledge a certain share of the revenue 

 from the lands for the purchase and removal (under the 

 laws of the states) of the slaves of the United States, 

 we have no doubt it would be thou^-ht wise to begin 

 with the effectual relief of the greatest sufferer first. A 

 minute's attention to the following statement of Gene- 

 ral Brodnax, will show the immense claims of Virginia. 



" 'The state of Virginia contains, by the last census, 

 less than one fifteenth j^art of the whole ivhlle popula- 

 tion of the United States ; it contains more than one 

 seventh of the free negroes; and it possesses between 

 a fourth and a fifth of all the slaves in the union, 



" 'Virginia has a greater number of slaves than any 

 other state in the union — and more than Loitisiana, 

 Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, all put together; 

 and more than four times as many as either of them. — 

 Louisiana and South Carolina are the only states in 

 which the slaves are more numerous than the white 

 population ; and Virginia has more slaves, without esti- 

 mating her great and unfortunate proportion of free 

 persons of color, than both these states put together. 

 Nay, one half of the state, that which lies on the east 

 of the Blue Ridge of mountains, itself contains nearly 

 as many.' 



" But if Congress should decline to grant from this 

 fund for the specific purpose of the removal of the 

 blacks, and prefer to distribute among the states the 

 portion of money severally assignable to them, let such 

 portion 'as would fall to Virginia be earnestly claimed of 

 the Legislature for this object. The annual receipt of 

 between two and three hundred thousand dollars, which 

 Mr. Clay's bill (limited to five years duration) would 

 assign to her, would not be adequate for compensating 

 masters on the foregoing plan, but it might suffice for 

 doing an immense deal of good on the plan in Mr. Jef- 

 ferson's letter to Mr. Sparks, the purchase of the children 

 at a small but just price, the children to be disposed of 

 either according to the particulars of that plan, or un- 

 der any other jilan wliich might be speedier, and less 

 Vol. I.— 6" 



burdensome to the persons to be charged with rearing 

 them. 



"Wc believe that before half a million of blacks were 

 conveyed to Africa, there would not remain a master 

 obstinately resolved to retain his slaves, except in the 

 most southern and south-western states, where slave 

 labor is next to essential (we hope not absolutely) for 

 the cultivation of the good lands ! 



"We exhort the people of Virginia then, first to seek 

 aid from their own Legislature to the extent it can be 

 afforded ; second, to insist on the passage of permanent 

 laws going as far in the subject as joublic opinion will 

 justify ; and third, to assert their claims to a sliare of 

 the proceeds of the public lands. Let it not, by her 

 lastidiousness, be made true, that she ceded an empire 

 to the general government, under a virtual condition that 

 she alone was to derive no benefit from it. 



" Suppose then means to be thus found to defray the 

 expense of emancipating and ti'ansporting them to some 

 otlicr country, the next question is, where a suitable 

 asylum may be found to which to convey them ? We 

 answer, that Africa affords the most eligible situation 

 for such an asylum, and that we hope Virginia would 

 avail herself of the noble beginning which has been 

 made by the American Colonization Society at Li- 

 beria." 



From Mr. Dew's work, our extracts will be 

 limited to his remarks on the plans for the aboli- 

 tion of negro slavery. 



"Under this head we will examine, first, those 

 schemes which propose abolition and deportation, and 

 secondly, thosp- which contemplate emancipation with- 

 out deportation. 



" 1. Emancipation and Deportation. — In the late Vir- 

 ginia Legislature, where the subject of slavery under- 

 went the most thorough discussion, all seemed to be 

 perfectly agreed in the necessity of removal in case of 

 emancipation. Several members from the lower coun- 

 ties, which are deeply interested in this question, seem- 

 ed to be sanguine in their anticijjations of the final suc- 

 cess of some project of emancipation and deportation to 

 Africa," the original home of the negro. 'Let iis trans- 

 late them,' said one of the most resj)ected and able 

 members of the legislature (General Brodnax,) 'to 

 those realms from which, in evil times, under inauspi- 

 cious influences, their fathers were unfortunately ab- 

 ducted. Mr. Speaker, the idea of restoring these peo- 

 ple to the region in Avhich nature had planted them, and 

 to whose climate she had fitted their constitutions — the 

 idea of benefitting not only our condition and their con- 

 dition by the removal, but making them the means of 

 canying back to a great continent, lost in the profound- 

 cst depths of savage barbarity, unconscious of the exis- 

 tence even of the God who created them, not only the 

 arts and comforts and multiplied advantages of civilized 

 life, but what is of more value than all, a knowledge of 

 true religion — intelligence of a Redeemer — is one of the 

 grandest and noblest, one of the most expansive and 

 glorious ideas which ever entered into the imagination 

 of man. The conception, whether to the philosopher, 

 the statesman, the philanthropist, or the Christian, of 

 rearing up a colony which is to be the nucleus around 

 which future emigration will concenter, and open all 

 Africa, to civilization and commerce, and science and 

 arts and religion — when Ethiopia shall stretch out her 

 hands, indeed, is one which warms the heart with de- 

 light.' {Speech of Gen. Brodnax of Dinividdie, pp. 36 

 and 37.) We fear that this splendid vision, the crea- 

 tion of a brilliant imagination, influenced by the pure 

 feelings of a philanthropic and generous heart, is des- 

 tined to vanish at the severe touch of analysis. Fortu- 

 nately for reason and common sense, all these projects 

 of deportation may be subjected to the most rigid and 

 accurate calculations, which are amply sufiicient to dis- 

 pel all doubt, even in the minds of the most sanguine, 

 as to their practicability. 



We take it for granted that the right of the owner to 



