1799-] 
Negroes now are. We muft here admit 
with fome limitation the noble and gene- 
rous fentiment of Salluft ;°° ** Libertas 
juxta bonis et malis, firenus atque ignavis, 
optabilis eff*.* “© The field- Negroes 
could not bear any great and fudden al- 
teration of their condition. They mutt 
be made fenfible of their value and dignity 
as men, and mutt be inftru&ted in Chri/ft- — 
anity, before they can be expected to act 
properly as freemen. Foolifh profufion 
and low debauchery are the ulual confe- 
quences of a very poor man’s being fuddenly 
raifed to aftuence. Idlene{s, drunkennefs, 
violence, ina word, every fpecies of excefs, 
would be the no lefs probable confequences 
of a numerous body of flaves, at leaft of 
brutith field-Negroes, being fuddenly con- 
verted into freemen. Improved and tried 
fpirits are alone capable of bearing fuch 
violent tranfitions. No man, in his fenfes, 
who knows any thing of the Weft Indies, 
would ever dream of any meafure of this 
kind, which did not proceed by gradual 
fteps}.’’—Obferve, all this is meant ot the 
We Indian Slavery, not of the Britifh 
Slave-Trade ; for this laft, as. appears 
from a great body of evidence, ought to 
be immediately abolithed. 
In proof of my aflfertion, that Mr. Wad- 
ftrom had little knowledge of the condition of 
the flaves in any of the European colonies, 
I beg leave to refer to the 8th chapter of 
the Elfay on Colonization. One of the 
means of civilization, which he there pro- 
pofes, is to bind two young natives to each’ 
European, till they fhould come of age; 
that is, be declared by his fuperintendants 
of education, to be ‘* entitled to all the 
rights of members of the community.”” By 
this notable device, his projetted free com- 
munity would have been founded in favery, 
for it would have been divided, at the very 
outfet, into two adverfe clafles—W=uiITE 
majiers, all indifpofed to work by the 
tropical heats, and al] eager to feize fo 
excellent a pretext of compelling others to» 
work for them; and BLACK apprentices 
or indented fervants, without any protec- 
tion from domeftic tyranny, which always, 
more or leis, eludes the beft laws, and the 
ftrictelt police, even in communities hap- 
pily compofed of various claffes, mutually 
checking each other. And how this would 

* The words of a Britifh peer, in his place 
in the Houfe of Lords, in the year 1788, ap- 
pear to me not a bad tranflation of the above 
fentence from Salluft. ¢* Icannot conceive,” 
faid His Lordthip, “‘ what harm liberty can do 
to any man.” 
ft Letters on Slavery, p. 91, 
Strigtures on Mifs Williams’s Memoirs of Wadjtrom. 
867 
have differed from the practice of flavery, 
may be left to the judgment of perfons of 
obfervation and reflection, who really are 
acquainied with the ftate of thing's in the 
Welt Indies, and in the Southern States of 
America; and who know, that from much - 
fmaller beginnings many monftrous abufes 
have dated their origin, efpecially in diftant 
colonies. Theorifts and projectors, who 
have never vifited thofe odious BasTILEs 
of the human race, may, like Mr. Wad- 
ftrom, amufe themfelves with their fine 
paper fyftems. The planters too, may 
enact laws againf? themfelves, to be exe- 
cuted by themjclves, But, in practice, thofe 
boafted ftatutes are voces et preterea nihil; 
or inthe pithy Latin of Oliver Cromwell, 
mere Magna Fartas*. The unfortunate 
abje€ts are not, and cannot be, protected by 
{uch laws; for (befides that, the evidence 
of negroes 15 not admitted againft white 
criminals) thofe who make and execute the 
laws are, to a man, holders of flaves or 
indented fervants, or both. I fay toa man, 
without excepting an individual of the re- 
publican negro-drivers of Virginia, Mary- 
land, the Carolinas, and Georgia}. For 
General Wafhineton himfelf muft not be 
excepted, till he fhall have taken effectual 
fteps to prepare his very numerous gang 
of flaves for enjoying fome reafonable de- 
gree of freedom}. All this and much 

* ¢ Your Magna Farta,” faid Oliver con- 
temptuoufly to the Judges, when they ob- 
jetted Magna Charta to his fic jubeo—‘* Your 
magna farta (a memorable, though homely 
phrafe) fhall not controul my aétions, which 
I know are for the fafety of the commcn- - 
wealth” (the republic!) Sce Bennet’s Me- 
morial of the Reformation, p. 239. 
t ‘* How is it that we hear the loudeft yelps 
for liberty among Negro-drivers ?” Johnfon, 
Taxation no Tyranny, p. 89. For that fable 
writer’s opinion, in the cafe of Knight, the 
Negro-flave, declared free by the Court of 
Seffion in Scotland, in 17773 fee his Life by 
Mr. Bofwell. 
{ The name of Wafhington has been the 
fubject of many a rhetorical flourifh. Far be 
it from me to detraét from the real merits of 
that great man, both in the fenate and the 
field. But he feems rather flow in giving our 
fayers of fine words an opportunity of expa- 
tiating on his confiftency—I had almoft faid, 
fomewhat dull in comprehending the traths 
plainly ftated many years ago, in the “* Serious 
Addrefs to the Rulers of America refpeét- 
ing Slavery,’ where the fubje& is condenf- 
ed into thefe remarkable words, ** The treat- 
ment\aee (the Americans) received from Britain 
is no more to be equalled to our’s to the Negroes, 
than a barley-corn, is to the globe of the earth.” 
-—Is there a, more pithy, or a more proper, 
figure, 

