to the welfare of their people and state. I would have a convention, a sort of high tribunal, formed of the best men both of the North and of the South, to deliberate on the question of slavery, and thus I believe that the friends of freedom and of the Union would alike have reason to rejoice in its results.[1]
The noblest of the Slave States should take the lead of the rest, by the adoption of those measures of legislative emancipation for the slave which at this moment make the Spanish monarchy in advance of the American republic.
No States appear to me more likely to take the lead in such a liberal movement than the youthful, liberal Georgia among the Southern States, and Virginia among the Middle States. Virginia, one of the oldest of the American States, one of the foremost in civil liberty, and in the war for independence; Virginia, the native land of Washington, Jefferson, and many other great men, and before all, of Washington that true type of the man and the citizen of the New World, whose greatness was of
- ↑ It was often assigned, as one reason for the impossibility of the emancipation of the negro slave, that he could not by any means be made participant of American civil rights, and the proposal which has been made in some of the Free States to allow the free negroes the right of voting in the State has always been met by a strong public opposition. I believe that there may be justice in this. But what is there to prevent the negroes of the United States from forming themselves into small, free, christian communities for themselves, like the Shakers, Dunkers, &c., who live an independent life in the great community, without taking part in its affairs, and without disturbing them? It is not difficult to see from the negro character that they would trouble themselves very little about the government of the United States; if they could merely have their churches, their festivals, their songs and dances, their own independent ministers and chiefs. A negro president would always be a nullity. Let them have their chiefs, or princes, and let the negro community become that picturesque and cheerful picture which God in his creation intended it to be, as he has evidently shown by the natural gifts which he has conferred upon them. The great realm of the United States would then present one natural family and one picturesque spectacle more,—not by any means the least interesting which would be seen upon its soil.
