They are the laboring population of lands which yield those articles, once termed luxuries, but which are now the most important and lucrative articles of commerce. And they are the peasantry of provinces which soon will be the high road of the globe—the central depots of the world's trade; and through which, ere long, will be poured the vast and magnificent treasures of the East.
These islands must, without doubt, be held in high estimation by you as their owners and proprietors. It may be, however, that you have adopted the new and current dogma, that is, that colonies are a useless, costly burden, which should be disposed of as soon as possible; and, if you have, then there is no need that I should further press this subject upon your attention. But if you have not adopted this opinion, and if you do value your colonial possessions, then you must see the need that these people—the Negro peasantry—should be trained to be honest, moral, industrious, intelligent, and thrifty. But in order that they may become fixed in moral and industrious habits, they must receive a moral and religious training. Heretofore, as you know, the school in which they have been educated was the school of slavery—a school which yields naught but the productive spawn of vice, and sloth, and ignorance, and superstition—a school in which indolence was respectability, and labor was degradation and vileness. Since emancipation, however, vigorous efforts have been made to extend to them the advantages of education. To a very large extent this has been done by the Ladies' Negro Emancipation
