The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
SLAVERY / EMANCIPATION
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two favors of the 2d and
22d instant, and to thank you for the pamphlet covered by the former.
You know my subscription to its doctrines; and as to the mode of
emancipation, I am satisfied that that must be a matter of compromise
between the passions, the prejudices, and the real difficulties which
will each have their weight in that operation. Perhaps the first
chapter of this history, which has begun in St. Domingo, and the next
succeeding ones, which will recount how all the whites were driven
from all the other islands, may prepare our minds for a peaceable
accommodation between justice, policy and necessity; and furnish an
answer to the difficult question, whither shall the colored emigrants
go? and the sooner we put some plan under way, the greater hope there
is that it may be permitted to proceed peaceably to its ultimate
effect. But if something is not done, and done soon, we shall be the
murderers of our own children. The "murmura venturos nautis
prudential ventos" has already reached us; the revolutionary
storm, now sweeping the globe, will be upon us, and happy if we make
timely provision to give it an easy passage over our land. From the
present state of things in Europe and America, the day which begins
our combustion must be near at hand; and only a single spark is
wanting to make that day to-morrow. If we had begun sooner, we might
probably have been allowed a lengthier operation to clear ourselves,
but every day's delay lessens the time we may take for emancipation.
to St. George Tucker, 28 August 1797
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