Virginia advocate. [volume] (Charlottesville, Va.) 1827-1860, 1829-07-24

she hnds bail for her appearance to receive ludg
ment, which was arrested by her counsel
! lFrom the Staunton Spectator, July lot
GRADUAL ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
To the Honorable Convention of Virginia, held
in Richmond in October 1883
Seeing that the people of this Commonwealth
| nave deemed 1t necessary to reform our existing
constitution Of government, to supply its defects
| and to remove number of evils which were
| thought to press heavily upon the community
We,the subscribers, inhabitants of Augusta coun-
| W, cannot but congratulate ourselves and the
public on the selection of so many of our highly
distinguished citizens for the perorma ice these
solemn and interesting duties. /DistiDgu shed as
you have been for gravity, prudence, and wis.,
dom, we cheerfully accord to you confidence,
| In the important and arduous station to which
you are called and trust that you will employ
your wisdom and prudence in that way which
Will rebound most to common welfare.
Ihere have been many topics of reform anti
CiPated and discussed among the people. We
do not mean to NEEDLE with any of them, or to
express any opinion on their merits Our pur-
pose is respectfully to call your attic ntion to an
other subject, which we regard as of paramount
Importance; and respecting which, if nothing
be done, we apprehend that your other nbors
must prove comparatively nugatory. We ask
your attention to the existing slavery of the
negroes in our state, and to some constitutional
provision for a system of emancipation.
1t is objected, indeed, that our proposition will
give alarm to our eastern brethren, who are
Shareholders on larger scale than we of the
west ; and that they even already alarmed at
the anticipated power of the west, TO impose UNI
limited taxes on this species of property To
TINS latter objection we answer, that are will
lung TO see you provide any requisite guaranty
against an undue exercise of such power, that
thus the fears of our eastern brethren may be
quoted we wish for nothing that is unfair. To
the former objection we say that, in political
Wow, we esteem slavery an evil greater than the
aggregate OF all the other evils which bcset us
and that we are perfectly willing to bear our pro-
portion OF the burden of removing it. We ask
farther, what is the evil of any such alarm as our
proposition may possibly excite, in minds unne-
cessarily jealous compared with that of the fatal
catastrophe which ultimately awaits our coun-
try, and the general deprivation of manners
which slavery has already produced and is pro-
ducIng These we think sufficient answers to
the objections mentioned above.
In laying this subject before you, we are not
insenslble to its magnitude, its difficulties.
We are aware, too, of the rooted preiudices
which we encounter, growing out of old habits
| and present real or supposed interest Nor
| we indifferent to those imputations of enthusi-
asm and rashness which will probably be cast
| upon us in 10 stnted measure. But we know
strenuous efforts; and that such efforts have al
ways been subjected TO reproachful imputations
we must, therefore, patiently submit to them !;
| considering them, in our turn, as the ebuitions
| OF needless passion or uncomprOmsing selfish
ness. The awful weight of the subject forbds
any approach to it in the spirit of levlty; and
| feel assuredthat we approach it with Us much
caution as those observe who turn away and re-
fuse to look it in the face. But we should esteem
it moral and political cowardce in us to remain
silent a subject so deeply interesting to us in
all our domestic and political relations one
which ntermingles itself with every interest
and concern of life but cert ,iii!y of infiiity
! OF evils, now pressing upon us, and portending
general desolation in future
We wave, at present, the considerations of re-
| ligion and humanity which belong to this mo-
mentous subject and present it as a naked'ques-
| ton of political wisdom and safety. While we
believe that the public morals and general pros
perity, which it is the povince of government to
great extent to protect and cherish are deplora-
bly, injured by slavery, we proceed TO affirm that
| it is our own experience and observation con-
firming the fact and deduction of political econ
omsts, that the labor of slaves is vastly less pro
| ductive than that of freemen that it therefore,
requires larger space to furnish subsistence for
| a given number ofthe former than of the latter :;
that the employment of the former necessarily
| excludes the employment of the latter that
hence, our population white and black, averages
but about seventeen when it ought and would,
under other circumstances, average, as in New
England, at least sixty to the square mile; that
| the possession and management Of slaves form a
| source of endless vexation and misery within the
house, and of waste and ruin on the farm that
| the youth of the country are growing up with a
contempt of steady industry, a low and servile
! thing; which contempt induces idleness, and all
its attendant effemnacy, vice, and worthlessness;
that the waste Of the products Of the land nal Y,
of the land itself, is bringing poverty upon all
its inhabitants; that this poverty and the sparse
ness of our population, either prevent the insti
tutions Of schools through the country, or keep
| them in the most languid and inefficient condi-
| ton (; and that the same causes most obviously
paralyze all our efforts for the needful improve
rBents of the country. These things are inces-
sanity pressing themselves upon our feelings
and observation; and 1T would be easy TO enlarge
the melancholy catalogue. But there are other
consuera tioDs claiming our attention.
1t is conceded on all hands that Virginia is in
a state of moral and political retrocession among
the states of the confederacy. Nor is this to be
wondered at when TO the foregoing considerations
il be added that half of our population is esti.
mated in the political SCALE at but three-ffths Of
its actual weight We are often upbraided by
a comparison Of our condition with that of New.
York and Ohio, to which all the othor states
that are exempted from the curse of slavery
might we'll be added. And with shame we fee
ourselves constrained to bow to the humliatinp
comparison. We view our beloved state, bless
! ed by the God of nature, with a variety Of use
full and lovely capabilities, unsurpassed by thos'
of any other country on the globe we view i
not merely as stationary, while her sister State
are advancing, but as positively declining Iii
! peculiarly the province of such statesmen NJ
compose your honorable body, to detect the caus
es Of the national calamity and degradation, an,
to provide and apply the remedy That tn,
causes heretofore frequently assigned are tn,
} true ones, we do not believe. Ifthey have AM
effect, as possibly they may, it must be extreme
belief that the slavery which exists, and which
with gigantic strides, is gaining ground arnonps
us, is in truth, the great efficient cause Of tn
n multiplied evils which we all depIoro. We can
not conceive that there is any other cause sufFi
lcie t1u In araIu