Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1839-03-06

United States, according to the last emu
merallon OF the population, was little
upward Of two millions. Assuming their
increase at ratio, which it probably is,
OF five per cent. per annum, their present
number would be three miliens. The
average value Of slaves at this time is
stated by persons well informed to be as
high rs FIVE hundred dollars each. To
be Certainly within the mark, let us sup
pose that 1t is only four hundred dollars.
The total value then, by that estimate, OF
the slave property in the United States is
twelve hundred millions of dollars. This
property is diffused throughout all classes
and conditions of society 1t is owned by
widows and orphans, by the aged and in
firm, as we'll as the sound and vigorous.
1t is the subject of mortgages, deeds Of
trust, and family settlements. it has been
made the basis Of numerous debts corr
tracted upon It's faith, and is the sole reIi-
ance, 10 many instances, of creditors with
In and without the slave States. for the
payments of the debts due to them. Aud
now it is rashy proposed, by a single fla.
OF legislation, to annihilate this immense
amount of property! To annihilate it
without indemnity and without compensa-
ton to Its owners Does any considerate
man believe it to be possible to effect such
an object without convusion, revolution
and bIoodshed
know that there is visionary DOGMA
which holds that negro slaves cannot be
The subject OF properly. | shall not dwell
long. with this speculative abstraction.-
That is property which the law declares
10 be property. Two hundred wears Of
Legislation have sanctioned and sanctifed
negro slaves as property. Under all The
lorms of government which have existed
upon this continent during that long space
OF tlme-under the British Government
Under the Colonial Government-un-
der all the State Constitutions and Gov
ernments-and under the Federal CIV
eminent ltself-they have been deliberate
ly and solemnly recognized as the leeili-
mate subjects of property To the wild
speculatlons of theorists and innovators
lnnovators stands the fact, that in an unin-
terrupted period of two hundred wears du
ration, under every form of human Iegis-
latlon, and by all the departments of hui
man government, African negro slaves
have been held and respected, have de.
scended and beer transferred as property
in the very British example which is So
trlumpbantly appealed to as worthy ofour
imitation. Although the West India
planters had no voice in the United Par
lament of the British Isles, an irresistible
sense of justice extorted from that Leeis-
lature the grant of twenty millions of
pounds sterling to compensate the colo
nists for their loss of property.
II, therefore, these ultra-abolitionists
are seriously determined to pursue their
scheme of immediate abolition, thew
should at once set about raising fund of
twelve hundred millions of dollars. to in
demnify The owners of slave property
And the taxes to raise that enormous
amount can only be justly assessed upon
themselves or upon the tae States, if thew
can persuade them to assent to such an as.
sessment; for it would be a mockery of
all justice and an outrage against all equal
lty to levy any portion of the tax upon
the slave States TO pay for their own un
questioned property.
If the considerations to which I have
already adverted are not sufficient to dis.
suade the abolitionists from further perse-
verance in their designs, the interest of
the very cause which they profess to es-
pouse ought TO check their career In
stead of advancing. by their efforts, that
cause, they have thrown back for half
century the prospect of,any species of
emancipation of the African race, gradu-lI
al or Immediate, in anv.of the States
They have done more, they have increas-
ed the rigors of Legislation against slaves
IN most, if not all, of the slave States.-I
Forty years ago the question was aoitated
in the State of Kentucky of a gradual
emancipation Of the slaves within It's Inn.
It's. BY gradual emancipation, [ mean
that slow but safe and cautious liberation |
OF slaves which was first adopted in Penn |
Sylvanla at the instance of DR.. Franklin, |
IN the year 1880, and according to which, |
the generation in being were to remain in
slavery, but all their offspring born after |
specified day were to be free at the age of
twenty-eight, and, in the mean time, were
10 receive preparatory instruction to quail
lfy them for tAe enjoyment of freedom
That was the species of emancipation |
which, al the epoch to which allude was
discussed in kentucky No one was
rash enough to propose or think of imme-
date abolition. No one was rash enough |
to think Of throwing loose upon the com |
munily, Ignorant and unprepared, the IN
tutored slaves Of the State. Many tho't,
aud among them, that as each of the
slave States had right exclusively 10
Judge for itself in respect to the institution
OF domestic slavery, the proportion of