Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1849-03-22

obtaining them for the slave market-and the
vast amount of suffering and death that has &C.
CURED on their passage-logether with all the
suffering connected with sllyery-and of per-
hitting men for two hundred years to commit
those crimes which are punishable with death
under the Jewish desperation, and are made so
by the laws of the United States, for the pur~
pose of accomplishing his benevolent purposes
towards down troddon Africa, is in perfect keep
ing with the whole system of American slavery,
but at war with every attribute of the Devne
Being.
But 10 Mr.. Clay's plan. First. 1t should be
slow in its operations. Yes, this system that is
communicating the morals of the whole commu-
nifty that is blighting curse upon all their
prospects, should be gwen up reluctantly and
sloWy. Secondly. 1t is an indispensable condi-
ton that the emancipated slaves should be re-
moved to some colony that is, we suppose he
means, all that are not saleablc for the Sugar
and Cotton plantations at the south. Thirdly
that the expenses Of their transportation to the
colony, including an outfit Tor six months after
their arrival, should be betrayed by fund raised
from the labor Of each freed slave. For this
purpose, they are to be hired out under the au-
thority of the State three years to obtain the
sum of one hundred and fifty dollars as an outfit.
Probably the last three years would be kind Of
theological training, 1--WE mean after they had
performed their daily task under the crack of the
whip) to prepare them for the accomplishment of
the dispensations of Providence"
But the time he says "slould be fixed when
all born after it should be free, and all born be-
fore it should be slaves for life y and he sug-
gests the year 1855 or go. Now reader pause
and look at this proposition in the light of NJ
Clay's admissions and inquire how does Mr.
Clay propose to redress those wrongs which he
acknowledges the slave hasve suffered at their
hands, by holding all that are born previous to
1860 as slaves for life and separating them from
their offspring? Is there not manifest injus-
tice "a glarlng outrage upon the rights Of hui
manity in this proposition? But there is draw
back even to this. Mr.. Clay says, " 1 think all
the legal rights of the proprletors of slaves i'll
their fullest extent ought to remain unimpaired
and unrestricted" Consequently every slave
holder would become slave breeder and the
produce would be sold before arriving at the age
of 25 years. lie says the STAKEHOLDER after the
commencement of the system would lose the
difference in value between slaves for life and
slaves until the age of %. Now mark He
says, " in the meantime, if the rights to remove
or sell the slaves out Of the State, should be ex-
ercised that triAing loss would not be incur
red !" Mr.. Clay will need the dispensations Of
Providence to stamp this scheme with benevo-
ence and sincerity. But the apprentice system
adopted by the British Government was sigma
failure, and why should he recommend TO Konl
lucky to adopt one still worse? A friend of
ours inquiries if we can automatically demon.
strate when slavery would be abolished in Ken
lucky, under Mr.. Cluy's scheme !? If we could
ascertain the number of years that any slave
would live born before the year 1860, we could
demonstrate it by figures. Probably in about
hundred years from this time there would be
but few left to suffer, their wrongs having been
redressed by death.
Again he says, that colonization will be attend
ed with the painful effect of the separation of the
colonsts from their parents There are two or
three other inquiries that arise in our mind as to
this painful separation, Does Mr.. Clay design to
send only those which are purely African, or
does he design to send ALL tclitc and black, al
though it may take some of the best blood in
Kentucky? If so, there may be some very pain.
full circumstances attending the separation to
Shareholders themselves. Another is, what will
the natives of Africa think of their descendants
that have been raised up in this boosted land of
christendom under the bleaching system that has
been carried on successfully for years, until
there is not in thousands of cases scarcely
trace of the African left? And what will they
think of the piety Of this nation with these Prov
idential missionaries before them, portraying the
sulferngs which they endured when held in
bondage? Heathenism will blush But there
is another reason why he desires Kentucky to
adopt this scheme of emancipation, which we
call particular attention to- that is, the great
faculties afforded for the escape of her slaves.
Verify: here you have it, and it is an important
consideration certainly And these facilities
are increasing. He says that vast numbers Of
slaves hare fled, and the evil has increased, and
is increasing Mr.. Cay's phianthropic heart
has moved at last to acknowledge the evils of
slavery to the white and the black race, he
pleads guilty as stakeholder Of practlcing
wrongs upon the sable sons Of Afrca--the
state would be far more prosperous without sla-
very thanwlth it,--and he now presents a scheme
of emancipation to take effect a hundred vears
hence 70 prevent what? Why to prevent the
slaves from emancipating themselves immediate
ly!
We have heard appeals made for the removal
of slavery; from the injustice of reducing man
to the level of brute-and from the suffering
which It produced-and from the corrupting in
huence it exerted in communicated from the
danger of its destroying our liberties and from
variety of other considerations, but it remained
for the great statesman of the West to cap the
climax by assigning as reason why slavery
should be abolished that they were running
away
We have been induced to make these remarks
upon the celebrated letter of Mr. Clay, from the
fact, that there are admissions in it which have
been denied by the South generally, and that
the reasons assigned by STAKEHOLDER why sa-
very should be abolished even at period next
to despair, should put at rest forever the subject