Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-09-03

GEN. ScOtt ON the SuDJocL 81 slavery
We received yesterday, from gentleman in
Maryland, the letter which we give below. 1t
was written nearly ten years age, and was first
published in the Danville (Virginia) Reporter,
and thence transferred to the Z" Maryland Colo
nization Journal" from WHICH journal it is now
copied. Our correspondent is Of opinion that
General SCOTS views on the delicate question of
slavery have been misrepresented, and therefore
desires to see this letter, in which they are fully
and automatically set forth, inserted in the Intel
ligencer.
The views expressed by the General appear to
us to eyince wise and comprehensive statesman
ship, as well as characteristic philanthropy,
and we therefore, with pleasure, give the letter
place in our columns:
WASHINGTON, February 8, 1843.
MY DEAR SIR: have been waiting for an
evenings leisure to answer your letter before me,
and, after an unreasonable delay, am at last
obliged to reply in the midst official occupations.
That ever have been named in connection
with the Presidency of the United States has not,
can assure you, the son of an ancient neighbor
and friend, been by any continuance or desire
of mine; and certainly shall never be in the
field for that high Office unless placed there By
regular nomination. Not, then, being a candi-
date, and seeing no near prospect of being made
one, ought, perhaps, to decline troubling you
principles of State rights and federal admins
tration but as / cannot plead ignorance of the
Partially of q few friends in several parts of
the Union, who may by possibility, in certain
event, succeed in bringing me within the field
from which Wing candidate is to be selected
prefer to err on the side of frankness and can
dor, rather than, by silence, to allow any stran-
ger unWittingly to commit hmselfto my support.
Your inquiries open the whole question Of do
nestle slavery, which has in different forms, for
number of years, agitated Congress and the
country.
Promising that you are the first person who has
Intercepted me on the subject, give you the
basis of what would be my reply in greater de-
TAIL if time allowed and the contingency alluded
to above were less remote.
In boyhood, at William and Mary College, and
in common with most, if not all, of my compan-
ions, became deeply impressed with the views
given by Mr.. Jefferson, in his Notes on Virgin
ia," and by Judge Tucker, in the Appendix to
his edition of Blackstone's Commentaries, in IA
vor of gradual emancipation of slaves. That
Appendix | have not seen in thirty odd years,
and, in the same period, have read scarcely any
thing on the subject; but my early Impressions
are fresh and unchanged. Hence, if l had had
the honor Of q seat in the Virginia legislature in
the winter of 1922, when bill was brought
forward to carry out those views, I should GER
tainly have given it my hearty support.
suppose I scarcely need say that, in my
opinion Congress has no color of authority under
the constitution for touching the relation of mas
ter and slave in a State.
l hold the opposite opinion in relation to the
District of Columbia Here, with the consent of
the owners, or on the payment of " Just compen-
sation," Congress may legslate at its discretion.
But my conviction is equally streng that, unless
it be step by step with the legislatures of Virginia
and Maryland, it would be dangerous to both
races in those States to touch the relation be-
tween master and slave in this District
have from the first been of opinion that Con-
gress was bound by the constitution to receive,
to REFER and to report upon petitions relating to
domestic slavery, as in the case of all petitions
but have not failed to see and to regret the I'M
avoidable irritation which the former have pro-
duced in the Southern States, with the conse-
quent peril to the two colors, whereby the adop-
ton of any plan of emancipation has everywhere
among us been greatly retarded.
l own, myself, no slave; but never have at
tached blame to masters for not hberating their
slaves, well knowing that liberation without the
means of sending them in comfort to some posi-
ton favorable to ''the pursuit of happiness"
would in most cases be highly injurious to all
around, as well rs to the nfnnumitted families
themselves unless the operation were general,
and under the auspices Of prudent legislation
But | am persuaded that it is a high moral obi
CATION of masters and slaveholding States to
employ all means, not incompatible with the
safety of both colors to meorate slavery to exter
mination.
1t is gratifying to know that general meliora-
ton has been great and is still progressing not
outstanding the disturbing causes alluded to
above. The more direct process of emancipation
may, no doubt, be earlier commenced and quick
~ II II
l do not question, has the right to Judge for
itself, both as to time and means; and consider
interference or aid from without, except on in
ytation from authority within, to be as hurtful
to the sure progress Of melioration as it may be
fatal to the lives of vast multitudes of all ages,
sexes, and calors The work of liberation cannot
be forced without such horrid results. Christian
philanthropy is ever mild and considerate. Hence
all violence ought to be deprecated by the friends
of religion and humanity. Their persuasions
cannot fail at the right time to free the master
from the slave, and the slave from the master
perhaps before the latter shall have found out
and acknowledged that the relation between the
parties had long been mutually prejudicial to
their worldly interests
There is, in The order of Providence, no eva acit-
out some compromising benefit The bleeding AJri-
can torn from his saUage home By his ferocious
neighbors, sold in SLAVERY, and cast upon this CONT
nent. Here IN the mild South, The race has sconder-
fully multiplied compared NTH anything eUer known
in barbarous life. The descendants of few
thousands have become many millions and all,
from the first, made acquainted with the arts Of
civilization, and abeve all, brought under the
light Of the Gospel
From the promise made to Abraham, some two
thousand years elapsed before the advent Of our
Saviour; and the Israetes, the chosen people of
God, were for wise purposes suffered to remain
in bondage longer than Africans have been on
our shores This race has already experienced
the resulting compensation alluded to; and as
the white missionary has never been able to pen
citrate the dark regions Of Africa, or to establish
himself in its interior, it may be within the