The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-15
HENRY oLAY AND HIS FRIENDS.
An Unpublished Letter Respecting Sla-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Comments on
Washington, Monroe, and Others.

vey-Contempsraneou Comments on
Washington, Monroe, and Others.
There has come into my posses sion,
writes John P. Peters to the New York
Post, an unpublished letto1 of Henry
Clay's, addressed 10 to the late Robert ..
Hamilton OF this state. This letter was
written shortly after the failure Of the
attempt, in which MN Clay was 80 deeply
interested. to change the constitution OF
kentucky so IA to.provide for the grad
ual abolition of slavery In that state. In
January of that year, 1s49. he addressed
letter on the same subject TO Richard
Pinaeli, which 10 published in part in
Schurz's Life Of Clay. The Hamilton
letter differs somewhat from that, and
from anything else of Mr.. Clay's which
have ssen, In the peacefully philesophi-
cal view which it takes Of the certainty
of the extinction of slavery through
natural causes The next to the last
paragraph of the letter reads now as a
prophecy Of the civil war, which is fore
WIN I'D AhOViuoD-o uAlcb1 bOUo AAueAli8oAS
means should be found t, take hold OF
the institution of slavery and dispose of
1t cautiously and safely. 1t will be re-
membersd. that Mr.. Clay was II s,ected to
the United States Senate In that year,
lS49. In spite Of the fact that he Was dia-
mstrioally opposed to. the general seRti-
mont of his state ON the question OF
slavery, and although he had sometime
before announced his intention of with
drawing into private life, and had for a
time put that intention into execution.
Ash land, q OCT, 40.
have received and thank you for
"The Scheme of African Colonization, i"
presented by you in discourse delivered
at Xenia in July last. which have ger
used with much satisfaction. It u dis
tinguished BY eloquence, public spirit
and ability, aud think most of the
principles which it dcvelopes and en-.
forces are founded in truth.
After tho recent failure to establish a
system of gradual emancipation in Ken
tuoky, I confess that have not much
hope that slavery will ever be extin-
guished in any of tho states, by legal
enactment, at least for a long time to
come. That failure may DO attributed
to the violent and indisoreet course of
Ultra abolitionists In the North, to the
great amount Of property invested In
slaves. and to the rspugnanos with
which People change long established
habits.
There remains in prospect tho other
mode. the natural extinction OF slavery,
treated by you. Whenever the rearing
and maintenance of slaves become IN
profitable, as it will be, when there Ia
a certainty Of the supply Of cheaper free
labor than Slave labor, the institution of
slavery will decline and finally termin-
ate. That may happen, either by the
increase of the colored nation population,
or by the increase of the white popula-
ton of the United States or, as is most
probable, by the increase of both.
You have considered the subject in the
form of demand and supply Of labor.
That is a modification. with some varia-
ton, of Mnlthus's principle of popula-
ton, founded on tho quantity Of human
food or subsistence.
In December, 1929, before the Colon.
ization Society Of X. ! pronounced dis
course, in which treated CT the Latural
termination of Slavery founded on the
reduction of the wages of labor. am
sorry that ! have not a copy Of it by me
to send you. 1t was published In Niles
Rsgiste in the African Repository and
in other periodicals. II you can lay your
hands upon 1t, you will be struck with
express ourselves on different terms.
1t is a oonsoling reflection that, al
though system of gradual emancipation
cannot be established, Slavery is destined
inevitably to extinction, by the operation
of peaceful ana natural causes.
And 1t is also gratifying to believe,
thnt there will not DO probably much
difference In the period of Its existence,
whether 1t terminates legally or natural
~. The chief difference in the two
modes is that. according to the first we
should take hold of the Institution intel
ligently and dispose of it cautiously and
safely, whilst according to the other 1t
will some day or other take hold of us,
and constrain us in some manner or
other, to get rid of II.
1 apprehsnd that you are mistaken in
supposing that the greater ratio of in
crease, in the oolored race besw een 1900
and 1910 than In other decimal periods,
was owing to the importation sof slaves
from Africa. 1t was owing to the as-
QUESTION of Louisiana, whose slaves were
enumerated in the census of 1910.
With great respect
am Your OBJ. Serv'.
H. CLAY.
Robert S. Hamilton, ESQ.
have also in my possession narrative
Of the life of Mr.. Clay's intimate friend
and correspondent, Judge Francis r..
Brooke Of Fredericksburg, Virginia, COM
posed by Judge Brooke himself, and
printed for circulation In his own family