"He was not satisfied with it, and was restive under it. In his discussions of the subject he often quoted as expressive of his views Mr. Jefferson, who declared that 'We have the wolf by the ears, and it is as dangerous to let go as it is to hold on.' I believe they were both gradual emancipationists. The idea of practical and immediate emancipation through the medium of colonization seems to have crystallized in his mind and stimulated him to action. He sent my eldest brother, Catesby Thom, to Pennsylvania to spy out the land and to make definite arrangements for the location, settlement and comfort of the proposed colony. After an absence of several weeks, he returned and reported that he had selected an ideal location for the experiment. Every desideratum seems to have been taken into consideration, climate, wood, water, fertility of the soil, products, neighbors, etc.

"To carry out my father's plan, the next step was to call for eighteen volunteers to make up the colony. Here came a great disappointment. Of the number called for only one suitable man responded.... The volunteer idea was abandoned and conscription was resorted to. When the names of the eighteen chosen ones were announced the plantation was indeed a house of mourning. Prayers, protests and petitions came up, but were of no avail. A complete outfit was made up of three wagons, twelve oxen, three cows, tools, farming utensils, provisions, clothing, &c. The expedition got off all right, my brother Catesby being chief in command, and Uncle Billy Guinn, the only volunteer, a full second. Before the expiration of a week from the time of departure, two of the colonists had deserted and were back at Berry Hill, and in less than a year nearly all the others had found their way back. My brother, after some two months' absence, got back and reported that he would not go through with his experience again for all the negroes in Virginia.

"I left Virginia for the South in 1848; returning in a few weeks, I took my final departure from the state in the early Spring of 1849 for California where I have resided ever since, never having seen my father again. I believe he manumitted all or nearly all of the servants by deed or will."

[86] See Record of Deeds, Vol. A., p. 230, Recorder's Office, Brown County, Ohio.
[87] Sketch of Edward Coles, Washburne, pp. 47-52.
[88] Abraham Lincoln, A History, N. & H., Vol. I, p. 145. (Note. The fine imposed upon Governor Coles was subsequently remitted by an act of the Legislature because the law under which he was fined had not been published at the date of his offense.)
[89] See Will Book No. 1, p. 109, Clerk's Office, Pittsylvania County, Va.
[90] See Public Ledger of Philadelphia, April 14, 1827.
[91] Historical Collections of Ohio, History of Mercer County, Ohio, by Henry Howe, 1891, Vol. II, p. 505.