“Resolved, That the Governor be requested to correspond with the President of the United States on the subject of purchasing lands without the limits of this State, whither persons obnoxious to the laws, or dangerous to the peace of Society, may be removed.”
In compliance with this resolution, Mr. Monroe addressed a letter to Mr. Jefferson, dated Richmond, 15th June, 1801, in which he says: “We perceive an existing evil which commenced under our colonial system, with which we are not properly chargeable, and we acknowledge the extreme difficulty of remedying it. At this point the mind rests with suspense, and surveys with anxiety obstacles which become more serous as we approach them. To lead to a sound decision, and make the result a happy one, it is necessary that the field of practicable expedients be opened on the widest possible scale; under this view of the subject, I shall beg leave to be advised whether a tract of land in the western territory of the United States can be procured for this purpose, in what quarter, and on what terms? You perceive that I invite your attention to a subject of great importance, one which in a peculiar degree involves the future peace and tranquility and happiness of the good people of this commonwealth.”
On the 8th of November, 1801, Mr. Jefferson replied in a long letter, in the course of which he goes on to discuss the practicability and expediency of procuring territory on our western or southern frontier, and concludes with asking, would we be willing to have such a colony in contact with us? It is impossible, he adds, not to look forward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will expand beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern if not the whole southern continent with a people speaking the same language and governed with the same laws. Nor can we contemplate with satisfaction either blot or mixture on that surface.
He then gives the preference to the West Indies, and among these islands to St. Domingo, in consideration of their being already inhabited by a people of their own race and color, and having a climate congenial with their constitution, and being insulated from other descriptions of men. Africa, he concludes, would offer a last and undoubted resort, if all others more desirable should fail us.
On the 16th June, 1802, the House of Delegates of Virginia passed the following resolutions, which were agreed to by the Senate on the 23d:
“Resolved, That the Governor be requested to correspond with the President of the United States for the purpose of obtaining a place without the limits of the same, to which free negroes or mulattoes, and such negroes or mulattoes may be emancipated, may be sent or choose to remove as a place of asylum, and that it is not the wish of the Legislature to obtain the sovereignty of such place.”
In December, 1804, Mr. Jefferson addressed a letter to Governor Page of Virginia, in which he says, the island of St. Domingo, our nearest and most convenient resource, is too unsettled to be looked to for any permanent arrangements. He then suggests whether the inhabitants of our late purchase beyond the Mississippi, and the National Legislature, would consent that a portion of that country should be set apart for the persons contemplated. And not yet seeming to despair of Africa, he adds, my last information as to Sierra Leone is that the company was proposing to deliver up their colony to the Government. Should this take place it might furnish an opportunity for an incorporation of ours into it. This led to the following resolution of the House of Delegates on the 3d of December, 1804:
“Resolved, That the Senators of this State in the Congress of the United States be instructed, and the Representatives be requested, to exert their best efforts for the purpose of obtaining from the General Government a competent portion of territory in the country of Louisiana, to be appropriated to the residence of such people of color as have been or may be emancipated in Virginia, or may hereafter become dangerous to the public safety. Provided, That no contract or arrangement respecting such territory shall be obligatory on this Commonwealth, until ratified by the Legislature.”
This resolution was sent by Governor Page to the Representatives of Virginia.
Our difficulties with France and England now supervened, and arrested at this point these interesting proceedings. But there was at least one eminent politician whose mind was not diverted from the contemplation of this subject by the approaching war with England. In January, 1811, Mr. Jefferson said, “I have long ago made up my mind upon this subject, and have no hesitation in saying I have ever thought it the most desirable measure for gradually drawing off this part of our population. Going from a country possessing all the useful arts, they might be the means of transporting them among the inhabitants of Africa, and would thus carry back to the country of their origin the seed of civilization, which might render their sojourning here a blessing in the end to that country. Nothing is more to be wished than that the United States would themselves undertake to make such an establishment on the coast of Africa. Exclusive of motives of humanity, the commercial advantages to be derived from it might defray all its expenses.”