The passage of laws by our state legislatures, fixing a certain period after which all shall be born free, or shall be free at a certain age, is a proposed measure which has formerly received the sanction of this Convention. It is analagous to those which have already been adopted in some of our states, and it is that by which the final extinction of slavery will probably be effected throughout our country. But it seems unlikely that those states where slaves are very numerous, will consent to the measure, until the proportion of slaves has been considerably reduced by other means. It can hardly be expected that the whites, where they are a minority, will, at any near period of time, consent to surrender political power into the hands of a race which they are accustomed to look upon as inferior and degraded, or that they will be free from apprehension of a contest for property as the probable result. History furnishes no instance of the passage of a law for abolishing slavery in a nation where the slaves at the time of its passage were nearly equal in number to the freemen. We have no evidence to justify the assumption, that mankind in future will act differently. The condition of some of our states, never-the-less, is such, that measures of this kind may with great propriety be urged, and kept constantly in view of the public.
Appeals to a sense of justice, and the dictates of religion, operating on individuals to produce voluntary emancipation, have been the chief means by which slavery has been abolished or greatly reduced, in most countries where it once extensively existed. Such were the means of the liberation of serfs in Great Britain and other European countries.[15] They are those which have produced the emancipation of most of the free coloured people now existing in the United States. They are those which must be looked to, for so far diminishing the evil, as to produce that state of society in which the passage of laws for complete abolition may be obtained. But unfortunately a sense of danger, mingled with other motives or interest, has produced the enactment of laws in most of the slave holding states, prohibiting or greatly limiting the exercise of benevolent feelings in this way. The repeal of these laws must be the first or an early measure towards the completion of the great work.
It has been supposed that adequate provision of the colonization of emancipated persons in Africa, Hayti, or other foreign or domestic territory, would tend to produce the repeal of those laws, as well as of those which restrict the education of slaves, and would thus pave the way for the adoption of laws for complete emancipation. If, in this way, the number of slaves could be kept stationary, while that of the free whites should continue to increase, the relative proportions would ere long be obtained which would justify the hopes of legislative interference. The interference of legislatures does not depend so much on the number of slaves, as upon their proportion to the free inhabitants. This position is illustrated by the fact that in New York where slavery is now extinct, the number of slaves in 1820 was ten thousand and eighty-eight, while in Delaware, where no laws for emancipation have been passed, the number was only four thousand five hundred and nine.
We are informed that a conviction of the injurious effects of the presence of free blacks, is general in the slave-holding states, even perhaps among those citizens who have no property invested in slaves. We are also assured and believe that there are great numbers of persons in those states who would emancipate their slaves, if a suitable asylum abroad were provided for them; and that the number of individuals of this description is likely greatly to increase if ample means of emigration are provided.[16]
The question therefore arises, whether colonization to any considerable extent is practicable. The solution of this question depends, in a degree, upon the expense, and the means which there is reason to hope may be commanded. The public mind in the greater portion of our country appears more favorable to colonization than to any other proposed means of emancipation, as may be gathered from the resolutions and laws adopted by Congress, and by various State Legislatures, as well as from inquiry into the sentiments of private individuals. Consequently, if adequate colonization could be effected by the national government without materially embarrassing its operations, or requiring the imposition of new taxes upon the people, there is reason to hope for its realization. The question of expense, and practicability is, we apprehend, too often decided hastily, and without those accurate calculations which can alone justify a positive conclusion.
We will therefore state the results of some of our inquiries. The number of slaves in the United States is rather under two millions:[17] and the annual increase is something less than two and a half per centum on the population of the preceding year.[18] The total increase per annum, is therefore short of fifty thousand. The expense of transportation to Africa in merchant vessels will not exceed thirty dollars per head, and to Hayti from ten to fifteen dollars per head. The expense of transporting the increase, half to each of the above named countries, would therefore be from one million to one million one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars yearly. If we add two dollars per head for corn to maintain the emigrants until they can provide for themselves, the total expense will not exceed one and one fourth million of dollars per annum.
The average annual revenue of the national government may be estimated at twenty-three millions;[19] and the annual expenditure exclusive of the public debt, is about twelve millions. As the public debt will be extinct in four or five years, there will shortly be a surplus revenue of about eleven millions yearly. One eighth of this sum will be sufficient for transporting the whole increase of slave population.
Again: the annual expenditure of the Naval Department of the United States, was estimated in 1827 at $4,263,877, and in 1828 at $4,420,000. This expenditure is more than treble that of the same department, at some periods of our history. Without expressing any opinion of the propriety of this expenditure, a question not proper for this Convention to decide, we may remark that rational men will readily admit that it would be wiser to reduce the expenditure one half, and abolish slavery, than to continue both the expenditure and the servitude. A reduction of one half in the naval expenditures would produce a fund of $2,200,000 per annum; a sum sufficient to transport to Africa and Hayti, ninety thousand slaves per annum, or forty thousand more than the annual increase. We offer this observation merely in illustration of the ease with which the government can command the necessary funds without any sacrifice that is not greatly overbalanced by the importance of the subject. There would, however, be no occasion for retrenching any of the present expenditures of the government.
It has been suggested that the public vessels of the nation, most of which are useless during peace, should be employed in the transportation of emancipated persons. The number of these vessels is about fifty, and the average number of persons which they could transport at a voyage, may be estimated at one thousand, although the ships of the line, of which there are twelve built and building, can transport two thousand five hundred each, at a voyage. These vessels going one half to Africa, and one half to Hayti, and the former making two and the latter four voyages per year, would transport one hundred and fifty thousand persons per annum, or three times the increase of slaves; and would at this rate extinguish slavery in twenty years. The whole increase of slaves might therefore be transported in public vessels, without interfering with other national objects, or very materially increasing the national expenses.
We will now consider the effect of transporting the increase. The present population of the slave holding states is about 5,800,000, of which above 3,800,000, are freemen; perhaps from one third to one half the free people are interested in slave property. If the increase of slaves were colonized, in about twenty-five years there would be in the slave states, seven millions of free people to two millions of free people to the above number of slaves, or a proportion of ten to one. The consequent increased ease, safety, and probability of obtaining laws for total emancipation, is manifest.