ishes
for a change?

You will accuse me, perhaps, my dearest friend, of consulting my
own feelings too much; but I am tempted to believe that this
trampled people have so much human left in them, as to be capable
of aspiring to the rights of men by noble exertions, if some friend
to mankind would point the road, and give them a prospect of
success. If I am mistaken in this, I would avail myself, even of
their weakness, and, conquering one fear by another, produce equal
good to the public. You will ask in this view, how do you consult
the benefit of the slaves? I answer, that like other men, they are
creatures of habit. Their cowardly ideas will be gradually
effaced, and they will be modified anew. Their being rescued from
a state of perpetual humiliation, and being advanced as it were, in
the scale of being, will compensate the dangers incident to their
new state.

The hope that will spring in each man's mind, respecting his own
escape, will prevent his being miserable. Those who fall in battle
will not lose much; those who survive will obtain their reward.
Habits of subordination, patience under fatigues, sufferings and
privations of every kind, are soldierly qualifications, which these
men possess in an eminent degree.

Upon the whole, my dearest friend and father, I hope that my plan
for serving my country and the oppressed negro race will not appear
to you the chimera of a young mind, deceived by a false appearance
of moral beauty, but a laudable sacrifice of private interest, to
justice and the public good.

You say, that my resources would be small, on account of the
proportion of women and children. I do not know whether I am
right, for I speak from impulse, and have not reasoned upon the
matter. I say, altho' my plan is at once to give freedom to the
negroes, and gain soldiers to the states; in case of concurrence, I
should sacrifice the former interest, and therefore we change the
women and children for able-bodied men. The more of these I could
obtain, the better; but forty might be a good foundation to begin
upon.

It is a pity that some such plan as I propose could not be more
extensively executed by public authority. A well-chosen body of
5,000 black men, properly officer'd, to act as light troops, in