ssing
in prospect to the proprietors of the soil.

The remedy for the evil which you have planned is certainly
recommended to favorable attention by the two characteristics: 1.
That it requires the voluntary concurrence of the holders of the
slaves, with or without pecuniary compensation. 2. That it
contemplates the removal of those emancipated, either to a
foreign or distant region. And it will still further obviate
objections, if the experimental establishments should avoid the
neighborhood of settlements where there are slaves.

Supposing these conditions to be duly provided for, particularly
the removal of the emancipated blacks, the remaining questions
relate to the attitude and adequacy of the process by which the
slaves are at the same time to earn the funds, entire or
supplemental, required for their emancipation and removal; and to
be sufficiently educated for a life of freedom and of social
order.

With respect to a proper course of education, no serious
difficulties present themselves. And as they are to continue in a
state of bondage during the preparatory period, and to be within
the jurisdiction of States recognizing ample authority over them,
a competent discipline cannot be impracticable. The degree in
which this discipline will enforce the needed labour, and in
which a voluntary industry will supply the defect of compulsory
labour, are vital points, on which it may not be safe to be very
positive without some light from actual experiment.

Considering the probable composition of the labourers, and the
known fact that, where the labour is compulsory the greater the
number of labourers brought together (unless, indeed, where
cooperation of many hands is rendered essential by a particular
kind of work, or of machinery) the less are the proportional
profits, it may be doubted whether the surplus from that source
merely, beyond the support of the establishment would
sufficiently accumulate in five, or even more years, for the
objects in view. And candor obliges me to say that I am not
satisfied either that the prospect of emancipation at a future
day will sufficiently overcome the natural and habitual
repugnance to labour, or that there is such an advantage of
united over individual labour as is taken for granted.