ution.

Sincerely wishing increasing success to the labours of the
Society, I pray you to be assured of my esteem, and to accept my
friendly salutations.[21]

TO THOMAS R. DREW

MONTPELLIER, Feby 23, 1833

_Dear Sir_,--I received, in due time, your letter of the 15th
ult. with copies of the two pamphlets; one on the "Restrictive
System," the other on the "Slave Question."

The former I have not yet been able to look into, and in reading
the latter with the proper attention I have been much retarded by
many interruptions, as well as by the feebleness incident to my
great age, increased as it is by the effects of an acute fever,
preceded and followed by a chronic complaint under which I am
still labouring. This explanation of the delay in acknowledging
your favor will be an apology, also, for the brevity and
generality of the answer. For the freedom of it, none, I am sure,
will be required. In the views of the subject taken in the
pamphlet, I have found much valuable and interesting information,
with ample proof of the numerous obstacles to a removal of
slavery from our country, and everything that could be offered in
mitigation of its continuance; but I am obliged to say, that in
not a few of the data from which you reason, and in the
conclusion to which you are led, I cannot concur.

I am aware of the impracticability of an immediate or early
execution of any plan that combines deportation with
emancipation, and of the inadmissibility of emancipation without
deportation. But I have yielded to the expediency of attempting a
gradual remedy, by providing for the double operation.

If emancipation was the sole object, the extinguishment of
slavery would be easy, cheap, and complete. The purchase by the
public of all female children, at their birth, leaving them in
bondage till it would defray the charge of rearing them, would,
within a limited period, be a radical resort.

With the condition of deportation it has appeared to me, that the
great difficulty does not lie either in the expense of
emancipation, or in the expense or the means of deportation, but
in the attainment--1, of the requisite asylums; 2, the consent of
the individuals to be removed; 3, the labour for the v