of the former. Finally after taking a
rapid view of this part of the subject, your committee are led to
doubt whether the evils of slavery are materially lessened in certain
portions of our beloved country, notwithstanding all that has been
done in favour of manumission, colonization and abolition of the slave
trade, &c. &c. and what it might have been at this time, if no efforts
had been made to arrest its progress, is beyond human wisdom to
determine.

Thirdly, In reference to the diminution or the final extinction of
slavery in the Union, your committee remark, that it seems to be the
expectation of all, that it must at some period cease to exist, an
evil so tremendous--a practice so completely at war with all the
principles of justice, mercy and truth, so repugnant to all the best
feelings of human nature, and fraught with such fearful consequences
to society; cannot but excite in every reflecting mind a strong desire
that it should be removed. In view of the divine government, which
rules all with justice and righteousness, the human mind is naturally
led to expect that such oppression and cruelty must have an end.

But how this revolution in society is to be brought about, perhaps no
human foresight can yet divine. If our slave holding fellow citizens
could be induced to establish schools for the instruction of the
rising generation among the blacks, and thus qualify them for self
government, which every principle of equity requires they should do,
and to teach them by precept and example the importance of moral
obligation; one of the greatest obstacles would be removed. If they
would introduce among them a sacred regard for the social duties,
arising from marriage, and from the relations subsisting between
parents and children; they might with perfect safety and great
advantage to the state, be emancipated. A few years of effort of this
kind, would form a class of men from whom the nation would not only
have nothing to fear; but on whom she could safely rely for aid in
her greatest emergency. In their present condition of abject slavery
what can be expected of them, but that they should lay hold on every
apparent opportunity, of regaining their freedom, and ever retorting
on the masters the evils they have suffered?

Facts uniformly sustain this position; what multitudes of slaves
joined the enemy during his temporary invasions of our southern coasts
in the late war, notwithstanding all the efforts of the whi