he political advantages which would arise to themselves from so doing; and
that, reasoning upon this, they might be induced to go on to give them
greater indulgencies, rights, and privileges in time. But how would every
such successive improvement of their condition operate, but to bring them
nearer to the state of freemen? In the same manner it was contended, that
the better treatment of the slaves in the colonies, or that the
emancipation of them there, when fit for it, would of itself lay the
foundation for the abolition of the Slave-trade. For, if the slaves were
kindly treated, that is, if marriage were encouraged among them; if the
infants who should be born were brought up with care; if the sick were
properly attended to; if the young and the adult were well fed and properly
clothed, and not overworked, and not worn down by the weight of severe
punishments, they would necessarily increase, and this on an extensive
scale. But if the planters were thus to get their labourers from the births
on their own estates, then the Slave-trade would in time be no longer
necessary to them, and it would die away as an useless and a noxious plant.
Thus it was of no consequence, which of the two evils the commitee were to
select as the object for their labours; for, as far as the end in view only
was concerned, that the same end would be produced in either case.

But in looking further into this question, it seemed to make a material
difference which of the two they selected, as far as they had in view the
due execution of any laws, which might be made respecting them, and their
own prospect of success in the undertaking. For, by aiming at the abolition
of the Slave-trade, they were laying the axe at the very root. By doing
this, and this only, they would not incur the objection, that they were
meddling with the property of the planters, and letting loose an irritated
race of beings, who, in consequence of all the vices and infirmities, which
a state of slavery entails upon those who undergo it, were unfit for their
freedom. By asking the government of the country to do this, and this only,
they were asking for that, which it had an indisputable right to do;
namely, to regulate or abolish any of its branches of commerce; whereas it
was doubtful, whether it could interfere with the management of the
internal affairs of the colonies, or whether this was not wholly the
province of the legislatures established there. By asking the gover